Bottle just exploded... Help?

[mlamb2005]

Sitting upstairs in my office, just heard a loud explosion from my pantry. Bottle of Cascadian Dark Ale just exploded and took out several other bottles. My bottling went textbook.

I'm a little hesitant to move them around now for fear of one blowing up in my face. They've been in the bottles only 6 days.

Any advice? Should I get the remaining ones all into the fridge to slow down the yeast, then open up another to test? Or leave them as they are?

 

[Revvy]

How long was the beer in the fermenter before you bottled it? How did you know it was time to bottle? How much sugar did you add at bottling and how? What was your sanitization regimine like? Are these recycled bottles or from the lhbs?

We sort of need to figure out the why so we can figure out the what to do.

Do you have a rubbermade bin you could place them in to contain the damage?

 

[mlamb2005]

3 weeks in primary before bottling, and took 3 successive gravity readings. Actually finished lower than I expected, 1.012 (Cascadian Dark Ale from Austin Homebrew). I used the sugar supplied with the recipe kit.

Bottle sanitation was spray sanitizer all over the tree, full immersion for all bottles, immersion for caps as well. All bottling equipment was immersion sanitized, and then sprayed again right before bottling.

Primarily lhbs bottles, some recycles mixed in. Haven't gotta to the blown up bottle.

Good call on containment, I'll probably move them to an empty bathtub for damage control.

I just opened 3 bottles, one was a complete gusher, the other two bubbled like you'd expect from 6 days in the bottle (slow rising foam, a bit came over the top, but not much).

 

[HexKrak]

Exercise caution. Cover with a towel or something before moving to minimize risk.

 

[mlamb2005]

I checked the SG of the gusher I opened and one of the normal ones, and both were identical (1.013 - 1.014). They were cold so that's an adjusted reading, could be off a couple points.

The normal ones are already showing signs of carbonation, taste green, but pretty close to normal. The gusher tastes super flat, like I'd expect.

Thinking back, it's possible I didn't adequately mix up the sugar water I added to the bottling bucket. What do most people do here? In previous batches, I added it to the bottling bucket and then siphoned the beer in; the swirling action was enough to evenly distribute. Do others get a spoon (or other such item) and stir the beer with sugar pre-bottle to ensure even distribution?

Given that, I'm moving them all into a spare bathroom immediately and let them sit in the tub with the curtain drawn. Other thoughts on a plan of action?

Thanks all.

 

[JonK331]

Get some safety glasses to protect your eyes while moving those. I'd probably put them on ice in a closed cooler just in case just to be safe.

 

[mlamb2005]

Yeah, I've got glasses, thick gloves, a big coat... it's a sight to say the least. Half of them moved so far, no issues.

I think I'm going to skip the fridge at this point and just try to minimize shrapnel. I've already proved two bottles were on their way to proper carbonation, so that gets me thinking uneven sugar, which makes me think I'll have more good ones. I'm going to put them in my spare bathtub, put an old towel over all the bottles, and draw the curtain. That should contain any potential flying glass and make liquid cleanup a snap.

Thankfully my Spiced Porter was evenly carbed... I need a beer!

 

[mlamb2005]

All bottles safely moved, covered with a thick towel in a bathtub.

Here's the resulting carnage. Looks like ground zero was the obliterated one on the bottle left, which took out the two with bottoms remaining. Also knocked a cap off another.

Still interested to know if anyone thinks the swirling action of siphoning the beer into the bottling bucket wasn't enough to properly distribute the sugar water. Any thoughts?

 

[JetSmooth]

I rack about half of my beer on top of the sugar that's been dissolved into boiling water. I make sure the hose is at the bottom of the bucket following the curve, to create a nice swirl. I then sanitize my plastic mash paddle and gently move it around in the bucket, making sure not to create enough surface disturbance to make bubbles while I rack the remainder of the beer in. Swirl around for another five minutes or so before placing the lid on the bottling bucket (not sealing) and continue bottling.

I just don't trust it to mix thoroughly on it's own. In my last three batches (and the one from 14 years ago), I've had consistent carbonation.

 

[Fantastical]

I don't trust the siphon swirling method either. I do let it swirl and then gently rotate the carboy to make it swirl just a bit harder. No air gets in and I think it does a good job.

 

[wyzazz]

I always let my beer sit for around 20-30 minutes after the "whirlpool" to just be sure that the priming sugar is mixed in properly. It also gives things a little bit of time to settle down before bottling.

 

[Revvy]

Still interested to know if anyone thinks the swirling action of siphoning the beer into the bottling bucket wasn't enough to properly distribute the sugar water. Any thoughts?

Yeah I still think that theory is FOS. You are putting a mere 2 cups of boiled sugar water in the bottling bucket, the opening up a siphon to let 5 gallons of beer to flow right into the two cups, and people still believe that two cups won't nearly instantly be diluted? To me it's a ridiculous proposition. There is plenty of agitation happening as the beer is rising in the bucket, especially at the mouth of the siphon hose to mix the small amount with the big amount.

Someone, I can't recall who, went into a pretty large scientific explanation how it's impossible for it not to mix together.

If we're talking dry sugar dumped in, maybe...but you are talking about an extremely thinly viscuous fluid being dissolved my 5 gallons of rapidly moving liquid. There is no sugar solids left, to "sit in the bottom" of the fermenter. You dissolved that into water already.

We're not talking oil and water here folks. The stuff mixes. And besides whether you stir or not, you ARE lifting the bottling bucket from the floor to the table, and that is going to involve some more agitation.

One of these days, when I brew a light color beer, I've going to dye my priming solution orange or something and then shoot a video of the racking and finally put this to bed.

 

[mlamb2005]

Yeah I still think that theory is FOS.

That's been my assumption as well, that the swirl would be sufficient. And for the last two batches, it has been sufficient, I didn't stir any extra and have seen very even carbonation throughout those bottles.

Of course, if you're careful to not introduce excess oxygen as you give it a light stir, or turn the bucket a couple time, I suppose you're not hurting things.

I'll report back when I get to drinking some of these CDAs in a few weeks... or if I have anymore boom-goes-the-dynamite situations.

 

[NorCalAngler]

It's been my experience that gushers have been isolated bottle contamination. If you have some bottles that seem to be severely overcarbed then, naturally, you would have some that are severely undercarbed. I haven't found undercarbed beers when I get a few gushers so my hypothesis is bottle contamination, not improper mixing of priming sugar.