Broken bottle

[mfink519]

We are a week after bottling and I noticed the box containing the bottles was wet. We discovered bottle burst from the bottom! Why did this happen? Excuse the dirty dishes.

 

[20grit]

Over primed your bottles. They couldn't deal with the pressure and exploded.

 

[charles]

How did you prime it? Did you put the sugar in the bottles or put it in the pale? If you put it in the pale you would have a more consistent carbonation. If the rest of them look good(no glass on the bottles) you can put the rest in a dark cooler place so the rest don't explode on you. And when you are ready to drink them try to get them as cold as you can when opening them. Btw do you have a hydrometer to check that the fermentation has stopped? Hope this helps

 

[bigdaddybrew]

Could just be a weak bottle. Are the others overcarbed?

 

[flars]

Possible reasons for the broken bottle.

Over priming all or one bottle - All or a few other bottles may develop excess pressure.
Bottling before the fermentation was done. All the bottles will develop excess pressure and begin exploding.
One bottle that had a stress fracture when it was filled.

Check another bottle for signs of excess pressure. Recap immediately if okay. Check another, and another if there are signs of excess pressure.

Store all the bottles in a container that can contain flying glass if you are finding multiple bottles with excess pressure. Handle very carefully so one doesn't blow up in your face.

 

[kristiismean]

My questions would be:
When bottled and at what temperature are they at.

Causes:
Bottle had a chip or flaw
Just a weakened bottle
That bottle had an infection
Your priming solution was not mixed properly, or if doing a per bottle method, you hit that bottle twice

Solution:
Cold crash a bottle, and then pop it. If it has good carbonation and is not over carbonated, write it off to a fluke.
If the "test" bottle is way over carbed as well but the taste is good (just to much sugar) then put them in a cooler, fill with ice, put outside with a sign marked "free beer"

lol, FLars writing his up as I wrote mine up.

 

[mfink519]

i put the sugar in the pale. The rest of the bottles look ok so far.

 

[mfink519]

my thought is if it was overprimed or not done fermenting, then why didnt the bottle top fly off? makes me thing the glass was compromised.

 

[freisste]

I don't think the top will ever fly off. The glass will break. I would have thought it would break in the neck, but I've seen it in different places.

The prudent move is to put all the bottles in a "blast-proof" vessel. Some kind of tub with lid that will contain glass shards and beer.

 

[charles]

my thought is if it was overprimed or not done fermenting, then why didnt the bottle top fly off? makes me thing the glass was compromised.

From my experience when the bottle breaks at the bottom it is from a bad bottle. If you over carbed it then if a bottle breaks it will cause a chain reaction. That would hold true especially for high abv beers.

 

[IslandLizard]

^ Good suggestions above.

Wear a thick, long sleeved shirt, long cuff heavy duty (work) gloves and face/eye protection when handling potential bottle bombs. Keep at arm's length and your face well away from them.

 

[Mothman]

Seeing posts like this make me fear my plan of saving up glass 650ml bottles for my first home brew. >_<

 

[charles]

I typically use bottles around 3 times for my home brews. I've been brewing now for over 6 years and have only had a few bottles break.

 

[Brownalemikie]

I typically use bottles around 3 times for my home brews. I've been brewing now for over 6 years and have only had a few bottles break.

Hmmm, I've used the same bottles over and over at least 15 times with no issues.

 

[PADave]

From my experience when the bottle breaks at the bottom it is from a bad bottle. If you over carbed it then if a bottle breaks it will cause a chain reaction. That would hold true especially for high abv beers.

That would be my guess. If you had an over carbonation issue the bottle would be in many more pieces.

Hmmm, I've used the same bottles over and over at least 15 times with no issues.

Same here. I'm sure some of mine have been refilled 20+ times. Haven't had a single one break yet.

 

[GHBWNY]

my thought is if it was overprimed or not done fermenting, then why didnt the bottle top fly off? makes me thing the glass was compromised.

I experienced bottle bombs just once. I split off 12 bottles for an experiment which resulted in an infection and although I used a variety of different bottles, six blew out the bottom, caps stayed on.

Yours could have been a deficient bottle. Do you know how many vols CO2 you primed to? Any sign of infection/gushing in other bottles? If the entire batch is suspect of being over-primed or infected, you can pop the tops and re-cap and get them to a cool spot, even the fridge.

I keep my conditioning bottles in a Rubbermaid tub (with the lid on!) for 3 weeks @ 70F until they're done, then into the fridge for 1 week.

 

[charles]

I had over carb issues when I first started brewing I used to put the priming sugar in the bottles. Now I always add it to my bottling pale. It is much more consistent that way.

 

[mfink519]

To be honest I'm afraid to check the other bottles. The few we looked at the other day didn't seem to have anything remarkable going on but then again I don't really know what im looking for.

 

[kristiismean]

pick one, cold crash it, try it, best way to be sure.

 

[HIM_Tattoos]

All good reasons listed above, the only I want to add to this, when I'm picking bottles to re-use, I won't use any that have a seam. I do believe that SN bottles have the seam, thus my mentioning this. I haven't personally run into any issues, but mention it anyways.

 

[mfink519]

Cold crash?

pick one, cold crash it, try it, best way to be sure.

 

[Brewmenn]

My only question is how are you sanitizing your bottles? I ask because in your picture the label on the bottle looks like it never got wet.

 

[passedpawn]

Bottle bomb, probably due to infection or too much priming sugar in that bottle. I've seen them myself.

 

[SmokeyMcBong]

Cold crash?

Put it in the fridge and get it cold...

 

[PADave]

My only question is how are you sanitizing your bottles? I ask because in your picture the label on the bottle looks like it never got wet.

Good catch there. SN labels fall off really easy in water. I change my initial thoughts of weak bottle, and go with infection causing bottle bombs.

 

[mfink519]

I had a couple bottles I couldn't get the label off. This was one of them. We still soaked in sanitizer. I think these guys were the tail end.

My only question is how are you sanitizing your bottles? I ask because in your picture the label on the bottle looks like it never got wet.

 

[flattie]

I had a couple bottles I couldn't get the label off. This was one of them. We still soaked in sanitizer. I think these guys were the tail end.

Are you cleaning your bottles before sanitizing them?

If someone drank that Sierra Nevada Pale Ale and then set it aside without rinsing it out with water right away, it's entirely likely there is some beer gunk dried on the inside of the bottle. Getting the gunk out will require a soak in some warm water and cleaner - I use PBW but others have success with oxyclean.

An hour long soak in warm PBW will remove Sierra Nevada labels with no effort at all. Following the PBW soak you might need a bottle brush to get any gunk out of the bottle. Rinse with fresh water then sanitize with StarSan or whatever your sanitizer of choice is.

In the future after you pour a beer into a pint glass, give it a quick rinse with fresh water. I usually fill it a little, plug the end with my finger and shake it - dump that then refill with fresh water and then dump that. Then on bottling day all I do is fill them with sanitizer and dump that.

 

[NSMikeD]

Aside from the obvious (too much sugar = over primed and cleaning v sanitizing), there was a post on page one asking about fermentation. If fermentation isn't completed, it will continue in the bottle, thus producing CO2 on top of what the sugar will add. Plastic bucket fermentors can leach air so that it may appear to be no activity in the airlock (bubbling) even if fermentation isn't complete.

To be sure, take specific gravity reading at the end. Also, don't rush bottling, set the fermentor in a cool spot for an extra week or two before bottling. In addition to completing the fermentation the yeast will then start to clear up the beer, making the beer taste better.

For now, store your bottles in a cold place (but above freezing). The cool will reduce the air pressure. It will take longer to fully carbonate, but as mentioned, good things will happen in that cool rest before drinking.

 

[mfink519]

Everyone is giving me good stuff here. ty! Worse comes to worse the batch is bad and we need to do again... Live and learn!

 

[GHBWNY]

Everyone is giving me good stuff here. ty! Worse comes to worse the batch is bad and we need to do again... Live and learn!

I will always maintain that if, "We learn from our mistakes", then I must be a brewing genius!!

Of all the suggestions here as to what may have caused the bottle bomb, it could be one simple thing, or a combination of things. Either way, note the suggestions and apply them to your next brew. This 'pothole' you hit along the brewing highway will help you identify and avoid future 'potholes'. Main thing is, keep going.

I wouldn't chuck this batch (yet). Regardless of the problem, it would be worth getting them into a plastic tub with a lid, to a cool/cold area and let them ride for a week or two and see what happens. If by then another hasn't burst, pull one, stick it in a Zip Lok bag, let it warm up, pop it and see how it reacts/smells/tastes. If it "gushes" when opened, but doesn't smell/taste bad, it is probably (over-) priming before fermentation was done, in which case I'd maintain the same cool conditions and hope for the best. If it gives off a noticeably loud *pfft* when opened but doesn't gush, you may want to consider popping and replacing with sanitized caps the entire batch. But, if it gushes AND smells/tastes bad, then it's an infection and qualifies for chuckability status. Best case scenario is a single faulty bottle.