Did I make some PET bombs?

[beerandcoding]

After two weeks in primary, I hit my marks and bottled my Belgian IPA. The is my first time using plastic bottles, so I don't know if I should be concerned or not.

I primed the bottles directly as per a thread on this site; 1 1/4 tsp cane sugar per 20oz bottle. The bottles are conditioning in a room that varies from 67-70*.

I am 72 hours in to conditioning and the bottles have little to no give if I put pressure on them. I have not noticed any bulging yet. They feel like well-shaken sodas. Is this normal at such an early stage? I planned on conditioning the beer for three weeks at room temperature, but I don't want to destroy my pantry. Should I plan or a shorter conditioning period, or just wait and see?

Cheers!
Kevin

 

[TipsyDragon]

well i would put the box of bottles in a black trash bag. that way if they do explode the beer wont go everywhere. i wouldn't be concerned until i noticed the bottles starting to bulge. just curious, why plastic bottles?

 

[bradsul]

If they're the longneck style PET bottles I wouldn't worry about the pressure, they can hold a considerable amount. Soda/pop are carbonated MUCH higher than beer and the materials and caps are the same.

I've never measured out my priming sugar by bottle so I'm not sure how much is appropriate, but the bottles will get pretty solid. You could wrap them in a garbage bag to be safe but I doubt you'll have any issues.

 

[beerandcoding]

@Tipsy & bradsul: Thanks for the quick replies. They went into a 40 gallon Hefty trashbag as soon as I bottled them.

They are amber, long-neck PET bottles; A&W root beer bottles to be exact. I used them because this was my first time brewing with a liquid yeast starter. I had read that Wyeast 1388 could be very active after bottling and I didn't want a bunch of glasss shrapnel.

Cheers!
Kevin

 

[DrinkNoH2O]

Just curious, why did you bottle with cane sugar instead of corn sugar, and why did you measure "per bottle" instead of per batch? (i.e. 3/4 corn sugar per 5 gallon batch)

 

[qvantamon]

Carbonation itself happens fast - it's probably done or nearly done carbonating after 72 hours - the rest of the bottle conditioning time is for cleaning up the beer, etc, etc.

The bottles are so rigid because they are warm, so most of the co2 is in gas form, not dissolved. A soda bottle will be just as rigid at room temperature. After you chill those bottles they will have more give (since most of the gas dissolves into the liquid).

 

[IceFisherChris]

You would be surprised how much pressure they can hold. I have personally experimented with 1 liter and 2 liter bottles.

2 liter bottles explode at about 150 psi
1 liters held a lot more, I think it was close to 180

 

[KayaBrew]

Just curious, why did you bottle with cane sugar instead of corn sugar, and why did you measure "per bottle" instead of per batch? (i.e. 3/4 corn sugar per 5 gallon batch)

FYI, you can carbonate with many different types of sugar including: brown sugar, cane sugar, maple syrup, honey, and DME to name a few.

 

[beerandcoding]

@DrinkNoH2O: I've read here that there is very little different between corn sugar and table sugar. I was out of corn sugar and didn't want to make a special trip. I wanted to guarantee equal distribution, so I primed the bottles.

@IceFisherChris: Wow, that is a lot of pressure. That definitely make me feel better.

Cheers!
Kevin

 

[IceFisherChris]

@IceFisherChris: Wow, that is a lot of pressure. That definitely make me feel better.

Cheers!
Kevin

They were pop bottles. Slightly different than yours, but a smaller bottle will generally hold more pressure than a larger bottle.

Actually, according my calculation, you are at the exact level of adding 3/4 cup into a 5 gallon batch. 3/4 cup (36 tsp) of dextrose into a 48 bottle batch gives you .75 tsp per 12 ounces (or 0.0625 tsp per ounce)
1.25 tsp per 20 ounce turns out to be 0.0625 tsp per ounce also.

 

[qvantamon]

Not quite. Cane sugar is 20% more fermentable than dextrose, so he's a bit over (though still very far from bottle bomb territory).

 

[lurker18]

And even if you managed to get to the exploding part, PET tears, so you will still have a mess, but no shrapnel to pull out of you legs.