Exploding Bottle (Never had this happen, not sure what to do)

[rel322]

I'm planning on stove top pasturizing my cider today. (roughly 3.5 days in). While i'm heating up the water now, one of the bottles waiting exploded.

Do I still pasturize or is carbonation too great?

Need an answer asap, doing this now

 

[jtratcliff]

hmmmm.... Sound ominous.... Heating might cause the rest to blow. If you continue, definitely leave a lid on your pot and maybe wear safety glasses!

Maybe open and recap to let off excess CO2?

I've never pasteurized, so I can offer anymore advice. Good luck!

 

[max384]

The heat will cause the gas inside the bottle to expand. If they're already exploding, I personally wouldn't do it out of safety concerns. In addition, you've probably already got a bunch of gushers that won't be that great to drink anyhow ( messy, lose a lot each time you open them, and will lose carbonation once opening).

I'd carefully open each of them and then use whatever is remaining in each of the bottles to fill up as many as you can

 

[Jacob_Marley]

Immediately put the bottles in the bottom shelf of the refrigerator overnight (or similar). Then, the next day while they are still totally cold, carefully lift each cap and try to let pressure out. If they spooze all over the place when you try this then you have two choices. Either keep them permanently in the icebox and always serve then cold as hell with lots of extra towels on hand, OR open them over a big bucket in such a way that you capture the wine as it sprays out and then once you've put all the cider into the bucket you can take another shot at re-bottling and continue on.

Regarding pasteurizing ... if you do manage to get to the point of pasteurizing with bottles that may be over-pressurized, for pete's sake, use a LID on your pasteurization pot and wear eye protection and heavy gloves. As you introduce each bottle to the pot, keep the lid in the other hand, low over the pot; and use it as a shield in case anything explodes.

 

[MarkKF]

I had three bottles of my back sweetened cider let go during Pasteurizing. It was in the first two batches of five bottles each didn't have anymore out of 48 bottles total. My theory was two bottles were weak, I reuse bottles and who knows how many times. The third I think was collateral damage.


Sent from my iPhone using Home Brew

 

[krackin]

Pasteurizing a glass bottle with a carbonated solution is absolutely as safe as inhaling beta particles. Maybe safer. It's your dice.

 

[bernardsmith]

You bottled your cider at what specific gravity? That figure will give you an idea of how much CO2 is in the bottle before you cap it and that will give you an idea of how many volumes of CO2 you are trying to cap before you apply heat. Knowing the ability of your bottles to withstand that amount of pressure will tell you how safe it will be to increase the pressure buy apply heat..

 

[max384]

Immediately put the bottles in the bottom shelf of the refrigerator overnight (or similar). Then, the next day while they are still totally cold, carefully lift each cap and try to let pressure out. If they spooze all over the place when you try this then you have two choices. Either keep them permanently in the icebox and always serve then cold as hell with lots of extra towels on hand, OR open them over a big bucket in such a way that you capture the wine as it sprays out and then once you've put all the cider into the bucket you can take another shot at re-bottling and continue on.

Regarding pasteurizing ... if you do manage to get to the point of pasteurizing with bottles that may be over-pressurized, for pete's sake, use a LID on your pasteurization pot and wear eye protection and heavy gloves. As you introduce each bottle to the pot, keep the lid in the other hand, low over the pot; and use it as a shield in case anything explodes.

And just to add to this, when I pasteurize, I wear a face shield like this for full face protection.

They can be found cheaply nearly anywhere that sells tools.