Exploding Bottles

[RedRaiderDavid]

I brewed and bottled a batch of bock back in November that didn't turn out too well. I have been slowly emptying and washing the bottles over time, even did a few a couple weeks ago, nothing unusual about them other than they just don't taste right. Last night I found a case of them in my pantry and moved it into the corner to remind myself to empty them. A few hours later I am sitting on the couch and I hear what sounded like a gun shot. I looked around and discovered that 2 of the bottles had exploded, literally. I then decided what better time than now to empty the rest and almost every one of them almost blew the cap off and spewed beer everywhere as soon as I touched it with the cap remover.

I had already decided to move to kegging but just curious WTH happened? I didn't drop the case, none of the others I opened previouslyl seemed over carbed the least little bit. Granted the shockwave from the ones that exploded essentially shook the rest of them up but I've shook up a beer before and never had one do anything like this.

Any ideas?

 

[Thedutchtouch]

I brewed and bottled a batch of bock back in November that didn't turn out too well. I have been slowly emptying and washing the bottles over time, even did a few a couple weeks ago, nothing unusual about them other than they just don't taste right. Last night I found a case of them in my pantry and moved it into the corner to remind myself to empty them. A few hours later I am sitting on the couch and I hear what sounded like a gun shot. I looked around and discovered that 2 of the bottles had exploded, literally. I then decided what better time than now to empty the rest and almost every one of them almost blew the cap off and spewed beer everywhere as soon as I touched it with the cap remover.

I had already decided to move to kegging but just curious WTH happened? I didn't drop the case, none of the others I opened previouslyl seemed over carbed the least little bit. Granted the shockwave from the ones that exploded essentially shook the rest of them up but I've shook up a beer before and never had one do anything like this.

Any ideas?

Bottle bombs. Either those bottles had weaknesses, they got more carbing sugar than the rest, or some other reason. Perhaps the new location was a bit warmer than the earlier storage location. Perhaps they got slightly infected and some bottles have more carbonation than others.

 

[myelo]

1. Bottled too soon, before fermentation was finished

2. Too much priming sugar

3. Infection

It's hard to tell which of these three without more details. Did you check a final gravity? How did you calculate priming sugar?

The fact that you say it "didn't turn out too well" makes me wonder about infection but give us some details and we can try to help.

 

[MaxStout]

I'm betting on infection if they didn't taste right. Was the flavor sort of sour or funky?

 

[RedRaiderDavid]

As far as why it didn't turn out to well, it just had an odd taste, not really infected just different (hard to explain). I had a friend that used to home brew taste one and he said it was fine it just didn't have much alcohol content. So, yes that would indicate that it was bottled too soon even though it sat in primary fermentor for 3 weeks and secondary for 2 and showed now activity. This was my first ever batch and I didn't get an original gravity and I don't recall final.
I had been brewing my second batch in the kitchen when I moved the case and it was pretty hot in there so the increase in temp and premature bottling could have both been in play.

 

[myelo]

My guess would be either it was too cold for fermentation so fermentation never got going until you bottled ... or, yeast problem so no fermentation, which allowed an infection to set in.

 

[Dovage]

I recently had a couple batches do this to me. First of all, chill the bottles you have left and they won't blow out of your hands when you go to dump them.
Second, I think my issue was that I wasn't boiling my priming sugar just heating it in the microwave. So I probably had infected beer. Man I hope that is the culprit because I just bottled 2 more batches :/

 

[user 62649]

I think we've all had a bottle bomb at one time or another. I know mine were from an infection (lost 6 bottles) and another form over carbonation. The over carbonation was a funny story as we were sitting watching TV and the beer was in my basement and all of the sudden an entire case of bottles exploded one at a time for about 10 minutes. I thought a war broke out in my house.

Try and try again and kegging is definitely easier!