Explosions this morning

[electricsailor]

Around 4 AM heard an explosion. Three bottles went off. Pergo floor. Just finished cleaning up. Opened the remaining bottles, wearing a facemasket and opening them in a big steel pot. One went off and caused a small cut when the top of the bottle came off while trying to open. All were gushers. Like big time.
These were from a small MrBeer kit given to me, and I followed the directions, and didn't measure the SG. Won't do that again.
Question: Do you think it is safe for me to refill what is left into bottles and recap?

 

[passedpawn]

Around 4 AM heard an explosion. Three bottles went off. Pergo floor. Just finished cleaning up. Opened the remaining bottles, wearing a facemasket and opening them in a big steel pot. One went off and caused a small cut when the top of the bottle came off while trying to open. All were gushers. Like big time.
These were from a small MrBeer kit given to me, and I followed the directions, and didn't measure the SG. Won't do that again.
Question: Do you think it is safe for me to refill what is left into bottles and recap?

I'd dump them and call it a learning experience.

If the overpressure was due to an infection (backteria), then they won't taste good (and will probably become bombs again).

If overpressure was due to unfinished fermentation by the yeast, you could re-bottle. Of course, oxidation of finished beer is likely to taste bad now. And, don't forget you'd have to add additional sugar to get the bottles to carbonate again.

Anyway, I'd avoid the anxiety by starting over.

 

[davidabcd]

+1

 

[wsmith1625]

As the previous posts already stated, bottle bombs were either from infection or incomplete fermentation. Let's go over your process to see if we can help identify the problem. How did you sanitize your equipment? You need to clean any visible dirt off your equipment and bottles, but also need to sanitize to kill the stuff you can't see. A popular sanitizer for homebrewers is StarSan. After your boil, it's important for anything that comes in contact with the beer to be sanitized.

If your bottle bombs were from an incomplete fermentation, how long did you leave the beer in the fermenter before bottling, and how did you measure that fermentation was complete? Typically low gravity ales should ferment for 2 weeks, and then bottle condition for at least a week. The only way to know for sure that your fermentation is complete is to take a gravity reading several days apart. When the gravity doesn't change from the first to last reading, fermentation is complete and you're ready to bottle.

 

[dawn_kiebawls]

So far everyone has nailed it so I don't want to kick this dead horse too much. You didn't say that you were doing this but I see it a lot: airlock activity is not an indicator of how far along, or nearly finished fermentation is (ie, if the airlock has stopped bubbling it does not mean fermentation is done). An active airlock gives us something to look at and smell for several days but it is not a scientific measuring instrument that magically tells us the process is over. Cheers!