First Bottle Bomb - Toss Rest of Batch?

[irishvermin]

After several years of brewing I found my first bottle bomb last night:

Obviously went off when no one was around (I wonder if it still made a noise?), and appears to have been a while back as it is definitely all dried up. Was contained by the case that I stored the bottles in and thus went undetected until I went in for a few bottles last night.

My main concern and question at this point is do I need to toss the rest of the batch now? Is it likely they are all bombs, or maybe I just had a bad bottle?

The beer is a GF Coffee Ale, OG 1.065, FG 1.014, bottled with 4 oz corn sugar back on 7/16/17. We’ve drank a little over half of the batch by this point, and I did start to notice several weeks back that it was over carbonated.

If I chill all of the bottles will that keep them safe from exploding? Or is it better to just toss and move on? Really don’t want a guest or family member to end up with any shrapnel!

 

[glenn514]

Chilling would help, but you would still be putting anyone near those bottles at risk. It may have been a weak or damaged bottle, but I suspect 4 ounces of priming sugar is a bit much for that style. I'd choose the cautious route, and dump the remains of the batch...and even do that very carefully!

glenn514

 

[mongoose33]

I'd open a couple and see what you get. It's possible only that bottle was contaminated. It's possible only that single bottle was structurally weak, and broke under pressure. Those possibilities are supported by the fact that since the beer is dried up, it's been a long time for the other bottles to have reached that bottle-bomb point--and they haven't.

I agree with chilling a couple, but if it were me, I'd chill them inside a closed container or perhaps a 1-gallon ziploc bag, just to contain anything that might happen. A tall pitcher with a lid would suffice.

If I had to lay a $10 bet, I'd bet that the rest are not contaminated.

 

[ancientmariner52]

As a precaution, please wrap a towel around the bottle before you open it.

 

[EDF713]

If it was long ago to have dried up and no others blew up, I bet it was a bad bottle. I would definitely chill the rest and check for any gushers or overcarbed bottles, if they're fine you're probably in the clear.

 

[flars]

Chill a bottle for a few days then check the SG. A few weeks ago the last few bottles of a porter bottled on 7/16 were showing excessive carbonation. SG at bottling was 1.008. Infection had taken them down to 1.003. Still tasted good though.

Bottled the same recipe a month ago with a repitch of the infected yeast. I'll drink these a little sooner.

edit: Just to make sure I checked the SG on all three of the remaining bottles.