First Brew Bottle Bomb!

[Marsdude]

My first brew is in the bottles and I just had a bottle bomb. One of the bombers I filled (yes the irony is killing me) just exploded in the closet. After searching the forums I found that a bottle bomb is cause by bottling before fermentation was complete. I have a couple of questions.

What did I do wrong? I brewed an amber ale from an extract. It was in the carboy for 15 days and the last few days I was getting a consistent hydrometer reading. When bottling I mixed up the bottling sugar as instructed by the kit. My beer did sit for two hours in the bottling bucket due to a problem with my capper (another thread) before I put it in the bottles using a wand. The beer has been in the bottles for 17 days.

What should I do now? Do I refrigerate the beer or do I need to pop the caps and re-cap the bottles?

 

[ArcaneXor]

What was your final gravity? If it was much higher than expected, you had a stalled fermentation that picked back up after you added the priming sugar.

Other possibilities: a defective bottle, improperly mixed priming sugar in the bottling bucket, wild yeast infection.

In any case, be really careful. They are called bottle bombs for a reason - if you don't use safety gear handling these things, they can seriously injure you. The shards can embed themselves in solid wood, so you can imagine what they'll do to skin, muscle and blood vessels.

If you can, refrigerate them and, once cold, vent them to release some of the excess CO2. Then re-cap them and keep them cold.

 

[osgrimmy]

Hey,

Keep in mind that you could also have an infection..

How much priming sugar did you use and what type? Did you prime the entire bucket then bottle? Did you stir every few bottles to make sure it was even? What was your fermentation temperature was it constant most of the time? Did you sanitize your bottles properly. Sorry hate to ask these simple questions but I'm not sure of your skill level at this moment.

Personally I don't feel 15 days is enough, but you did have a stable FG reading. What was the reading that you had?

In the future I would let your beer sit for a little longer. Also transfer your beer to a secondary carboy and let it sit for a few weeks. Your beer will be better and will start to clear.

I think I asked more questions than gave answers, lol

Cheers,
Grimmy

 

[Marsdude]

For some reason I didn't write down my final gravity. I did sanitize everything with Starsan. The priming sugar came premeasured in a bag. I would guess it was around 1/2 - 3/4 a cup.

The beer does have a little bit of an off taste. Not too bad but I am sure that it is not supposed to taste like it does.

I have a pale ale that has been in the carboy for 2 weeks. I am going to put it in a secondary today.

 

[osgrimmy]

let them sit in the fridge for a bit taste them if they are off I would throw out the batch. Starsan is awesome stuff so keep using it! As for future brews be anal about the process and maybe think back on what might of went wrong on this batch. Could just be that one dirty spoon or hydrometer

I always boil water and add my sugar then let it cool down so I know it's clean... just a tip that you might want to use.

Cheers,
Grimmy

www.grimmysbeer.com

 

[Jumbo82]

My guess is that you poured the sugar directly into the bottling bucket. If you did, some bottles will be under carbonated and some with over carbonated. If you boiled water and dissolved the proper amount of sugar, and you had a stable F.G., then I suppose an infection would be my second guess.

 

[KevinW]

My guess is that you poured the sugar directly into the bottling bucket. If you did, some bottles will be under carbonated and some with over carbonated. If you boiled water and dissolved the proper amount of sugar, and you had a stable F.G., then I suppose an infection would be my second guess.

+1 Good advice!

I am very very anal about cleaning my bottles, if there is just a tiny bit of "stuff" in them that could cause an infection pdq! I soak in one-step, scrub with a bottle brush, then sainitize with Iodophor! It is a lot of work but I drank a couple of "not so clean" brews of mine and paid the price the next day! NEVER AGAIN!! My 2cents worth!

 

[CDbrews]

How is the rest of the batch? anymore bombs? If not it sounds like a faulty bottle or maybe an infection in the one bottle.

 

[Marsdude]

My guess is that you poured the sugar directly into the bottling bucket. If you did, some bottles will be under carbonated and some with over carbonated. If you boiled water and dissolved the proper amount of sugar, and you had a stable F.G., then I suppose an infection would be my second guess.

Nope, I boiled water and dissolved the sugar into it then poured it into the bottling bucket. I then siphoned the beer from the carboy into the bucket. I had some good instructions to follow.

I have now set the beer outside, it is about 30 degrees out right now. I am going to let it cool down for about 30 min. and then recap the bottles.

I wonder if I am sanitizing correctly? I mixed the StarSan as the bottle directed and I use a spray bottle to spray it on everything and inside my tubing and let is sit for at least 5 min. Should I rinse it off after that? Is there a better way to do this?

 

[CDbrews]

Before you go to the work of recapping the bottles i would see if its an isolated bottle or the whole batch, Have any more bottles blown? i would just store the bottles in a cardboard box with a garbage bag over it untill they are ready to drink, if no more bottles blow you are fine if one more does then i would think about recapping them.

 

[hoppymonkey]

Watch the caps!. If the little dimple in the middle starts to pop up, then that will be a bottle with a problem. I have had a couple different batches with overcarbonated single bottles.

 

[Marsdude]

Well, so far so good. I have the batch in the fridge. Thanks for all of the advice.

 

[danculwell]

Someone correct me if this is a stupid question but did the one the blew smell bad? It's my understanding that an infection smells bad so I would imagine that a bottle bomb caused by an infection would also smell bad. Just an idea.

 

[Marsdude]

Someone correct me if this is a stupid question but did the one the blew smell bad? It's my understanding that an infection smells bad so I would imagine that a bottle bomb caused by an infection would also smell bad. Just an idea.

I didn't smell bad. I don't think I had an infection.

 

[flywallyfly]

I didn't smell bad. I don't think I had an infection.

What about the beer?

 

[hoppymonkey]

What about the beer?

LMAO. I knew that was coming.

 

[Marsdude]

What about the beer?

Who said we were talking about the beer?

 

[KevinW]

Yeah, you know how those "yeast" infections can smell! lol

I had a couple bottles from my very first batch that had something wrong with them. I did not realize until after I drank them. They did not taste bad they just had a lack of malt flavor and sweetness the other bottles had. It was like someone had diluted those bottles with a macrobrew or something.