Force carb and altitude change

[Jdaught]

I'll be force carbing a batch next weekend then bottling. I'll then be taking the bottles with me to Colorado, from Dallas. How concerned should I be about exploding bottles due to the altitude change and what precautions or methods should I use to prevent the beer bombs?

 

[carlisle_bob]

Hi

The change in pressure with altitude shouldn't be a major issue *if* things are otherwise ok. You have other things like temperature and shaking up the bottles that also might contribute if there still sugars present.

Bob

 

[Jdaught]

Thanks for the reply. They shouldn't get shaken up and when they get carbed it will have been 5 weeks since fermentation started so there shouldn't be any sugars left.

 

[carlisle_bob]

Hi

To put some numbers on it:

Pressure between sea level and main street Denver is roughly 2.5 psi. A big (as in bring in the lawn chairs) front coming through will do near half that. You don't hear many people talking about "it rained and the bottles all exploded". You likely are carb'd at over 15 psi and may be up way over that. Most caps / bottles are good to the 30 to 60 psi region.

Bob

 

[Jdaught]

Thanks for the info. Only reason I thought it may be a problem is I once had a 12 pack of cokes explode all over the trunk when I made this trip before.