had a gusher, then a bomb... /scared

[Rivenin]

Hey ya'll!

so i did the same amount of sugar as normal and i've only had partial gushers (maybe 4-5 out of 20+ batches). 2/3rds of a cup of corn sugar in a cup of water for 5 gallons...
yesterday, i popped open a ryePA, as soon as the top came off almost all of the 22oz went straight out the top and on the floor (about 2oz was left in the bottle), was rather cool looking. i think it spiked about a foot tall.
today i came home, checked the same bottles, they're sitting ontop of my fermentation chamber and the bottom of the box was wet, looked inside and sure enough it was a bottle that was very much shattered.

they were in the bottles maybe 2 weeks (impatient man here) so i guess the question is... is there anyway to prevent anymore gushers/bottle bombs once they're bottled?

 

[passedpawn]

Get them in your fridge quick.

Drink them up. They won't recover. I dump batches like this, asap. One of those bottles go off near you, you'll dump them too.

 

[Rivenin]

well... thats not good lol, i don't have enough room for 2 cases of beer in there... i was wanting to age it for a bit (its roughly 9% abv). Was aging it for my dogs death to celebrate her. i guess i will have to check around and find some simcoe somehow to make the recipe again. Thank you much for the help!!

 

[passedpawn]

Didn't mean to scare you. Bottle bombs are not to be messed with. Get them cold and they will be OK (might still gush though). If you can't chill them, I recommend dumping. Sorry for the bad news.

 

[freelunch]

Chill as many as your fridge will fit (overnight at a minimum), then uncap, let sit for 5-10 minutes and recap.

Repeat as necessary.

 

[lumpher]

1 bottle-bomb is all i had. i stored them in the office, until it went off and planted some glass in a lampshade 2 feet from where my wife's head could have been, and a couple more shards in her computer chair. after a little debate, i only keg. if i need to bottle, it's from the keg. as far as preventing gushers, the best way is to gently swirl your bottling bucket around a little as it's filling

 

[malkore]

at that level of gushing I suspect even chilled to 32F, they'll still gush as soon as opened, leaving a half empty bottle.
Thats what I experienced with my one exploding batch of stout. It was a total loss. Scary too, glass grenades are zero fun to handle when you can't see the fuse.

 

[ErkenneDichSelbst]

I would use more water (at least two cups) when priming to make sure you're getting a better mixture. Are you racking onto the priming solution with an auto siphon?

 

[Eisendrath]

Chill so they dont gush when you : dump back into secondary and let fermentsation complete there. Rebottle. or store in covered buckets.

 

[threeeight]

I'd just dump it and try to figure out what went wrong.

Does it taste right? I'd guess that you either bottled before you'd hit terminal gravity, or you've introduced some contamination into the beer along the way.

I reuse bottles, and no matter how meticulously I clean and sanitize them, I still get one or two gushers for every case.

I had a batch that was all gushers, and before they started to gush, the first couple didn't taste right. Once I let it sit for a month to see if it would smooth out, and opened a few gushers, I dumped the rest. After that, I replaced my racking and bottle filling equipment, and the problem was gone.

 

[nefarious_1_]

Chill so they dont gush when you : dump back into secondary and let fermentsation complete there. Rebottle. or store in covered buckets.

I strongly advise against this. You will almost certainly have an oxidation problem.



I'd try to chill a few and see if the gushing subsides. If no luck, down the drain.

BTW, does it taste OK or haven't you had a chance due to gushing?

 

[BrewThruYou]

Are they all bottled in bombers? I've had some gushers in 22oz bottles when the 12 ouncers didn't.

If you want to tempt fate, I would get a rubbermaid or sterilite storage container with a snap on lid and store them in there. I have a bunch I picked up at Walmart.

 

[Rivenin]

thanks for the replies!

i ended up putting them in surdier boxes and out in the garage. i did chill a few... funny thing is, the rest of them are perfectly fine, the rest of them have very low carbonation, so musta been just one or two that had the issue so far (but staying boxed in the garage). and yep! they were in bombers.

hopefully that wont happen again

edit: and yes, they taste perfectly wonderful! (first one i did ferm. temp. control on)

 

[unionrdr]

Sounds like you also didn't get the priming solution mixed evenly,& filled the big bottles with too much PS. As was stated,I also never use less than 2C of boiling water to mix my priming sugar in. Stir til water goes clear again.
Get it down close to pitch temp,& start racking beer into bottling bucket. When you got a couple inches of beer in the bottom of the bucket,slowly pour the priming solution into the swirling surface of the beer.
When done racking give it a dozen or so light stirs to make sure it's well mixed. Then bottle away.

 

[jonmohno]

Exactly, you had uneven carbonation, stirr it with the end of your racking hose, like i do after racking for a minute, i would like to do it during bottteling too, but havent done that and havent had a problem yet, rack on top of 2 cups preboiled water with priming sugar cooled, then stir gently a minute after racking.