Have you experienced a bottle bomb?

[ajbram]

I had a very large bottle bomb. While fermenting, the blow-off tube in the glass carboy became clogged overnight and the carboy exploded. It was a HUGE explosion and there were pieces of carboy stuck into the ceiling and walls of the kitchen (where it was fermenting) as well as the two adjoining rooms. Luckily it happened in the middle of the night, so nobody was awake. If anyone had been standing in the kitchen when it exploded, my guess is that they'd be swiss cheese.

This is the reason I stopped brewing for many years, and why I avoid using glass carboys now.

I have 2 65L laboratory-grade Nalgene carboys that I use as primary fermentors. Even when the fermentations go nuts and the krausen is really rocking, I haven't had to ever use a blowoff tube. I use glass carboys exclusively for secondary.

 

[Jayhem]

It is amazing to me that hops and krausen could clog a tube enough to prevent release of the pressure required to blow up a carboy. I have no idea of the PSI required to burst a glass carboy but I would wager it is at least 60 psi, maybe much higher.

 

[Hammy71]

Nope (knocks on wood). I fear the SWMBO will frown upon messes. So I'm anal about FG and storage.

 

[penutbuttrdeath]

my bottle bomb

Ive only had one bomb... and it put a hole in my ceiling!

 

[ryno79brew]

not i but my buddy did to one of our scottish ale's. we bottled in november and its been aging for four months now and one went boom. he won the first boomer award.

 

[Stauffbier]

I usually take my bottles out of the rubbermaid containers after about 4 weeks, and just put them on a closet shelf un-boxed.. I'm thinking I need to buy a few more containers and keep all of my bottles boxed up until I'm ready to get them in the fridge no matter how long they have been conditioning!