Have you experienced a bottle bomb?

[Stauffbier]

So, how many of you have experienced a bottle bomb from your own homebrew? Why did it happen in your case?

EDIT** How far along into the bottle conditioning was it? How many days/weeks?

 

[GuldTuborg]

Yeah, I've had a few. Every time it was from a bottle, carbed at 3.0v or greater, quickly warming for one reason or another.

 

[PoppinCaps]

Duvel clone, too much dextrose added to primary after fermentation slowed, didn't let it ferment out completely, even though FG was 1.004. One bottle blew the bottom out in the guest room at some point (smells great in there now), one next to the fridge at the in-law's over Xmas. Oops. Ambient temp increase sealed the deal here too.

 

[E-Mursed]

First time I primed with honey...drank too much...forgot to do conversion from dextrose to honey...*BOOM*

 

[DisturbdChemist]

I had a few in my short time brewing. Two just with my IPA because of a faulty bottle. The first bomb was my cider i was pasteurizing.. BOMB.. it was a nice mess i had to clean up but it happens

 

[Stauffbier]

Duvel clone, too much dextrose added to primary after fermentation slowed, didn't let it ferment out completely, even though FG was 1.004. One bottle blew the bottom out in the guest room at some point (smells great in there now), one next to the fridge at the in-law's over Xmas. Oops. Ambient temp increase sealed the deal here too.

Wow, with an fg of 1.004 I wouldn't think it would be possible, unless too much priming sugar was added..

 

[GuldTuborg]

Wyeast does claim 1388 may continue to produce CO2 after packaging, so this may have had something to do with it. I'm sure weakened bottles are the cause of many a bottle bomb. The thing is, it's often tough to impossible to tell if a bottle's structure has been compromised just by glancing at it.

 

[dougdecinces]

Only once while trying to bottle pasteurize a cider. After a few minutes in the nearly boiling water, it burst and sent shrapnel flying. It scared the crap out of me, but luckily no one was hurt.

It was a bottle someone had given me that was several years old. I took all the bottles that this person gave to me and cold crashed them instead,

 

[Stauffbier]

I haven't had one "YET"! I've bottled about 550 bottles since I started brewing last September... I'm sure I'll get one eventually. If you make it past the 3 week conditioning point do you think your safe? Or, can the bombs happen way beyond that point?

 

[mikeysab]

One bottle bomb in almost four years. Woke me up and scared the sh!t outta me. Plus, my wife thought someone was breaking into the house. I almost beat the crap out of a 12 pack with a baseball bat. One bottle, inside a 12 pack blew glass 20 feet across the room. Now every time I bottle carb, I get nervous moving them into the fridge.

 

[GuldTuborg]

They can happen at any time. In fact, they're probably more likely to happen after this point, as a higher level of carbonation has been been achieved.

 

[Stauffbier]

One bottle bomb in almost four years. Woke me up and scared the sh!t outta me. Plus, my wife thought someone was breaking into the house. I almost beat the crap out of a 12 pack with a baseball bat. One bottle, inside a 12 pack blew glass 20 feet across the room. Now every time I bottle carb, I get nervous moving them into the fridge.

S**t! I hadn't thought about the idea of one going off in my hand while moving them to the fridge...

 

[Lunchtime]

My step-dad just had his entire batch explode in the bottles. It was his first time brewing in a long time, not sure what he did wrong but I was looking forward to drinking that beer damnit.

 

[Stauffbier]

They can happen at any time. In fact, they're probably more likely to happen after this point, as a higher level of carbonation has been been achieved.

So.. When is it a good time to stop conditioning and get them into a fridge. When people say that they age a beer in the bottle to help it mellow out are they doing it at room temp for weeks/months or cold conditioning after initial carbonating?

 

[AUEnder]

I have never had a bottle bomb in 6 years of brewing. I let my beer ferment completely and then prime with 4.5 oz corn sugar. At one point I was using DME to prime. Never had any problems.

 

[ReverseApacheMaster]

I only bottle and I have had exactly one bomb. It was in my first batch. I had the bottles in my closet at my apartment at the time, which got very warm in the summer (into the mid-80s in the closet when it was over 100F outside). Since it was one bottle I imagine the bottle was defective. When temperature rises beer releases more CO2 so as the bottles got warmer and the pressure built up it seemed that one couldn't take it. If you store beers at "room temperature" somewhere the beers get cool and then warm quickly the pressure can mount very quickly and rupture the glass. If you find bottle bombs happening and you are positive the gravity was stable, look at where you are storing the beer. Could it get cool and then rise in temperature by tens of degrees? Is there a furnace or heater vent nearby? Are the beers in an unheated/uncooled area? Are they in a cabinet that faces the sun during the day? Etc.

I'm surprised I haven't had more bombs. I had a whole batch of wild ale that I thought was stable at bottling but brett showed up in the bottle and dried the beer out. When I opened them I never got hardcore gushers but it definitely would foam up in a second or two.

 

[GuldTuborg]

When people say that they age a beer in the bottle to help it mellow out are they doing it at room temp for weeks/months or cold conditioning after initial carbonating?

Room temp. For extended aging, it's good to keep them cool, maybe 50-60F, but not cold. Cold doesn't really allow it to age. You'll see beers get more clear when left in the fridge, but no actual aging, as such, happens.

 

[Stauffbier]

Room temp. For extended aging, it's good to keep them cool, maybe 50-60F, but not cold. Cold doesn't really allow it to age. You'll see beers get more clear when left in the fridge, but no actual aging, as such, happens.

So, what can I do when the summer arrives and my house gets into the low 80's? Maybe an ice chest with a frozen water bottle or two??

 

[thrstyunderwater]

I have a scar on my chin from one, took 14 stitches to close it up. I could have covered a quarter inside the gash.

I probably would have died if the glass would have cut my throat. I was 19 making some cider with wild yeast.

 

[kosmokramer]

Nope but i forgot my soda in the freezer last night and the top of the can literally blew offthe about 445the this morning

 

[RandomBeerGuy]

This happend to me first time brewing. It was a LHBS recipe for a hefe. They told be to bottle it after 7 days fermentation. Like a noob I did. 2 weeks later I was like, Oh my brew let me check it out. I barely cracked the top and boom full on rocket foam getting all over the floor. I was like WTF! After that I went to secondary ferm and never had an issue since.

 

[Jayhem]

After reading this thread I'm going to wear my safety goggles when handling my bottle carbonating beer! :cross:

 

[ajbram]

No bombs yet, but I did have 3 bottles of sweet sparkling mead that popped their tops while stovetop pasteurizing. They weren't overcarbed either, just overfilled. Liquids can expand a lot when heated. Fortuntely I had the lid on the pot and a towel over the lid at the time.

 

[skimo281]

After reading this thread I'm going to wear my safety goggles when handling my bottle carbonating beer! :cross:

Lol I was thinking the same thing. I wasn't worried to much before entering this thread....but now I feel like I should be wearing some serious safety protection. I can see my obituary now being something ridiculous like dying from an explosion of home brew.

 

[ArcaneXor]

I had one. I always kept my bottles in a "bomb shelter" (large rubbermaid container with lid), which turned out to be a good idea. Sounded like a gunshot when she went.

 

[weirdboy]

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.

 

[JHawKS]

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.

 

[ReverseApacheMaster]

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'm surprised whatever the airlock was in (cap, stopper) didn't get pushed out when the pressure built up. You must have had it really secure.

 

[Beerbeque]

I've never had one yet in 4 years and over 5000 bottles.
(Knocking on wood)

 

[pyth]

Plastic beer bottles. Damn near bomb proof.