I have a problem.

[dgeffel15]

So I just finished my first home brew and was getting rest to taste the fruits I my labor. I used old Grolsch bottles that have a pop top. I opened my first bottle and BOOM the cap flys off, smacks me in the face, beer flys all over my kitchen. I have no idea what I did wrong, does any have any idea what it could have been?

 

[jmcquesten]

How long did you wait before you bottled? Did you take gravity readings a couple days apart to make sure it was finished?

Sent from my GT-P5210 using Home Brew mobile app

 

[day_trippr]

At least a couple of possibilities: incomplete fermentation, or excessive priming sugar.

Did you use a hydrometer to check the final Specific Gravity of the batch to assure fermentation was complete? Did you use a calculator to determine the appropriate weight of the priming sugar charge?

And a third possibility: infection...

Cheers!

 

[Billy-Klubb]

it sounds like it was bottled too soon or too much priming sugar.

 

[dgeffel15]

I got one o the brooklyn home brewing kits and it didn't come with a hydrometer. I let it ferment for 2 weeks.

 

[dgeffel15]

I plan on getting a hydrometer soon for my second run at this. What little beer I tasted bad so contamination is a possibility.

 

[yeahfairly]

How long did you leave the beer in the fermenter? Apparently it wasn't quite long enough. IMHO You still had a ever so slight active fermentation going on and when you added your priming sugar and bottled your fermentation kicked off again.

Those Grolsch bottles are thick and the ceramic cap is stout as well. If it had been ordinary bottles they would have already blown up on you.

I've never experienced this before so you need to get one of the Pros on here to chime in....

 

[kevinb]

I have never had it happen, but I have also heard that if the priming sugar is not mixed in well enough some bottles will over carbonate while others are under. Did you open any other bottles?

 

[nicklepickles]

Probably not that main source of yout problem, but ive always found beer bottled in swing tops to be foamier then beer in standard bottles. I think it has something to do with the opening mechanism... One big opening at once forcing all co2 out vs a small crack yhat gradually gets bigger. Who knows though

 

[dgeffel15]

I opened 2 others and had the same explosive results. I managed to catch a little in a glass and the force so great it took the remain CO2 out of solution. I let it ferment for 2 week and bottle condition for 1 week.

 

[Britinusa]

Can you try holding the cap down with one hand while slowly opening it to release gas slower?
I had to do that on my first bottled batch for the same reason.