Is this what a bottle bomb looks like?

[eko]

Honestly I imagined there'd be more shards of glass. Found this bottle with the bottom in two pieces inside the crate surrounded by all the other bottles which are undamaged. What do I do with the rest of the bottles? They've been conditioning for almost two months. Can I de-cap and re-cap without them going flat?

 

[Elkobrewer]

That looks more like that bottle was damaged before bottling. So I would not worry about the rest of them. You will know when you have a true bottle bomb

 

[Aristotelian]

Was the beer gushing? Could just be an old bottle. You can bleed the pressure by lightly pulling up on the caps with a bottle opener, but I would check one of them first. If the beer looks carbed to the right level, I would put the rest of the batch in a safe waterproof container but otherwise leave them alone.

 

[Pantherjon]

Yep..Knock on wood, I haven't had one, but was talking to another home brewer and you will KNOW for sure when you have a bottle bomb! And if you have one, more then likely there will be more...But, yeah, as elkobrewer pointed out, looks like that was a damaged bottle to begin with..

 

[Singletrack]

Yes, that's one of the disappointing bottle bombs. Needs more sugar to explode properly. Keep trying.


Probably the others are okay. I've had bottles do this when carbonation was fine.

 

[cshamilton]

How is the carb level in bottles you've opened already? It's been a while so too much priming sugar, doesn't seem super likely. If the carbonation seemed fine and is ok in other bottles , you might have gotten a gusher infection in that bottle. Of course you might have just had a weak bottle. I'd recommend you put them in plastic tub or somewhere safe in case any others might go.

 

[kh54s10]

If you find they are over carbonated, wear a heavy weight long sleeve shirt or coat, kevlar or at least heavy leather gloves and a face shield when you try to release pressure.

 

[eko]

I had opened a bottle after 3-4 weeks of conditioning, and I opened another bottle last night after about 8 weeks of bottle conditioning. Both were put in the fridge for 5-7 days before opening. Each showed the same behavior- no gushing, no excess carbonating in the bottle even after opening and letting sit for over a minute. However, as soon as I poured the beer, the beer in the glass become very carbonated. If I poured 1/3 a glass it instantly become a full glass: maybe 1/4 beer and 3/4 head.

I think I may have had two problems here. First, I'm not really sure the yeast had finished it's job. I rocked, shook, and warmed it but the beer remained at roughly 1.021. This was with Wyeast 1968. It finished near where it finished the last time I used it and I couldn't get it any lower, but I have had problems with this yeast before and can't help blaming it for dropping out too soon.

Second, I based my priming sugar calculations on 3 gallons (I split an almost 6 gallon batch), I may have been a little under but was pretty close. This is for a porter. But I just double checking the tables I'm not sure why I used 58g of table sugar (sucrose). Seems like 52g would have been more appropriate. I didn't note the temperature at the time I bottled. But it looks like I might have used the corn sugar calculation instead of the sucrose calculation.

 

[dyqik]

I think 1968/WLP002 is known for restarting fermentation after a time in bottles - there's a thread about it here. But usually it won't go far enough to cause bottle bombs, just milder overcarbonation. But a weak bottle might be susceptible.

BTW, for carbonation calculations, it's the not the temperature at time of bottling that matters, but the highest temperature seen after the fermentation halted.

 

[Aristotelian]

If they are overcarbonated but not totally gushing, you can correct this by bleeding the pressure a few times as described above.

 

[eko]

BTW, for carbonation calculations, it's the not the temperature at time of bottling that matters, but the highest temperature seen after the fermentation halted.

Most of the time, maybe all of the time, the temp when I bottle is the highest temp after the end of fermentation, which will be whatever I've been controlling it to with a heat blanket or swamp cooler. But still, this is news to me. I'd never been entirely sure why the calculator had included temperature. I've never seen this in any of my readings. Why does it take more sugar/DME if the temperature was higher? Got any references you can point me to?

If they are overcarbonated but not totally gushing, you can correct this by bleeding the pressure a few times as described above.

I opened another one this weekend that had been in the fridge for a week. It slowly but continuously bubbled. Had to pour slowly into 3 pint glasses to prevent bubbling over. So I bled off the pressure on a few bottles, re-tightened with a capper, then popped them in the fridge. We'll see how they turn out.

 

[Aristotelian]

I opened another one this weekend that had been in the fridge for a week. It slowly but continuously bubbled. Had to pour slowly into 3 pint glasses to prevent bubbling over. So I bled off the pressure on a few bottles, re-tightened with a capper, then popped them in the fridge. We'll see how they turn out.

If you think the whole batch is overcarbonated, as seems to be the case, that explains your bottle breaking. It is possible it is a bad bottle too, but I would bleed ALL of them, wait 24 hours, and bleed them again.

If you really want to be sure, you can uncap all of them, wait for the carbonation to dissipate, and then reprime with a sugar cube each. Then you are guaranteed to get the right level.

 

[MrHopScotch]

Most of the time, maybe all of the time, the temp when I bottle is the highest temp after the end of fermentation, which will be whatever I've been controlling it to with a heat blanket or swamp cooler. But still, this is news to me. I'd never been entirely sure why the calculator had included temperature. I've never seen this in any of my readings. Why does it take more sugar/DME if the temperature was higher? Got any references you can point me to?







I opened another one this weekend that had been in the fridge for a week. It slowly but continuously bubbled. Had to pour slowly into 3 pint glasses to prevent bubbling over. So I bled off the pressure on a few bottles, re-tightened with a capper, then popped them in the fridge. We'll see how they turn out.

The solubility of CO2 decreases as the temperature increases. Fermentation produces a lot of CO2 and some of that is inevitably trapped in the beer(this is why gravity samples can have a little fizz). If the beer ferments cooler it will retain more of this CO2, but if the beer gets warm near the end of or after fermentation the solubility decreases and some of the trapped CO2 is released, decreasing the overall carbonation level.

As it relates to priming sugar, the calculator uses the solubility of CO2 at a given temperature to estimate how much CO2 remains in the beer and adjusts the priming sugar accordingly.