KAPOW! - My First Bottle Bomb

[Copernicus]

I guess it was bound to happen sometime. I discovered my first exploded bottle today. I say "discovered" because it clearly did not blow up today since everything was bone dry - glass shrapnel and all. I have an idea why this might have happened but wanted to see what you fine folks think.

This was a pale ale I bottled about 7 weeks ago. To bottle it, I heated up 2/3 cup of white cane sugar in about 2+ cups of water to dissolve all the sugar. After it was fully dissolved I let it cool and then poured it (still warm, but not hot) in the bottom of the bottling bucket. I then siphoned the 5-gallon batch of beer from the fermenter to the bottling bucket, letting the tubing sit on the bottom of the bottling bucket and swirl around to (presumably) mix in the sugar water evenly. Then I bottled, first in 22 oz bottles and then, when I got down to the end, I put the remaining beer in a couple 12 oz bottles. The BOMB was one of the two 12 oz bottles, so one of the last ones.

Is it possible more sugar settled to the bottom and this last bottle or two were "supercharged"? Has anyone seen that before? I would have thought the method I used would mix the priming sugar fairly evenly. By the way, the beers I have already drank from this batch were not overly carbonated. Any other explanations?

Thanks in advance for the thoughts.

 

[Suthrncomfrt1884]

Sounds about right to me. If you've got uneven carbonation, then that means you had poorly mixed sugar or a dirty bottle. The swirl method is great, but it's not 100%. I usually sanitize a spoon and slowly stir for a minute or so. As long as you don't splash, you won't hurt the beer.

 

[lumpher]

yep, like suthrn said. i had a bottle bomb for the first time ever about 3 months ago. i was on the way to work, and wife called me, saying someone was shooting a shotgun in the house

 

[Nuggethead]

I've always been concerned with even distribution of priming sugar. I swirl gently before starting to bottle and then swirl again at the half way point. Carbination has always been equal in all the bottles.

 

[Copernicus]

Thanks for the comments, folks. Sounds like a stirring spoon may need to become a regular part of my bottling procedure.

 

[TheWeeb]

+1 on the stirring spoon (I have a long stainless one that I sanitize and use to keep a gentle whirlpool going during bottling); but it is also possible that the bottle was weakened or flawed since it was just one of the batch.

 

[dotnetdotcom]

I vote for bad/defective bottle. Incomplete mixing of the priming sugar is possible, but seems less likely the way he did it.
The only other explanations I can think of would be some undissolved sugar or something in the bottle, which both seem unlikely.

Also, what I do is hold my racking cane in place and use the end of the siphon hose to gently stir as the bottling bucket fills.

 

[scottland]

Either sanatize a stirring spoon, or I use my racking cane after i pull it out of the fermenter to stir up everything in the bottling bucket. Just use a nice gentle stir.