My 2nd attempt at bottling.

Dev110 · Aug 13, 2012

After having troubles with my first bottling experience, I am hoping I did okay this time ( I took the advice of many of you here, and made my own bottling bucket ) The whole procedure last night took about 4 hours, and it worked okay, but without a perfect seal on the end of the auto-siphon, the racking itself was slow going. I did manage to avoid getting beer on the ceiling this time.

I took a small piece of tubing and connected the end of the spigot on my bottling bucket to the top of the wand, -again, thanks to this forum- and that made all the difference. That part was quick and easy.

I bottled my 2.5 gal of Irish Sweet Stout, and 5 gal of Draught Stout. All seems well, but now I am a little worried about bottle bombs just from reading all the posts in this forum.

My question this time is two-fold. First, how common are these bombs, and second, where is a good place to store about 80 bottles of beer while it conditions? I need to come up with a safe place away from the family in case one of these go off (I hope my corn sugar mixed well enough- I did it by the book) maybe under the house? Its pretty cool under there, and I'd like them to stay untouched until they're ready.

I may be over-thinking this.

dkwolf · Aug 13, 2012

FWIW, I stored my first batch in cardboard six-pack containers, stacked in a rubbermaid tote. Dark, can be slid into a cool corner of the house, and (hopefully) enough 'containment' should a bottle burst.

lebucheron · Aug 13, 2012

I put my brews in those big store n go rubbermaid containers. Even if they explode (hasn't happened to me yet) Shouldn't make to big a mess.
Looks like this

EvilDeadAsh · Aug 13, 2012

The bottles won't start exploding until you have 3-3.5 volumes CO2 in them. You can use a handy dandy beer priming calculator, like the one listed here:

http://www.brewersfriend.com/beer-priming-calculator/

You can see that unless you went overboard with the corn sugar, it will probably be fine. Just make sure to toss the bottles into the fridge at least 24h before opening or else they will fizz and foam out the top when you open them.

Dev110 · Aug 13, 2012

I have a couple of those Rubbermaid bins, but not enough to hold as many beers as I made last night.

Here's the reason for my paranoia - I broke my hydrometer a couple weeks ago when brewing the Dutch Dark Lager that's in my other fermenter now, so I can't check the gravity. The brewstore is never open when I can make it, so the next time I go, I will pick up a couple for next time just in case.

I let this batch ferment for 4 weeks just to play it safe. I can't imagine it's still going.

willy_mugobeer · Aug 13, 2012

If your corn sugar amount is by the book, you shouldn't have to worry about bombs at all. I store my bottles in cardboard cases while they condition, and have never had one blow up on me.

You will want to pay some attention to the temperature where they're conditioning, though, and make sure it's compatible with what the yeast strain you're using wants. My first couple batches I tried conditioning in the basement, but realized after a few weeks that they needed slightly higher temps for the yeast to be active (which generates the CO2 that gives you carbonation). Brought 'em upstairs for a couple weeks, they conditioned nicely, then I took them back down for long-term storage. Worked out great.