My first bottle bomb, or just a weak bottle?

[fendersrule]

I have 10 gallons of Manny's Pale Ale (Clone). They are all in 22oz bottles in several cardboard boxes. I've brewed about 40 times.

This beer landed at 1.012 after 14 days of fermentation.

I noticed today that my office smelled a little musky. Found the culprit. A blowout from the bottom. All other bottles look fine. It's been bottled 2 weeks ago.

I'm thinking this isn't really a "bottle bomb", but probably just a compromised bottle.

Perhaps someone with a clubfoot (me) kicked the box or something. There was only two large stray pieces of glass shards. Didn't really seem like an explosion.

 

[IslandLizard]

Jeez, I don't know. The way 2/3 of the bottom sheared off with that odd hole on the side, doesn't look like a bottle bomb. A weakness such as a hairline/heat stress fracture under pressure, assisted by a good sharp bump in the wrong spot can do it.

Unless it's the way the light is hitting it, the edge on the left side in side hole looks rough, shattered, fragmented, splintered, not a clean sheared crack. Same on the 2 o'clock side of the bottom. Could those be a place of impact perhaps?

Could well be a fluke, a bad or not totally clean bottle.

Have you opened and tasted any of the other bottles? Any over-carbonation?

 

[fendersrule]

I will report back in a few days! Never know until you test.

 

[jrgtr42]

Could be anything. Do you batch prime your beer or individually prime the bottles?
Individually, maybe you put too much in?
Do you use your bottles over and over, or was this a brand-new one?
But it's just as likely, maybe more likiely, that this is a one-off incident, by either a defective bottle, if new, or it took an impact, resulting in a tiny crack that eventually blew.

The other question, for your username, do you refer to car fenders or Strat / Tele Fenders?

 

[brewfrog]

maybe the temperature when the wort was poured in was 135-145 degrees? which is a little high. or too much sugar or wheat.

 

[IslandLizard]

Never know until you test.

And thoroughly!

When I started I always bottled in bombers. It was quicker, fewer bottles to clean and fill!
I even had a motel owner fish my empty bombers from his dumpster when his room service had been a little too fastidious...

I found bombers to be the perfect size. Except maybe for very strong beers. Nah!

 

[smata67]

2500 bottlings and I have had one bottle failure. Bottom also blew out, but more cleanly, a perfect disc. The 12oz shorty bottle was from a batch of San Miguels I got off craigslist from a service member. He said they had been lugged around the world a few times. They would be about 20 years old, that one gave up the ghost about 10 years ago. They are nice and heavy, not quite as heavy as Achouffe, but more so than the common bottles, even the SM available here. I use them often and have not had any issues with them since.

 

[SFC Rudy]

Looks like that bottle has been dropped or beat against something that weakened it. I had a bottle bomb once and it was like a hand grenade, I pulled about 20 pieces of shrappnel out of my legs after that one.

 

[fendersrule]

Thanks guys! Yep, I'll be sure to update. In-fact, this weekend would mark 3 weeks, so I'll pop a couple in the fridge and give it a whirl.

I cool off my priming sugar/liquid in an ice bath for about 20 minutes or so. I definitely make sure to give it a good stir.

So yea, maybe a compromised bottle. May also be a dirty bottle.

 

[fendersrule]

Added two bottles in the fridge yesterday. I'll be trying them tomorrow night. Results to come.

 

[fendersrule]

No problems with one I just opened...