archthered
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Aug 7, 2013
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I have been brewing beer for about 2 years. I have only had one bottle bomb and for reasons involving the mail, no real explosion, and a sibling I'm not sure I get the blame for that one. However I just had multiple bottles break including one that shot pieces 8 feet away and I don't understand why.
I primed the beer last weekend (7/18) and today I had one bottle blow, it completely exploded and shot a piece about 8 feet away. I believe the explosion traumatized the bottle next to it, its cap seemed intact but it was spraying beer out the cap edge. As I cleaned I discovered a third casualty that was broken at the base, basically the base separated from the rest. I'm not sure if the third was a separate incident or was triggered by the shrapnel of the initial explosion. No other bottles have broken since.
I would like to know what went wrong and if I need to take emergency action to prevent the rest from going ballistic. When bottled I used a priming calculator that included beer temperature and was shooting for 2.1 Vols CO2. The calculator told me to use 3.3oz of table sugar (this was my first time using table sugar so I double checked the quantity). My beer temperature was 65F. I did the calculation for 5 gallons of beer but have since realized it was only 4 gallons so I know I added too much, I typically do 5 gal but this has been the cursed beer so I only had 4 and didn't look at my notes to remind myself of this, I know bad brewer
. After the explosion I reexamined the bottling and the notes and re-did the math to see what my mistake resulted in and according to the calculator, and others I checked to see if it was off, I still shouldn't have been at more than 3 vols CO2 which shouldn't be enough to make a bottle blow. Please tell me why this happened. Below I have my own thoughts but please reply with your own thoughts or in agreement with mine. If you just want to skip to your reason feel free, mine is a bit out there.
My thoughts: This beer is cursed! In fact I am planning on working that into the name. When I made this beer it rained into the brew pot, despite the fact that I chose the brew day because it was supposed to be a rain free day. When I chilled the wort the line for my wort chiller blew, in my face and into the pot. As a result I had to to an emergency ice bath in my tub... which resulted in the ball valve on my pot ending up accidentally opening and the loss of a gallon of beer. Despite all this I have avoided an infection.
Anyway I think this curse has continued and the bottle was touched by a dark spirit creating a weak spot in the glass of one bottle which blew up as a result and, by a stroke of bad luck, managed to shake and break the seal of one beer next to it, with shrapnel landing on another, the force causing the base to break.
Please weigh in on a related note the beer taste fantastic. Yes I opened one up after just a week of priming time... after all I know it's well carbonated.
Think and drink deep
I primed the beer last weekend (7/18) and today I had one bottle blow, it completely exploded and shot a piece about 8 feet away. I believe the explosion traumatized the bottle next to it, its cap seemed intact but it was spraying beer out the cap edge. As I cleaned I discovered a third casualty that was broken at the base, basically the base separated from the rest. I'm not sure if the third was a separate incident or was triggered by the shrapnel of the initial explosion. No other bottles have broken since.
I would like to know what went wrong and if I need to take emergency action to prevent the rest from going ballistic. When bottled I used a priming calculator that included beer temperature and was shooting for 2.1 Vols CO2. The calculator told me to use 3.3oz of table sugar (this was my first time using table sugar so I double checked the quantity). My beer temperature was 65F. I did the calculation for 5 gallons of beer but have since realized it was only 4 gallons so I know I added too much, I typically do 5 gal but this has been the cursed beer so I only had 4 and didn't look at my notes to remind myself of this, I know bad brewer
. After the explosion I reexamined the bottling and the notes and re-did the math to see what my mistake resulted in and according to the calculator, and others I checked to see if it was off, I still shouldn't have been at more than 3 vols CO2 which shouldn't be enough to make a bottle blow. Please tell me why this happened. Below I have my own thoughts but please reply with your own thoughts or in agreement with mine. If you just want to skip to your reason feel free, mine is a bit out there.My thoughts: This beer is cursed! In fact I am planning on working that into the name. When I made this beer it rained into the brew pot, despite the fact that I chose the brew day because it was supposed to be a rain free day. When I chilled the wort the line for my wort chiller blew, in my face and into the pot. As a result I had to to an emergency ice bath in my tub... which resulted in the ball valve on my pot ending up accidentally opening and the loss of a gallon of beer. Despite all this I have avoided an infection.
Anyway I think this curse has continued and the bottle was touched by a dark spirit creating a weak spot in the glass of one bottle which blew up as a result and, by a stroke of bad luck, managed to shake and break the seal of one beer next to it, with shrapnel landing on another, the force causing the base to break.
Please weigh in on a related note the beer taste fantastic. Yes I opened one up after just a week of priming time... after all I know it's well carbonated.
Think and drink deep
