I found my first bottle bombs yesterday. Am I part of the club now?
Luckily, it was only a root beer, and not a real beer. Otherwise, I would be weeping now (my ESB is happily fermenting away).
I think that it was a combination of root beer having tons of sugar, and the bottles being stored at a high temperature (air conditioner has not been installed yet). I opened the closet and wow, what a smell. I guess 3 or 4 bottles had burst and drained their liquid, which then kept fermenting, aided by all sorts of wild wee beasties.
I was amazed at the fragmentation of the bottles though, I expected pieces, but not a fine dusting of glass particles. I guess it takes a lot of pressure to burst a glass bottle. I eventually decided that the whole batch was probably going to go, so I started popping the tops off of the unexploded bottles, boy were they gushers. I ended up covered in root beer.
Being the genius that I am, I always bottle condition my beers in a cardboard yeungling box inside those clear plastic boxes with snap on lids. This kept all the liquid (and the explosions) contained, so clean up was fairly simple.
Unfortunately, we had made this root beer from scratch: sassafras, sarsaparilla, wintergreen, star anise, vanilla, juniper berries, ginger, hops, molassas, sugar, honey. Fortunately, it tasted terrible so it was no huge loss.
Luckily, it was only a root beer, and not a real beer. Otherwise, I would be weeping now (my ESB is happily fermenting away).
I think that it was a combination of root beer having tons of sugar, and the bottles being stored at a high temperature (air conditioner has not been installed yet). I opened the closet and wow, what a smell. I guess 3 or 4 bottles had burst and drained their liquid, which then kept fermenting, aided by all sorts of wild wee beasties.
I was amazed at the fragmentation of the bottles though, I expected pieces, but not a fine dusting of glass particles. I guess it takes a lot of pressure to burst a glass bottle. I eventually decided that the whole batch was probably going to go, so I started popping the tops off of the unexploded bottles, boy were they gushers. I ended up covered in root beer.
Being the genius that I am, I always bottle condition my beers in a cardboard yeungling box inside those clear plastic boxes with snap on lids. This kept all the liquid (and the explosions) contained, so clean up was fairly simple.
Unfortunately, we had made this root beer from scratch: sassafras, sarsaparilla, wintergreen, star anise, vanilla, juniper berries, ginger, hops, molassas, sugar, honey. Fortunately, it tasted terrible so it was no huge loss.
and when i poured a sample last week from another bottle i got 2/3 glass of foam.
