oh no bottle bombs!

[BeantownR6]

so i brewed up BM sacred summit pale ale.

OG of 1.052 and FG of 1.012 after 2 weeks in primary. did secondary 2 weeks and bottled. yeast was S05.

i tried one after 2 weeks and under carbed. tried one 3 weeks still under carbed, this was friday. yesterday, monday, i rolled the bottles to stir things up to try to get it to carb more. was gonna do the same thing tonight but when i opened my garage i smelled beer and sure enough 2 bottles burst. i closed my cabinet. my garage stays just under 70 or around 70, its been cool here though. i used 4.5 oz of sugar for 5 gallons, thats standard for me. the bottles i tasted were great just under carbed so im not sure why they are bursting. i sanitized with 5 star.

i don't want to touch the bottles now.

thoughts?

 

[BeantownR6]

as i think about it, i don't think i stirred my bottle bucket. i always do but i forgot to sanitize a spoon. i alwasy put the sugar water in first then rack on it, but i didn't stir. i wonder if that is causing the under carbed bottles and the bombs?

siggghhhh.....thankgod my kegging equipment is coming this week i am done with bottling beer.

 

[bknifefight]

I never stir my bottling bucket. I just add the sugar/water mix and rack my beer on top. Granted the carbonation changes after time, but I rarely get large discrepancies in carbonation levels in such a short amount of time.

 

[TipsyDragon]

are you 100% sure you where actually at your FG. just because its been sitting for 2 weeks doesn't mean it is done. always double check your FG readings after 3 - 4 days to confirm you are actually done fermenting.

 

[BeantownR6]

it was done fermenting. im getting inconsistant carbing. bottles that are under carbed and bombs days later after 3 weeks in the bottle. i always stir and the one time i don't this happens. ill let them sit and see if any more blow up. i may try to put some in the refigerator in the garage and try them....if no more blow up.

 

[0202]

Did you clean the bottles THOROUGHLY before bottling?

There could be a few bottles with residual gunk in them overcarbing due to infection.

I had this issue last brew with over/undercarbonation but none ever burst. I couldn't attribute it to anything besides some of the bottle being infected. I had maybe 7 that were overcarbed out of the whole 5gal.

 

[LVBen]

as i think about it, i don't think i stirred my bottle bucket.

That's your problem. After a few inconsistencies in carbonation, I always stir now, but never vigorously.

 

[TipsyDragon]

the one time i had bottle bombs i experienced something similar to you. one exploded so i threw them all in the fridge to cool them down. a few where way over carbed and foamed like mad when opened others where fine or undercarbed. my guess would be if i had let them all go they would all come out over carbed if not explode. in this case the bombs where caused by a friend adding honey after primary fermentation and not letting the new honey ferment out all the way.

 

[0202]

Yeah but racking the beer into a sugar solution will undoubtedly mix it as good or better than stirring.

Edit - As long as you are racking to the side of the bucket and letting the beer "swirl"

 

[mmurray]

In the Past I had the same problem. One time I apparently didn't get a good swirl in the bucket and I had more priming sugar in a few bottles and less in others. My results were the same as mentioned above, some bombs, some flat....

My next batch I stired and had other issues (not sure if it was related to the stiring)...

I said screw it and went to kegging! No more issues!