sigh... exploding beer bottles

[Pauliwankenobi]

hey guys,

i was primary fermenting an IPA for a month. my hydrometer broke, and i figured that it was a good enough time to bottle my beers since it had been over 4 weeks since brew day.

welp, yesterday, i found a broken bottle in my closet where my beers are bottle-conditioning... on another bottle, apparently the bottle-cap was not airtight, so there was a hissing sound coming from the lid. i opened the bottle for kicks and the beer shot out like a cannon (it was funny, but it took me an hour to clean the kitchen :/ ).

are my bottles salvageable, or am i just stuck with 40 bottle-grenades?

 

[passedpawn]

Try refrigerating asap. If you can't get them into a fridge, I'd put on some chem goggles and welding gloves and pull the tops and dump.

The ones in the fridge probably won't burst, but if they are gushers you'll be pouring those too.

 

[JohnnyO]

hey guys,

i was primary fermenting an IPA for a month. my hydrometer broke, and i figured that it was a good enough time to bottle my beers since it had been over 4 weeks since brew day.

welp, yesterday, i found a broken bottle in my closet where my beers are bottle-conditioning... on another bottle, apparently the bottle-cap was not airtight, so there was a hissing sound coming from the lid. i opened the bottle for kicks and the beer shot out like a cannon (it was funny, but it took me an hour to clean the kitchen :/ ).

are my bottles salvageable, or am i just stuck with 40 bottle-grenades?

Only time will tell with that. Four weeks should be enough time to ferment out a regular IPA. What was your process for adding the priming sugar? It['s possible that some bottles are super carbed due to poor distribution of the priming sugar. I would put the batch in a rubbermaid container and let it age a little while. This way, any explosions would be contained.

 

[SIXFOOTER]

Put them in an ice chest with ice, that will chill out some of the pressure. I don't know if you could re-cap them, might be worth a shot.

 

[passedpawn]

Put them in an ice chest with ice, that will chill out some of the pressure. I don't know if you could re-cap them, might be worth a shot.

Problem with recapping is usually they are supergushers, making recapping about impossible without a giant mess.

I'd save a lot of time and aggravation and just dump... write off this batch and get busy quick on the next!

 

[Pauliwankenobi]

thanks for the replies! its entirely possible that the priming sugar was not evenly distributed.. i put it in the bottling bucket first and then siphoned the beer in. i guess i just figured that it would mix. lesson learned. i already have the bottles in a cooler. just added some ice to the cooler.

should i give it another good month before i give em a taste? they were bottled exactly one week ago from today.

 

[Homercidal]

I generally stir gently, but completely when bottling, even after a good swirling siphon.

I would taste at least one each week until 3 weeks. That way you can taste the beer as it conditions. You'll probably find that the beer tastes best a couple of weeks in.

 

[Pauliwankenobi]

do you think that theres any change that these bottles are salvageable?

 

[eltorrente]

I'd chill them first, then open a few and see if you uncap without a gusher. If you can uncap, then uncap all of them, and recap after they've warmed up a bit.

 

[Pauliwankenobi]

ok. so basically, if i leave them in the bottles, there is no way of saving them?

lets say that they dont explode any more... one month from now, should they be bottle conditioned more or less appropriately?

 

[mlg5039]

Yeah if no more bottles explode, they should be good and drinkable in about two more weeks.

It could just be that you had one bottle with a weak spot, and one gusher because it was only a week old, warm, and the co2 was not completely dissolved.