What Causes a Bottle Bomb?

[masteroflobsters]

Today, I tried to bottle a 1-gallon batch of beer. For various reasons, I was only able to prime and bottle 5 or 6 bottles, but I'm afraid of a bottle bomb because,

1. I used the amount of sugar used to prime 1 gallon to prime 0.5-0.6 gallons of beer.

2. I stirred my priming sugar with (almost) boiling hot water using a spoon that had been cleaned but not sanitized.

Am I at risk of having my bottles explode before opening? How can I know if there is a risk of that happening?

 

[LabRatBrewer]

So, for what I read here, the biggest cause of a bottle bomb is lack of head space. No where for expansion. With proper head space, it appears rather hard to explode a bottle. I don't have the link, but one user here did a great expriament trying to get a bottle to blow on a web cam. He over primed and placed bottle in hot sun. It never did blow. Quality of the bottle, heat, agitation and too many sugars can all play a role. Did you spill some while bottling? Lose some to sediment? If you had about a gallon when you started, then you are probably ok. Not to say you shouldn't be careful when handling the bottles, but I'd be surprised if you have a problem.

 

[tektonjp]

I'd say you're possibly at risk. You've doubled your priming amount, which means that if you were originally going for 2.5 volumes of CO2, common for many styles, you're now at 4.2 volumes (according to my calculator). 4.2 is on the upper end of hefe-weise style. If you have thin bottles, be careful. If you want a lesser volume, you'll need to uncap and recap the bottles at least once, probably twice, during the priming duration.

 

[RM-MN]

Probably the biggest risk of bottle bombs is bottling before fermentation is complete, followed by infection, followed by over priming. You are getting close to the pressure that may cause some of the bottles to burst with the amount of priming you used. After a couple days from when you primed, uncap the bottles to relieve the pressure and recap them. If they gush beer out when you uncap them, you may lose the batch but avoid bottle bombs. Brewing a new batch is a small cost compared to cleaning up broken glass. Be aware that bottle that explode can throw shards of glass in excess of 30 feet if the bottles are not contained. A cardboard box with a lid will contain the glass but better is something like a Rubbermaid tub with a lid.

 

[Puddlethumper]

+1 to bottling too early as the primary cause of most bottle bombs.

I've made the mistakes of over-priming and bottling too early, and can speak from experience on this one. You almost certainly will have gushers when you open them, and probably won't have a very enjoyable batch of brew to drink. But I would be surprised if any actually explode on you. That being said, I would suggest you dump the batch, clean the bottles and start over.

Sorry!