Bottle Bombs?

[lexuschris]

Hey all,

Yesterday, I bottled my latest gruit beer and today I heard the first loud pop. Yup, bottle burst and made a mess everywhere.

It has been a while since I used my bottling bucket and corn-sugar to carb, so did I get this wrong? I dissolved 5oz of corn-sugar in water, and added it to the 5.5 gal batch. That should put me in the 2.5-2.6 vol of CO2 right?

I did check the finishing gravity before I bottled, and it was 1.009 ... so I don't think there was any residual sugar left, just what I added.

Thoughts? Was this just a weak bottle? Or did i forget something important... ack!
--LexusChris

[brahn]

It's been a while for me too, but it sounds like you got it right. Did you mix the sugar thoroughly with the beer? I know that I started stirring with a spoon instead of just racking over the sugar syrup when I had a few batches that carbonated very unevenly.

[bwarbiany]

Was the sugar evenly mixed throughout the batch?

That said, for a bottle bomb to go off in the first day suggests a weak bottle to me.

[lexuschris]

I usually just add the syrup to the bottling bucket before racking the beer in there. This time, I remembered just when I started the siphon, so added it as the 1st gallon was going in. I've not really had a problem with un-even carbonation before ... but it is always a possiblity...

I moved the bottles into the garage inside a plastic bin to catch any leakage... we'll have to see. Not much I can do about it now ..right?
--LexusChris

[maltbarley]

Wear Safety Glasses!

[backhousebrew]

Hey all,

Yesterday, I bottled my latest gruit beer and today I heard the first loud pop. Yup, bottle burst and made a mess everywhere.

It has been a while since I used my bottling bucket and corn-sugar to carb, so did I get this wrong? I dissolved 5oz of corn-sugar in water, and added it to the 5.5 gal batch. That should put me in the 2.5-2.6 vol of CO2 right?

I did check the finishing gravity before I bottled, and it was 1.009 ... so I don't think there was any residual sugar left, just what I added.

Thoughts? Was this just a weak bottle? Or did i forget something important... ack!
--LexusChris

Was the 5oz of sugar by weight or volume? How long did you boil it?
Have any more bottles exploded?
Could have been some airborne yeast that got in that one bottle.
I had a batch that started exploding but it was months after I bottled them. I removed the caps and put a sanitized sheet of alum foil over the tops and let them foam over, then recapped with new sanitized caps.
If all the bottles are conditioned enough, put them in the fridge to halt the yeast.

[lexuschris]

Was the 5oz of sugar by weight or volume? How long did you boil it?
Have any more bottles exploded?
Could have been some airborne yeast that got in that one bottle.
I had a batch that started exploding but it was months after I bottled them. I removed the caps and put a sanitized sheet of alum foil over the tops and let them foam over, then recapped with new sanitized caps.
If all the bottles are conditioned enough, put them in the fridge to halt the yeast.

Good to hear that you can save a batch by letting them de-gas and recap!

I have had no further explosions at this point... so I'm thinking it was just the one bottle. Maybe that was the one that got most of the yarrow sap!

A heady gruit no doubt....
--LexusChris

[bwarbiany]

I have had no further explosions at this point... so I'm thinking it was just the one bottle.

FYI at one point one of the guys on HBT did an experiment with head pressure during bottle conditioning. During the early stages of bottle conditioning, he registered as much as 30+ psi before that gas was fully absorbed by the beer.

I'm guessing you had a weak bottle.