Exploding Bottles

Greetings all!

I've had a batch of Belgian Strong take a fairly serious turn. The beer has been WAY overcarbonated from almost day 1 in the bottle. I think I didn't let it sit long enough in the secondary (2 weeks). It seemed to be finished as there was no bubbling that I detected in the airlock, but evidently I was wrong.

At any rate, the cause of overcarbonation seems relatively obvious to me, but recent events are a bit of a puzzle. From time to time, I've found a bottle exploded in the garage where I store the beer. Not many, maybe 4-6 total in about as many months. So, I haven't really worried about it much. The beer's been really good if you open it into a bowl and let the foam settle before trying to put it into a glass.

The other day, though, I took a six pack into the house and set them in the fridge and BAM! Just as I set it down, one blew up in my face! No injuries luckily, just glass everywhere and beer all over the fridge. I VERY CAREFULLY took the beer out of the fridge, set it in the sink, and set about cleaning up the fridge when BAM! Another went off behind me in the sink. I covered the whole thing with newspaper and a beach towel and left it sit for a while and all but one of the remaining bottles blew up.

Out they ALL went into the garbage can (again, carefully!). Not messing with that anymore! There weren't more than 6 or 8 left anyway, so it wasn't a huge loss, but sad nonetheless. As they sat in the trash can, though, almost all of the rest of them went off, too.

Now that it's over, the whole episode is pretty comical. After the first couple, I was crawling around on the floor behind the counter to get to stuff to cover them up with! I'm glad nobody else was there to see that! I called a friend and fellow homebrewer and told him the story while I was waiting in another room for the ones in the sink to finish exploding, and he could barely talk he was laughing so hard. At the time, though, it was a pretty frightening experience.

My question is why, all of a sudden, did they start going off like so many bottle rockets? Did they just hit a critical mass all at once? Could bringing them in the house from the garage (where it was really hot, probably close to 100 and maybe 85 in the house) be enough of a sudden change in temperature to cause this? Was it moving and shaking them up just enough? What about the ones in the trash? If anything, they got hotter in the garbage can than they were in the garage?

I suppose the lesson here is to either open and recap the whole batch after the first exploding bottle, or just pitch them, but I didn't think that would work. Would it have? How do you know when it's time to do that? I've had overcarbonated beer before, but never have I had bottles explode. Any other thoughts from more experienced hands out there?

Thanks!

Krista

Reply to
Krista Gibson, DVM
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Greetings Krista,

I would think that it was the movement that tipped the bottles over the edge. What method are you using to add the carbonation sugar before bottling and how much sugar are you adding? Assuming your carbonation sugar amount and method is OK, my advice would be to invest in a hydrometer and wait until you get 2 stable readings over 48 hours before bottling. Also 100degF is not really a good temp to be holding the bottles at during the carbonation phase, I am surprised that the yeast was not killed before the bottles exploded.

Mike

Krista Gibs> Greetings all!

Reply to
Mike

Hi, and thanks for the reply!

I put 3/4 cup corn sugar dissolved in some water in the bucket before bottling for priming.

I'm sure I just bottled too soon. I have a hydrometer, but I never use it as I've never really cared what the original and final SG is. This is a good lesson on why I should use it, though! Thanks for that suggestion.

I brewed this beer months ago, probably 4? maybe as long as 6? It's only in the garage because that's the only place I have room to store beer by the case. Living in the desert, it gets pretty stinkin' hot in there in the summer! I know it's not good for beer to be that hot and it's not my preference, but it's all I have. I'll look into finding it a new home for the summers.

I'd have thought that the carbonation phase was long done, which is part of why it surprised me that these bottles blew up now. I figured that whatever exploding was going to happen had happened, and it wouldn't get any worse. How long does carbonation go for?

~K~

Reply to
Krista

Could be an infection. That can cause over carbonation. If a wild yeast or bateria get into your beer it will ferment things that normal yeast doesn't...causing over carbonation and bottle bombs. If you let it sit in the primary for a week and secondary for 2 weeks it should have been done fermenting...barring a stuck fermentation.

Reply to
John

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