Bad bottle? (bottle bomb)

[Steve_89]

Hi Guys.

I bottled a Coopers Irish stout on Saturday which had been fermenting for a total of 12 days I brewed it just with the Coopers brew enhancer 3. The Final gravity was 1.012 down from 1.044.

I batch primed primed with 70g of sugar for a 21 litre batch.

Came home from work today to find one of the glass bottles had burst just below the neck.

Anyone else had this issue? and can advise on what to do with the batch? Could it just be a bad bottle?

I checked the gravity on the beer that was still in the bottle that had popped and was still at 1.012 so I'm struggling to come up with an answer as to why it's popped.

Fermentation temp was between 20-22 degrees and bottles have been sat at that temp since bottling (3 days)

 

[Steve_89]

Just to add i took gravity reading 3 days in a row before bottling and was 1.012 each time

 

[VW911]

Open another one, see how carbonated it is...
Might just be a weak bottle.

 

[Hazelwood Brewery]

If you open one, wrap it in a towel, you don’t want shards of glass in your eye - better safe than sorry!

A little bit of paranoia is never a bad thing where health & safety is concerned.

 

[Random Badger]

I've got a stout on the go that is still bubbling away in the fermenter on day 14.

Did you put all of it into glass bottles? It seems to be a good idea to use at least a couple of plastic PET bottles (e.g. 500 ml fizzy water bottles) so you can get a better idea what is going on by squeezing them/loosening the cap or whatever rather than waiting for glass ones to explode!

 

[marshbrewer]

If you open one, wrap it in a towel, you don’t want shards of glass in your eye - better safe than sorry!

A little bit of paranoia is never a bad thing where health & safety is concerned.

This, and if you have some safety specs or goggles, pop them on. Just while you ascertain that they aren't all over carbed.

 

[Steve_89]

So I've just opened another one wrapped it in a towel and popped the cap off a little hiss of carbination but no foaming etc don't seem to be over carbed so I really am at a loss with this one.

The bottles I used are not recycled and I bought them new so maybe I had a bad bottle. (hoping this is the case)

They are stored in cardboard boxes but I have also put a plastic bag around them etc now just incase.

 

[Hazelwood Brewery]

So I've just opened another one wrapped it in a towel and popped the cap off a little hiss of carbination but no foaming etc don't seem to be over carbed so I really am at a loss with this one.

The bottles I used are not recycled and I bought them new so maybe I had a bad bottle. (hoping this is the case)

They are stored in cardboard boxes but I have also put a plastic bag around them etc now just incase.

Did you dose the whole batch or each bottle? If you dosed each bottle it’s possible you over/dosed some and under dosed others? Either dose the batch (assuming you didn’t) or use plastic bottles maybe?

 

[Steve_89]

Did you dose the whole batch or each bottle? If you dosed each bottle it’s possible you over/dosed some and under dosed others? Either dose the batch (assuming you didn’t) or use plastic bottles maybe?

I batched primed. 70g of sugar mixed with hot water placed in bottling bucket before syphoning the batch on top.

I will be using at least 1 PET bottle from now on with every batch going forward to check carb levels.

A lesson learned that's for sure

 

[Hazelwood Brewery]

I batched primed. 70g of sugar mixed with hot water placed in bottling bucket before syphoning the batch on top.

I will be using at least 1 PET bottle from now on with every batch going forward to check carb levels.

A lesson learned that's for sure

Sound!

 

[MontyStory]

Could capping the bottle have put some strain on an already slightly weak bottle perhaps

 

[IainM]

I remember when batch priming once the dissolved sugar/water didn't mix properly with the beer when I syphoned the beer onto it. This resulted in some bottles having almost no carbonation, and others being waaaay over carbonated. I think this was due in part to not using enough water to dissolve the sugar, so it was too viscous to mix efficiently, and because I was syphoning gently to avoid turbulence/splashing/oxidation.

 

[Steve_89]

I try to use recycled glass bottles but been new to the brewing game I've made 10 batches so far in around 4 months to build up stock levels so as you can imagine that's a lot of beer to drink to get some empties so I did also but some new empty bottles. The bottle that popped was one of the brand new ones so my hope is that it may have been a damaged bottle caused in transit and its something I have not noticed before filling.


On the batch primming I dissolved the sugar in a large jug with boiling water it did all look to be dissolved and wasn't a "gluppy" texture but I get where you are coming from I like to avoid the splashing etc and I hope the swirl of the syphoning is enough to mix it but maybe on this occasion it wasn't.

I guess we will find out if it was just a bad bottle or something wrong if another one pops. I've took necessary precautions to make them safe if it does they are out of harms way and in plastic bags to avoid a massive clean up job.

 

[steve123]

I had a bottle explode on me a few weeks ago. I have concluded that it was because I hadn’t stirred the sugar solution in. I added it to my bottling bucket and syphoned in the beer but never stirred it in. A lot of bottles are quite flat, I’ve concluded that it’s because I didn’t stir and the exploding bottle must of been over primed

 

[Sandimas]

Sounds like a rogue bottle.

I've never bought any bottles, all mine are recycled and been used for over 200 brews. Occasionally one breaks, the clear glass ones seem weaker than the brown ones. I've have had bottle bombs in the past but these are usually due to infections which take months to take hold. I can't see how you would have generated excess CO2 in such a short time.

 

[Steve_89]

I hope your right.

Would it be worth moving them to the cold just to make sure? (I store my beer in the shed usually)

Or just leave them at room temps for now? With this been a stout it doesn't need to be too carbed for my tastes is 3 days at fermentation temp enough to get some carbonation in there? (I usually leave them 2 weeks in the bottle at fermentation temps)

First time I've had this happened and I'm still a newbie to homebrewing so when something like this happens it can be a little unsettling.

 

[bobukbrewer]

I put 2 gm brewing sugar into every bottle before bottling - and I use some PET bottles - and I open a 500 ml glass bottle on evening 7 - just for health and safety reasons you understand-----------

 

[moto748]

I had a bottle explode on me a few weeks ago. I have concluded that it was because I hadn’t stirred the sugar solution in. I added it to my bottling bucket and syphoned in the beer but never stirred it in. A lot of bottles are quite flat, I’ve concluded that it’s because I didn’t stir and the exploding bottle must of been over primed

With the best will in the world, I'm not convinced by the Science of this.

Go back a few decades, and *everyone* primed their beer by adding half a teaspoonful of sugar to each bottle. Many people probably still do. And I'm not saying there's anything much wrong with doing that. But nobody ever suggested that the granulated sugar would have a problem dissolving in the beer!

And we worry that a sugar solution might not mix, because it's too viscous! Really?

 

[IainM]

With the best will in the world, I'm not convinced by the Science of this.

Go back a few decades, and *everyone* primed their beer by adding half a teaspoonful of sugar to each bottle. Many people probably still do. And I'm not saying there's anything much wrong with doing that. But nobody ever suggested that the granulated sugar would have a problem dissolving in the beer!

And we worry that a sugar solution might not mix, because it's too viscous! Really?

All I can say is that the idea of a alcoholic liquid sitting on top of a denser sugary one, perhaps with a gradient, is one that many barmen are familiar with.

Also, it happened to me, so I stopped batch priming and started putting in the sugar the bottle, and I know that the sugar doesn't dissolved straight away because I can hold the bottle up to the light and see the granules at the bottom.

 

[Steve_89]

Update on this... Think it was a bad bottle I didn't have anymore explode and the resulting drink although young turned out a cracking drink. Inbetween finishing off a Woodfordes Nog and starting this think my Sunday as turned out great