Bottle bomb

[Jme118]

Just add a nice shock to find one of my bottles had gone boom just as I turned on the heating lucky I had it in my cool box with lid on. But just pulled the others out of the box and thy was freezing cold. But I don't think knocking the bottle over helped it.

 

[joe1002]

How much sugar did you prime with? There cold have been a defect in the bottle.

 

[Jme118]

If I remember right I added 1tsp of sugar to the bottle I did have it in a pressure barrel but it was flat beer as I did not Carb it right in the barrel was new to the home brew at the time so moved what bit of beer I had left to the bottles my friends had been drinking them from the bottles but they was still flat after a week or so. So I just left a few bottles I had left in my cool box wish I had stuck them back in the shed now.

 

[dennisking]

Don't tell al qaeda.

 

[winelight]

Did the glass break or did the top come off?

 

[Baz Chaz]

If I remember right I added 1tsp of sugar to the bottle .....

:nah: at 1 tsp a bottle bomb will not make, I did an experiment and overprimed, 2 x heaped teaspoons (and they were heaped :!: ) lost a lot of the contents when opened, a real gusher, but chipped/flawed bottle is probably more likely :geek:

Well now, first and foremost our intrepid barking scientist (and I use the word scientist in it’s loosest form) is alive and well, albeit would’ve been thirsty if there had been no other ale to hand :whistle:

Secondly this was not a scientific experiment in any way shape or form, just barking baz buggering about :geek:

Not very spectacular at all I’m afraid and this was never meant to provide the definitive answer to the bottle bomb question at all.

So, to reiterate, I filled 2 x 500 ml bottles which were primed with sugar, one heaped teaspoon = 8g in one and 2 x heaped teaspoons = 16g in the other. Prior to actually bottling, the beer itself had fermented well and had been steady for a few days so wasn’t still ‘active’.

Here we go ……. 2 bottles 2 glasses, Tommy Cooper could’ve gone on for hours at this point :lol: and plenty of space, not I’m not that barking as to be doing this indoors. The intention was to get as much as possible from both bottles.

First opened the bottle with 16g of sugar, I flipped the top quickly and there was quite a reaction, probably got away without too much spray because I was expecting far worse than I got. A bit ‘gushy’ as it overflowed, tried to pour quietly, but to no avail, too much head even for a good northern lad. As you can see very cloudy, lot of sediment lifted into the beer.

The second bottle with 8g of sugar, similarly, flipped the cap quickly and although not quite as big a reaction it still had a little ‘gush’ and the sediment was well and truly disturbed. Not much of a problem deciding which was which though :!:

As I said, I flipped them quickly, number 1 would certainly have ‘sprayed’ if I hadn’t been quick, but I was surprised that it wasn’t more violent

Both were bottled on 27th June, they had been in the greenhouse for 10 days so had been very warm, then stored for a further 12 days in cooler conditions.

The only conclusion I have come to, is I think the main thing is to make sure that the brew has finished fermenting properly before bottling, if they'd been bottled earlier when the yeast was still lively this could've been very messy indeed :!: I usually batch prime which works out about 2-3g per bottle and don’t get anything anywhere near as lively as these two.

On a slightly more serious note I hope this has sort of helped people understand a bit of what happens with overpriming or bottling too early :thumb:

 

[anthonyUK]

:nah: at 1 tsp a bottle bomb will not make

I don't think there is enough info to be 100% certain.
What was the SG/FG etc?
In genenal I agree. The fact the heating came on didn't help here though

 

[Baz Chaz]

I don't think there is enough info to be 100% certain.
What was the SG/FG etc?
In genenal I agree. The fact the heating came on didn't help here though

As I said at the time it was not a conclusive result, but would give some idea, think I'll ressurect the 'experiment' this year when the weather warms up.... have a read through here

viewtopic.php?f=36&t=26469

The beer used was an experimental ale

4kg Crisps Pale malt
300g Munich malt
190g Torrefied Wheat
100g Crystal malt
20g challenger @ 90
20g fuggles @ 15
20g EKG @ 15
OG 1.044
Fg 1.011
Safale05
ABV 4.3%

as for heating, after bottling, it was kept in a greenhouse during summer for about 10 days if I remember rightly :whistle:

 

[Jme118]

Did the glass break or did the top come off?

the glass broke

 

[Jme118]

:nah: at 1 tsp a bottle bomb will not make

I don't think there is enough info to be 100% certain.
What was the SG/FG etc?
In genenal I agree. The fact the heating came on didn't help here though

can not give a sg/fg as did not take one when i first did this (was a gift from a friend when i was just getting started

 

[Jme118]

:nah: at 1 tsp a bottle bomb will not make

fact the heating came on didn't help here though

but the bottles was freezing cold they had not warmed to room temp or owt

but it may have been some thing to do with the cooler box see i knocked that may be the bottle fell over and i did not notice o well lucky i have the lid on and no one walked in.

just lucky i have more beer :)

 

[calumscott]

can not give a sg/fg as did not take one when i first did this (was a gift from a friend when i was just getting started

Then I would be quite careful with the rest of those bad boys! If you have bottles that are proven to be, erm, unstable and you have no idea what sort of pressure is in them (because you don't know whether fermentation had stopped or just slowed - you have your priming sugar + whatever wasn't fermented out) then there is every possibility that more of them could go bang.

What bottles did you use and from where did you source them?

 

[Jme118]

Not got none left now and they was Budweiser bottles

 

[rpt]

Not got none left now and they was Budweiser bottles

:wha:

 

[calumscott]

Bud bottles... 300ml?

1tsp? :wha: :shock:

1 LEVEL tsp in 500ml is properly fizzy (8g/l).

1 LEVEL tsp in 300ml is really over the top (13.3g/l)

1 HEAPED tsp in 300ml would be plain mental... (23g/l) Particularly in bottles designed to take a force carbed lager with a precisely known volume of CO2 in it...

Baz??? I think you have some new parameters for the bomb test!!!

 

[rpt]

I've read that you shouldn't refill the small lager bottles although I'm not sure why. I wouldn't fancy bottling in 300ml bottles - I can manage 40 or so 500ml but doing 70 bottles would test my patience.

 

[calumscott]

I do my high ABV brews in bud bottles - so my RIS and a brewferm Christmas have gone in them with no trouble. The stout was primed at 2.5g/l and is actually like a wine with a tiny sparkle, a "petilant" if that. There were 62 of the buggers!!! The Christmas is quite well carbed, it just got bottled at 1.020 with no prime so I have no idea what vols of CO2 might be in there. It doesn't "feel" massively fizzy...

...anyway, Jme118, can you clarify your use of "teaspoon" please?

 

[Baz Chaz]

...anyway, Jme118, can you clarify your use of "teaspoon" please?

I don't know his definition of a teaspoon is but during my experiments I weighed the sugar and came up with

1 level teaspoon, ie scraped level with the back of a knife = 3g
1 teaspoon, ie heaped, as much as you could get on it = 8g

 

[Kinleycat]

I find the children's medicine spoons are really good, the ones with the 1/2 teaspoon on the opposite end especially - as most bottle necks are very narrow for a traditional teaspoon.

 

[calumscott]

*cough* Funnel *cough*

:thumb: