Bottle fountain

[rpt]

I had a very distressing experience last night when I opened one of my bottles of Festival Landlord. After the crown cap came off there was a very long hiss followed by about 90% of the beer fizzing out all over the kitchen work top and on to the floor. What a waste of good beer.

This was the only clear glass bottle I have used. I have opened several PET and brown glass bottles with no problems - all have been nicely carbonated. I can't believe the bottle being clear has anything to do with it. This kit comes with 100g of dextrose for priming. Perhaps this bottle had more than the others which is odd as I batch prime. Maybe the sugar didn't dissolve well in the bottom of the bottling bucket - I normally boil it up with water but for this I just followed the instructions and put it straight in the bucket.

 

[ohbeary]

Glass is rigid so all the energy will have been contained in the brew, with PET's the material absorbs some of the pressure, on opening the plastic relaxes and the beer foams a little, careful pouring maintains condition with minimal foaming.

 

[rpt]

But the brown glass bottles were fine.

 

[bobsbeer]

I think your first thoughts are probably right. The colour of the bottle will not make a difference to carbonation. What about temperature and handling?

 

[ScottM]

It takes a fair amount of stirring to get dry sugar to dissolve in a cool liquid. I was very surprised by just how much time it takes to dissolve 15g of sugar in 1L of cider (backsweetening), it takes AGES for what it is. My guess is that your initial assumption is spot on, as you didn't boil up any water and just put it straight in a fair whack of the sugar will have been left at the bottom and sucked up in the latter part of the bottling.

Can you recall if the clear bottle was indeed towards the end?

 

[rpt]

Can you recall if the clear bottle was indeed towards the end?

No, I can't remember. My worry is there will be other bottles like that. It seems to be another case of where kit instructions are hopelessly wrong.

 

[ScottM]

Can you recall if the clear bottle was indeed towards the end?

No, I can't remember. My worry is there will be other bottles like that. It seems to be another case of where kit instructions are hopelessly wrong.

I'd operate under the premise that there are more yet to come. Each bottle opened over the sink from now on would be all I can recommend.

Are you chilling your beer? It will help lower the pressure of the CO2 if you can chill the bottles as much as possible. May take something away from your brew if it's more of a room temp beer though

 

[graysalchemy]

I would say it was down to the sugar content I have had some over the years like that, but now I make sure that the dissolved sugar is well circulated around the beer prior to bottling.

It has nothing to do with type of bottle or colour of bottle.

 

[rpt]

The beer is in the garage so it's quite cool. Did reach the dizzy heights of 8C in there this weekend.