exploding bottles

[falafael]

got up this morning to a smell of beer from spare room where all my beer is kept, one of the bottles had popped open, and all but about 1cm! of beer had spilled out the bottle onto the other 3 crates blow it!!
So, i put 2 crates into the bath to shower the bottles to get rid of the beer all over them, the water was luke warm, that was 40 mins sgo.....1 minute ago, there was a loud bang, i ran upstairs cos daughter playing, only to find another bottle had gone, this time it had exploded..big time!!! Luckily it was still in the bath!, but geeez..when they explode..they explode...odd cos beer was bottled on 20-11-08!!

 

[tubby_shaw]

It would be worth opening one of the remaining bottles from that batch "carefully" and having a smell and quick taste just to make sure you haven't got an infection that has caused another ferment in the bottle :shock:
If not carefully uncap and recap the batch to reduce the pressure in the bottles :thumb:

 

[falafael]

looking at other posts onn here, maybe its the wrong bottle, i am using the clear bacardi breezer bottles and the britvic J20 type.
Think that maybe they are a bit weak?? :)

 

[tubby_shaw]

looking at other posts onn here, maybe its the wrong bottle, i am using the clear bacardi breezer bottles and the britvic J20 type.
Think that maybe they are a bit weak?? :)

Yup that'd do it :)

 

[falafael]

damn i have a lot and i mean a lot of these bottles, looks like got io get some drinking done this coming weekend!! :

 

[tubby_shaw]

damn i have a lot and i mean a lot of these bottles, looks like got io get some drinking done this coming weekend!! :

Enjoy the drinking :drink: :drunk:

But be careful of those potential grenades :shock:

 

[falafael]

damn, another one just went of, and that was a green lager bottle as well from a different batch as well!!

 

[Smod]

I've found that bottles have become thinner over the past year or so. Some maybe the same shape but the industry is trying to be greener with glass usage and the weight of freight.

Anyway, "good" bottles that most homebrewers use (I presume) and that most real ales come in tend to weigh 370 - 410g for 500ml. This is also true for the tall german type returnables (you can tell they're ok as they have a wear mark on them as they rub when they are used again in production). Aldi and Lidl used to have these german returnables but now their bottles weigh 100g less, so obviously they've cottoned on that the more expensive bottles are wasted on us.

So in a nutshell, for me at least, don't use anything less than 370g for 500ml unless you are sure that it isn't over primed and it has fermented right down. Indeed Graham Wheeler in his books never recommends bottling from a primary fermenter but only after secondary fermentation and conditioning in cask etc. This it would seem would be a safer bet for those that can only get the thinner bottles.

Any other comments or corrections welcome.

Also see the the topic on brown bottles.

:thumb:

 

[EskiBrew]

Get them outside in the cold and that should stop them exploding - you can then bring them in when you want to sup :thumb:

 

[falafael]

have just got in from work and thought would have 2 bottles og lager..to drink it up..now, i always put 0.5tsp sugar in a half pint bottle, but when i poured it, i ended up with nothing but a pint of froth! Way way over lively....so, either i put too much sugar in a few bottles, or i bottled it a bit to early..i'm going for the latter myself, anyways, i am giving away some of this 'bad' batch to work friends in next few days!!!
Lesson to be learned here, and thanks for info on bottles smod!!

 

[Parva]

Note that J2O is not carbonated either so the bottle won't be upto carbonation pressures. :)

 

[crouchy]

i had the same prob with my first batch. all froth. mine was from putting to much suger in
the bottles. i switched priming to boiling the suger and adding it to the bottling bucket.
less hasle and should be een carbonation. just make sure you stir it in well if you try it.