First bottle bomb

[supergaijin]

So it finally happened. Had one bottle go pop after 115 brews. Was an old Fischer bottle containing a Xmas brew that I put down a few months back.

My interest though is that I'm pretty sure it was a half-filled bottle. If I recall correctly there wasn't enough to fill completely so I thought I'd fill as much as I could and maybe drink it in the coming winter.

I've noticed that when I've done this before there is a higher build up of gas when opening. I use a mixture of crown caps and swing top lids. If I open a half filled bottle with a swing top, there is an impressive pop of gas and I'm wondering why this is.

Anyone have any ideas?

I'm thinking its more about the increased gas space. The scuba diver in me is intrigued.

Cheers

 

[Agentgonzo]

You're right. It's increased gas space, and thus an increased amount of pressurised gas that gets released from the bottle, hence a larger pop from your swing tops or hiss from the capped ones

 

[supergaijin]

***** - better head downstairs!

 

[Agentgonzo]

I had my first bottle explode during the heatwave when the garage got too hot. Found the top of the bottle in the middle of the floor!

 

[An Ankoù]

So it finally happened. Had one bottle go pop after 115 brews. Was an old Fischer bottle containing a Xmas brew pubs put down a few months back.

My interest though is that I'm pretty sure it was a half-filled bottle. If I recall correctly there wasn't enough to fill completely so I thought I'd fill as much as I could and maybe drink it in the coming winter.

I've noticed that when I've done this before there is a higher build up of gas when opening. I use a mixture of crown caps and swing top lids. If I open a half filled bottle with a swing top, there is an impressive pop of gas and I'm wondering why this is.

Anyone have any ideas?

I'm thinking its more about the increased gas space. The scuba diver in me is intrigued.

Cheers

Wow. Those Fischer (Tradition? swing-top?) bottles are really quite robust. That must have been some pressure in there!

 

[supergaijin]

Wow. Those Fischer (Tradition? swing-top?) bottles are really quite robust. That must have been some pressure in there!

I had a few fairly old ones that came from various friends here in France. But yeah I'd choose one of them over a typical 750ml any night to use on an intruder

 

[supergaijin]

You're right. It's increased gas space, and thus an increased amount of pressurised gas that gets released from the bottle, hence a larger pop from your swing tops or hiss from the capped ones

Is that considered "common knowledge" in the brew community? I'd never heard/read cautionary tales of underfilling bottles before. My intuition would tell me quite the reverse in fact

 

[Agentgonzo]

Is that considered "common knowledge" in the brew community? I'd never heard/read cautionary tales of underfilling bottles before. My intuition would tell me quite the reverse in fact

I wasn't meaning that was why they exploded... Just why you get a bigger pop.

I don't know enough about the chemistry/fluid dynamics to know if the pressure is greater or less if you half fill it

 

[dad_of_jon]

I've fortunately only had 3 over 74 brews or about 3700 bottles. They were all when I batch primed (I individually bottle prime now as it saves me time ) and from 3 different batches 2 whilst conditioning in the house and 1 down the shed. The rest of the beers in the batch were fine, so I put this down to a flaw or a weak bottle. I stopped using batemens bottles (when I used to drink batemans) because 2 of the burst bottles were from batemans. I only use german wheat beer bottles or Belgium bottles as the beers have higher carbonation levels than ale bottles.

 

[phildo79]

You sometimes get extra CO2 produced by an infection. Over enough time, that will destroy a bottle.

 

[Dutto]

Apart from the sheer boredom of washing, sanitising, priming and filling them (*) “bottle bombs” were just one of the reasons I went to stainless-steel kegs!

I still pre-carbonate (to reduce CO2 consumption) but during the carbonation and conditioning stages they are protected with a PSV that stops them being over-pressured.

The PSV caps have been a God send in this hot weather and I can recommend the system.


(*) I moved up from 330ml capped bottles to 500ml capped bottles to 750ml swing-top bottles to 5ltr Kegs to 25ltr and 10ltr plastic Kegs before settling on six 10 litre SS Kegs.

Believe me, the time taken to transfer a 21 litre brew into over 60 bottles makes my blood run cold!

If ever I wonder “Where did the last 60 years go?” I have a ready answer!

 

[MikeB.]

I had my first bottle explode during the heatwave when the garage got too hot. Found the top of the bottle in the middle of the floor!

I had the exact same……boom

 

[Old Fart At Play]

Believe me, the time taken to transfer a 21 litre brew into over 60 bottles makes my blood run cold!

If ever I wonder “Where did the last 60 years go?” I have a ready answer!

Each to their own! It takes me less than 2 hours to bottle 21 litres and I regard it as time well spent (and the last time I had a bottle bomb was in 1975)

 

[supergaijin]

I'm just thanking my lucky stars that nobody got hurt. I found it before the wife. This goes with me to the grave

 

[dad_of_jon]

due to my paranoia, I use a plastic fizzy water bottle filled with the beer i'm condiditioningto tell me when they've done. once the bottle goes rock hard they go down the shed. The beers whilst in the house are either in a cardboard box, a trug or crate with cardboard underneath to soak up any occurances. they are all covered with a couple of old sheets to minimise the consequences of a self destructing bottle. and whilst down the shed they are also protected except no cardboard underneath them but the one on the shelf are behind a curtain.