i read that bottle bombs where scary....

[chrig]

Last night I had to doubly child proof my house as my sister in law came round with some rather active kids...making ours look easy to deal with!

So I bagged up some random bottles in a big sport direct bag, put a pram rain cover over them and moved them from my cool storage spot (living room air vent) in to my nice warm bedroom, at the end of my bed. Probably with a but of disgruntled bottle clanging.

Cue 2.30am, when a bottle of undrinkable 'lemon hooch' detonates with a sound like I havnt heard since I gave up clay pigeon shooting. I found the crown cap at the other end of the room and spent an hour looking for glass shards, whilst my wife panicked that the neighbors might call the police.

Off to a funeral today, somebody more spiritual would look in to it far more than myself :lol:.

 

[pittsy]

Yes i understand all too well , had similar problems about 18 months ago when around 20 bottles started exploding (during the day , must of been a weekend) i had to uncap them as quick as poss in a plastic container while wearing safety glasses and gloves . Around 5 exploded and the rest were gushers , don't want that again .

 

[chrig]

I put the bag outside in the cold, I'll inspect the rest tonight I must have bottled it 9 months ago so I suspect I damaged a bottle or something, although it was the slowest primary ferment in history!

 

[pittsy]

I would open a few random bottles to see if it's the whole batch or just an odd bottle . Did you batch prime , mine exploded cuz i bottled too early plus added too much candi syrup . Lesson learnt .

 

[iceo]

iv not had bottle bombs but i did do a ale in a 5L water bottle with no airlock just the cap placed back on the top as it had come over the top once i hadnt cleaned the threads very well and it got stuck sealing the bottle . i heard a thud as the bottle fell over as it has started to deform. i got the kitchen in time to get in the sink before it went bang but when it landed in the sink the cap failed covering me and the kitchen walls in 3 day old wort. 1.5L of high pressure foamy wort took me over and hour to clean up and had to repaint the wall and ceiling

 

[chrig]

It was just one DJ and a couple have been drunk but I primed each bottle which I won't do again. And if I find any bottles I'll be pouring the horrible stuff away.

I suspect this brew was not finished due to its snail like fermenting.

 

[morethanworts]

Never any problems here (fingers crossed), but I've decided to start raising the temperature up towards the end of brews - a diacetyl rest I guess it would be called, though it has the added bonus of urging the yeast to a conclusive finish. It's something I was advised to do with a Belgian strain, to good effect, and I can't see any reason not to do it with other yeasts too. I don't think there will be any bad esters produced that late on in the fermentation, and if the yeast are going to eat into some of the more complex sugars when the temperature rises, I'd rather find out before bottling!

 

[kentmark]

Only had one bottle bomb and i think its a very apt name. My bottled brews are kept in a metal cupboard. I had one bottle blow up, the top half of the bottle had disintegrated into tiny shards. Luckily it was all contained within the cupboard.

Only one in the batch that did it, i can only guess that it was a weakness in the bottle or i had overprimed that bottle. Planning to batch prime in future now i've got a dedicated bottling bucket.

 

[Stone Cold]

a firkin of beer exploded when i wasn't far away, sounded like a gun go off an painted the room in dry hops, i took the other 11 outside and they didn't take much persuasion to release a 15 foot beer fountain

 

[Vossy1]

If in doubt de cap and re cap to let some pressure out, or just crack the cap off a bit until the C02 escapes and re seal (normally works) :drink:

 

[Robbo]

In the early 80's I syphoned my brew into wine bottles and taped on plastic stoppers to each bottle.

Every bottle exploded when I was out for the day. The beer was dripping through the ceiling......I think I must have bottled it too early and the brew hadn't finished fermenting.

I didn't brew a beer from then until summer last year.

 

[oz11]

In the early 80's I syphoned my brew into wine bottles and taped on plastic stoppers to each bottle.

You must not use wine bottles for beer for exactly this reason. They are not designed to withstand the pressure and will burst.

 

[danb]

I had my first broken bottle last week, went into the shed to turn the fridges down that's carbing up my cider. Opened up to get one out for a sample, there was a big puddle in the fridge that dropped on the floor and under the fridge.
It was a bulmers bottle that I must have knocked cleaning, the bottom had split off cleanly with no shards at all. The edges aren't sharp either which seems weird.

 

[PD]

Its one of the hazards of using second hand bottles...

 

[chrig]

I was talking to my wife today about thw incident and informed her how much safer it would be to use poly pins and a hand pull... "even small pub kegs would be much safer...." :lol:

 

[danb]

Im going to build a kegerator for the shed for the summer months on the garden. But there's no room in the kitchen for one so I'll have to use bottles at other times. Can't complain its the first out of probably 400 used bottles.

 

[Robbo]

In the early 80's I syphoned my brew into wine bottles and taped on plastic stoppers to each bottle.

You must not use wine bottles for beer for exactly this reason. They are not designed to withstand the pressure and will burst.

There's an easy way and a hard way and I always learn the hard way

 

[Rolfster]

I had my first broken bottle last week, went into the shed to turn the fridges down that's carbing up my cider. Opened up to get one out for a sample, there was a big puddle in the fridge that dropped on the floor and under the fridge.
It was a bulmers bottle that I must have knocked cleaning, the bottom had split off cleanly with no shards at all. The edges aren't sharp either which seems weird.

I had this happen. Only thing was it was one of the beers my brother in law took home after christmas......I still don't know which beer it was!

 

[Kinleycat]

Had two bottles "go off" on me this summer.
Both were over carbed lager in the height of the summer, and fortunately in the shed!!!
Still picking up bits of glass even now!!! :whistle:

 

[Tim_Crowhurst]

I have a potential bottle bomb in the kitchen. I'm experimenting with a single J2O bottle and some cider left over from bottling yesterday, to see if the bottle will take a moderate amount of pressure. I primes with 25ml of apple juice, equivalent to about 2.5g sugar, or half what I'd use for a 1 pint bottle.

If it can take the pressure, I'll have a stock of clear glass 275ml bottles for cider making. If it can't I can still use them for wine.