Bursting bottles: Urban Legend or yeah, it can happen?

[SkipMorrow]

A friend of mine has a friend (isn't it always like that?) that says one time he had a batch of homebrew that he screwed up and his bottles exploded. Is that really possible? If you were going to do it on purpose, what would you do?

 

[HumulusHead]

Draino+tinfoil

 

[HumulusHead]

Jk.

If you add too much sugar when you prime for carbonation they can explode. It's a real possibility.

Also if there is an infection or if it's not fermented down far enough you can risk gushers

 

[HumulusHead]

Now don't be planting bottle bombs around people's houses...

I'm watching too many crime shows ha

 

[fastengine]

I've had a couple of my early batches leak out the bottlecaps, and were gushers when opened, but never a broken bottle.
Mine were all bottled too early or overcarbed, no infections so I can't say what would happer there.

 

[Billy-Klubb]

Jk.

If you add too much sugar when you prime for carbonation they can explode. It's a real possibility.

Also if there is an infection or if it's not fermented down far enough you can risk exploders

ftfy. bottling too soon and/or infections cause bottle bombs as well, not just gushers.

my grandpa & granny had some 1 gallon bottle bombs go off after my grandpa added too much sugar and then bottled in cider jugs. exploders ain't to be messed with. they're just as/more dangerous than a drunk guy with glass carboy filled with hot wort.

 

[mb82]

I had i happen on a wild beer batch. Apparently the wild yeast didn't attenuate as far as I thought it would. I added US-05 at bottling a year later and well I blew 4 out of 7 bottles. The other three were extremely over carbed. experiment failed.

 

[Zepth]

Can happen. Will happen. No joke when it does happen.

When I worked at a microbrewery years and years ago (before micros were cool), we ended up dumping a batch. 10 hectalitre batch. Converted to imperial that's a few pallets of the stuff. I wasn't the brains of the operation. I don't think the operation had brains. Anyways...

Some of the bottles would literally lift your arm when you popped the cap off. Then gush / geyser all over the place. Seriously. Those bottles can and will hold a lot of pressure. I can only imagine what shards of glass going at that "cap removal" speed would do. What I do know is that I wouldn't want to be anywhere near it.

I had i happen on a wild beer batch. Apparently the wild yeast didn't attenuate as far as I thought it would. I added US-05 at bottling a year later and well I blew 4 out of 7 bottles. The other three were extremely over carbed. experiment failed.

Not sure if I'd agree with failed. The experiment was "conclusive." Results "undesirable."

 

[blaster_54738]

I've only had one burst. I'm pretty sure mine was due to sanitation issues with that bottle and bad bottling practices.

 

[ong]

I had more bottle bombs than I care to admit, in my first couple years of brewing. It can be a really powerful explosion; one went off in my mudroom, embedding broken glass in all four walls of the room, and even in the wood trim. Also broke a window. It sounded like a grenade or something.

 

[Bandit-brewer]

I've had it happen with 1 batch. they were alright as long as they were cold when transported if not the entire neck would explode off the bottle. Not fun at all.

 

[grrickar]

I store mine in Rubbermaid containers while they carb up. If they pop it isn't as dangerous that way (or messy). Cheap insurance...

 

[plankbr]

Here's why it does happen. A lot of first time brewers bottle too early, meaning primary fermentation has not completed. Sugar is added, product is bottled, and fermentation continues inside the bottle plus ferments the newly added sugar. Pressure builds and BOOM, so there ya go...

 

[RichBenn]

Everyone who lived during prohibition had a story about exploding bottles. Something to avoid.

 

[beerkench]

Never had a bottle explode but I did once do the open a bottle with a lighter party trick to an extremly overcarbed bottle, and the cap flew off so fast that it hit me under the chin and left a bruise. Glad it wasn't my eye.


Sent from hell
using Home Brew

 

[boxofjibboo]

Brewed a berliner weisse a while back. Purposely carbed high. I had 5 burst while in the 24 pack cases. I had prepared for that though and taped the boxes closed, as well as stacked other boxes on top. I knew carbing high with plain glass bottles was a possibility for bottle bombs.

Also had a buddy give me some fruit beer. Took it on a trip and after arriving at the house, had 1 explode in the kitchen. Glass everywhere, beer everywhere. Glad it was somewhat enclosed. Would not have been pleasant if nearby.

 

[FatDragon]

They're not an urban legend. Many people on this forum have experienced them firsthand. In my case, I have had one bottle bomb. It was a thin-walled bottle (500 mL German wheat - Paulaner probably), a three-month old brew, and it occurred an hour or two after I moved the bottles, so it probably got knocked in transit and the resulting crack/compromised structural integrity led to the explosion. That's not to say you need a combination of factors like that to cause a bottle bomb, but in my case, that's how it occurred.

Good stewardship of your beer (not bottling early, taking care of your bottles, not overpriming) should all but eliminate the risk of a bottle bomb, but they're by no means a myth. They're no fun to clean up after (sticky beer and shards of glass everywhere) and having one go off in your hand or when you're nearby is bad news, so it's essential to follow good bottling practices as a homebrewer.

To be doubly sure, I always keep towels on top of my filled bottles for at least the first month, and the first bottle gets a couple days in the fridge and I wrap that first bottle with a kitchen towel before I open it so there won't be glass fragments everywhere (i.e. penetrating my various body parts) if it blows.

 

[TheHappyHopper]

If you were going to do it on purpose, what would you do?

That sounds sketchy as hell...

I have had it happen once - I had a batch that didn't end up with a full 5 gallons (more like 4-ish) when it came time to bottle, yet I used the priming sugar calculator as if I had a full 5 gallons (stupid, I know) - so my bottles ended up overcarbed. Luckily nobody was nearby when it happened.

 

[wardens355]

Yeast + too many fermentable sugars + sealed bottle = bottle explosion.

Also:

Bacteria + too many fermentables + sealed bottle = bottle explosion.

Also:

Chuck Norris + bottle = bottle explosion.

 

[Psylocide]

Has anyone been injured by bottle bombs?

I keep seeing "good thing I wasn't near it" etc., anyone been holding one or in close proximity to an extreme example?

 

[wardens355]

Has anyone been injured by bottle bombs?

I keep seeing "good thing I wasn't near it" etc., anyone been holding one or in close proximity to an extreme example?

Luckily I store my primed bottles in either a box or tupperware, so they won't throw shrapnel. I did have a batch that seemed to be on its way to bottle bombs (infection), so I popped them all and dumped them. The last bottle was only 2/3 full or so, and when I popped it, the cap flew past my face, and flew across the room. It was super loud and I always open questionable bottles with safety goggles now. Not an injury though, just a close call.

Awesome idea would be to overprime a bottle, place it in an area that is easily cleaned, and have a video recorder on it until it explodes. Then watch it in slow motion.

 

[mcbar]

Has anyone figured out at exactly how many volumes CO2 bottle bombs will occur? Would make for a useful experiment.

 

[Psylocide]

Has anyone figured out at exactly how many volumes CO2 bottle bombs will occur? Would make for a useful experiment.

It would be wildly different for each bottle... glass thickness, shape, weak areas, etc. etc.

I don't think you could slap a "one size fits all" number on there.... even if the bottles came from the same manufacturer/same style.

 

[mcbar]

It would be wildly different for each bottle... glass thickness, shape, weak areas, etc. etc.

I don't think you could slap a "one size fits all" number on there.... even if the bottles came from the same manufacturer/same style.

Maybe I should stop being a slacker and just test my own bottles

I'm thinking of some of the more commonly used ones, like the brown bombers. Even though there's going to be some individual variation, a rough guideline would be nice. I know they say it's best not to go over 3 volumes unless you're using Belgian bottles. But if it takes 4 or 5 volumes to produce bombs, that's quite different from 3.5

I would never want to toe the line, but I do carb to 3 volumes fairly often. It would be nice to know how much leeway I have!

 

[BlkWater_brewer]

Many moons ago I made a batch of mead that I bottled too early. Out of 50 I think all but a handful actually exploded. I don't mean the cap blew off either, all that was left were the neck (with cap) and the bottom. Cellar smelled go though. Main reason I still only keg except for a few growler fills.

 

[AnOldUR]

Even the pros can explode $hit. :cross:

 

[wardens355]

Has anyone figured out at exactly how many volumes CO2 bottle bombs will occur? Would make for a useful experiment.

From Northern Brewer:
Bottling PDF

Edit: This doesn't tell you where they explode, but does give guidelines on limits.

 

[Psylocide]

Maybe I should stop being a slacker and just test my own bottles

I'm thinking of some of the more commonly used ones, like the brown bombers. Even though there's going to be some individual variation, a rough guideline would be nice. I know they say it's best not to go over 3 volumes unless you're using Belgian bottles. But if it takes 4 or 5 volumes to produce bombs, that's quite different from 3.5

I would never want to toe the line, but I do carb to 3 volumes fairly often. It would be nice to know how much leeway I have!

Yeah... but are you sure that all your bottles are the same thickness? The manufacturing process for glass is like any other, there are faults in the process... one bottle may hold 5 vol, the next bottle off the line may only hold 3 due to a thin spot.

Glass also gets brittle over time.

There's no way to test this using one bottle and saying that it applies to all of them.

 

[atoughram]

I've had a couple burst, latest a bomber in the kitchen at 3am... I thought the dogs were up to no good...

 

[mcbar]

Yeah... but are you sure that all your bottles are the same thickness? The manufacturing process for glass is like any other, there are faults in the process... one bottle may hold 5 vol, the next bottle off the line may only hold 3 due to a thin spot.

Glass also gets brittle over time.

There's no way to test this using one bottle and saying that it applies to all of them.

Could I calculate the exact point at which any of my bottles will explode by testing a small number at different volumes? No.

Could I determine with a relative degree of confidence a range within which most of my bottles will explode by testing a small number at different volumes? I think so.

Could I then carbonate all of my bottles to 0.1 volumes less than that number and be 100% sure that none of them will explode? No, but that's not the point.

I'm not sure that quality control would vary as widely as you say. If that were the case, don't you think we'd see the odd bottle bomb at <3 volumes?

I guess there's only one way to find out!

From Northern Brewer:
Bottling PDF

Edit: This doesn't tell you where they explode, but does give guidelines on limits.

Thanks wardens, that's a helpful reference.

 

[fuelish]

Never had bombs, guess others have, had my first batch of mead pop a few bottle caps (refrigerated the rest of the batch immediately, and they were bad gushers......this on my first mead attempt, hey, I was a beerbrrewer and figured surely this mead stuff is done fermenting...guess it wasn't...heh) Am MUCH more patient now, no problems since....don't even brew anymore, just make mead solely, and, of course, time is your friend....and MORE time is your BEST friend

 

[SilverZero]

I've had one batch throw a couple of bombs (literally exploded) but at least they were in cardboard boxes in the laundry room. Heard a few pops during the night that sounded not quite like breaking glass in the moment, but maybe in retrospect. Found a couple of shards on the floor the next morning that had made it through the handle holes in the boxes. The bottles themselves (2 or 3 total) were blown in half. These were amber bottles from Deschutes Brewery. I never dumped anything from that batch, but I chilled them very well before opening. Can't remember if they were gushers.

I've also been struggling with gushers in other batches lately. It's inconsistent which bottles will go, some are almost flat and some are geysers. A few will just foam up and foam and foam until the bottle is empty. I stir the priming sugar really well, so I've got something else going on. I haven't thought about it much since I moved to kegging, but if it's a sanitation issue I should probably give it some consideration. I'm rebuilding my brewery at the moment, so hopefully I'll get rid of anything hiding in the system.

One of the local breweries here in Bend had a recall last year of one of their distributed batches due to overcarbing. They published a whole safety procedure on how to dispose of bottles if you didn't want to return them to the brewery.

 

[WichitaBrewer]

A few months ago, I had some bottles of my first couple of attempted beers, still, so I wanted to see if they were any good. The first couple of Oatmeal Stouts gushed pretty bad, and smelled like sour cherry pie. When I got to the third or fourth, the cap came blasting off and beer flew onto the ceiling, kitchen cabinets, the fridge and floor behind me, etc.. I took the rest of the bottles out to the backyard, pointed them away from me, and opened them. One made a large popping noise and the cap flew over the fence and I could hear it hit my neighbor's house.

I keg now, so I'm going to be mostly doing that.. But when I do bottle, I'll definitely be opening them at a regular enough interval to make sure they aren't infected.