xenomaniac
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- Joined
- Jan 6, 2013
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So I woke up this morning and got a text from my roommate. Apparently he suspected one of the bottles was leaking and didn't have time to clean it up. I investigated and turned out one of my bottles exploded from the bottom! The recipe I'm using is from the lemon lime hefeweizen that is found here on the board (https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f36/first-all-grain-brew-lemon-lime-hefeweizen-314016/).
I talked to Austin Home Brew and the gentleman asked a lot of questions. We both came to the conclusion that it was the integrity of the bottle. First time this has ever happened to me. I usually use 4.5 oz of sugar but, when I told the guy I was making 6 gallons instead of 5, he threw in another .5 oz to be sure. I'm confident that I used the right amount of sugar so that shouldn't be a problem. I did hit my FG as well so it's not under fermented. The last time I didn't hit my final gravity, I got way too much carbonation but, no bottles exploded. Although most of the bottles from that brew were stored in plastic bottles and plastic expands better than glass. My roommate and I do heat up the house when no one is home to 85 F from 76 F so that could have had something to do with it as well. Any ways, put the rest in a small pool of water in the tub to help prevent that. Plus if it does blow, it will be in a tub instead of all over the closet. Going to throw out all the recycled bottles when brew is done and just go out and buy brand new ones instead. The one that blew was a 1 pint, 6 oz New Belgium Indian Pale Ale. Glass wasn't as thick compared to the home brew store bought bottles from what I noticed. 22oz gone, another 5.8 gallons left.
I'm thinking after this incident I should probably stick to plastic bottles instead seeing that they expand better than glass (although glass does look nicer). I also think that the sugar from the Simply Limeaid that was added at the end could have added more sugar for the carbonation so I probably should have used less. What do y'all suspect? Suggestions for next time (I do want to make this brew again in the future)?
I talked to Austin Home Brew and the gentleman asked a lot of questions. We both came to the conclusion that it was the integrity of the bottle. First time this has ever happened to me. I usually use 4.5 oz of sugar but, when I told the guy I was making 6 gallons instead of 5, he threw in another .5 oz to be sure. I'm confident that I used the right amount of sugar so that shouldn't be a problem. I did hit my FG as well so it's not under fermented. The last time I didn't hit my final gravity, I got way too much carbonation but, no bottles exploded. Although most of the bottles from that brew were stored in plastic bottles and plastic expands better than glass. My roommate and I do heat up the house when no one is home to 85 F from 76 F so that could have had something to do with it as well. Any ways, put the rest in a small pool of water in the tub to help prevent that. Plus if it does blow, it will be in a tub instead of all over the closet. Going to throw out all the recycled bottles when brew is done and just go out and buy brand new ones instead. The one that blew was a 1 pint, 6 oz New Belgium Indian Pale Ale. Glass wasn't as thick compared to the home brew store bought bottles from what I noticed. 22oz gone, another 5.8 gallons left.
I'm thinking after this incident I should probably stick to plastic bottles instead seeing that they expand better than glass (although glass does look nicer). I also think that the sugar from the Simply Limeaid that was added at the end could have added more sugar for the carbonation so I probably should have used less. What do y'all suspect? Suggestions for next time (I do want to make this brew again in the future)?
