Bottle Bombs (does it effect all?)

[ddicker60]

My Zombie Dust clone has had two bottles blow. I am worried that this is going to be a problem for the whole fifty other bottles. Will it be? I have heard so much and I don't want to have this issue. I know that we used too much priming sugar (around half a cup). Is the rest of it doomed?

 

[Thunder_Chicken]

About 1/2 a cup of table sugar doesn't sound like too much for a 5 gallon batch - that is about 2.3 volumes CO2 by the Northern Brewer Calculator. What kind of sugar did you use? You should try to weigh the sugar vs. going by volume.

How long was your beer in primary? What was its final gravity?

 

[GenIke]

Yeah, My first guess would be the FG.

 

[ddicker60]

it was 1.008, was in primary for 10 and secondary for a week. it was table sugar

 

[pheasant39]

I had the same problem it was because I bottled to soon

 

[Thunder_Chicken]

If the gravity was truly stopped at 1.008, the other possibilities are that the priming sugar was not dissolved completely. You might have half bottle bombs, half flat beer. 5 beers will be *perfectly* carbonated - good luck finding them. Wear full body ballistic protection when going near those beers. You may want to cover them in a thick tarp, put them somewhere where they can blow up without causing any damage and let them blow. You can try popping the caps but I'd rather take a job in the bomb squad myself. Be careful.

 

[TNGabe]

If the gravity was truly stopped at 1.008, the other possibilities are that the priming sugar was not dissolved completely. You might have half bottle bombs, half flat beer. 5 beers will be *perfectly* carbonated - good luck finding them. Wear full body ballistic protection when going near those beers. You may want to cover them in a thick tarp, put them somewhere where they can blow up without causing any damage and let them blow. You can try popping the caps but I'd rather take a job in the bomb squad myself. Be careful.

I would consider this to be slightly alarmist. Did you cold crash and bottle the beer cold? I've had problems getting even carb with cold beer, where I could see a bunch of thick sugar syrup at the bottom of the bucket after bottling. The only bottle I've ever had explode was the last one filled from a batch of brett beer that was straight from the fridge. The rest of the batch has slowly become very carbed, but only the bottle that got way too much sugar exploded.

 

[ddicker60]

I don't cold crash. I live in a apartment, my dad keeps everything. I noticed that what was left in the bucket when I tasted some had a lot of granule feel to it. I am hoping that those last few were the issue. I am assuming this is what happened. I also think that some of our bottles are pretty old, and hoping they just needed to be retired.

 

[Thunder_Chicken]

I would consider this to be slightly alarmist.

Maybe. But he *should* be careful around those things. A face full of beer and glass shards is not a happy thing. I'm a bit paranoid about bottle conditioning because I can visualize this scenario. I'm good about making sure the beer is done fermenting, but how do you really know your sugar is well mixed? I stir the dickens out of the sugar and even then I put my bottles in a safe place to condition, just in case. No bombs yet, knock on wood.

 

[TNGabe]

I don't cold crash. I live in a apartment, my dad keeps everything. I noticed that what was left in the bucket when I tasted some had a lot of granule feel to it. I am hoping that those last few were the issue. I am assuming this is what happened. I also think that some of our bottles are pretty old, and hoping they just needed to be retired.

Ohhhh, you didn't make a syrup and just added table sugar? Try making a syrup and you'll get much better results. It wouldn't be a bad idea to put the rest somewhere to contain any possible mess/debris just in case, though if it's been a few days since the other ones popped you should be fine.

 

[mr_rogers]

I think that you should definitely be careful. Took a bottle out of my pantry and put it on the table and when i turned around to grab another cold beer from the fridge the room temp one on the table exploded. I found glass on the other side of the apartment and I still have a gouge in my ceiling where a 4inch piece of the bottle stuck in. I used a scale to measure so I probably didn't mix it into the beer well enough. You should be careful. Flying glass could get an eye if you're not careful.

 

[Thunder_Chicken]

I don't cold crash. I live in a apartment, my dad keeps everything. I noticed that what was left in the bucket when I tasted some had a lot of granule feel to it. I am hoping that those last few were the issue. I am assuming this is what happened. I also think that some of our bottles are pretty old, and hoping they just needed to be retired.

Using granulated sugar straight would do it. +1 to dissolving the sugar in hot water before priming. Much easier to stir in evenly, and it will even diffuse into the solution given time. If you can't cold crash, cover them in a heavy tarp and put them in the coolest place you can find. If you're lucky those two might be the only ones you lose. Be safe.

 

[ddicker60]

i did dissolve it. that was the thing. It's only been two bottles. The rest are in a cold fridge right. We are taking some to a family reunion, I am hoping that it will be okay

 

[Thunder_Chicken]

i did dissolve it. that was the thing. It's only been two bottles. The rest are in a cold fridge right. We are taking some to a family reunion, I am hoping that it will be okay

Are they your in-laws?

 

[ddicker60]

haha, nope. If we have more bombs, then we will have to figure it out