Bottle bombs?

[Entrepreneur640]

What does it take to create a bottle bomb? Twice the amount of priming sugar, three times, four?... Or is it far less than that? Never had any bottle bombs, but after a mistake this last time bottling, I may have an arsenal sitting in my house.

 

[ScottG58]

I read somewhere that the safe limit is about 3 carbonation units with regular craft brew bottles. I quickly used an online calculator and got 5.4 oz corn sugar per five gallons at 68 degrees. If your bottles burst at that rate, do not sue me. I was probably insane when I wrote this.

 

[beergolf]

Most bottle bombs come not from over priming, although that can cause them, but more often from bottling before the brew is done fermening. An inextion can also cause bottle bombs.

Most bottles are safe to 3 volumes. if you primed for much higher than that, then. there is a possibility.

How much priming sugar did you use? Batch size?

 

[Entrepreneur640]

Fermentation was definitely done (4 weeks). I used about 3/4 cup of brown sugar. I grabbed the wrong measuring cup when I measured. Smh.

 

[franzy]

What's the ABV on it? Did you take an FG to make sure the yeast was done?

 

[BamaProud]

Is there any video of a bottle bomb in existence? ...or still pictures aftermath? What kind of explosion are we talking about here? Firecracker or roadside bomb?

 

[Entrepreneur640]

What's the ABV on it? Did you take an FG to make sure the yeast was done?

4.8% abv. And yep did a FG reading, good to go.

 

[highgravitybacon]

I read somewhere that the safe limit is about 3 carbonation units with regular craft brew bottles. I quickly used an online calculator and got 5.4 oz corn sugar per five gallons at 68 degrees. If your bottles burst at that rate, do not sue me. I was probably insane when I wrote this.

I've gone unintentionally much higher than 3.5. Intentionally I routinely use 3.5 volumes without an issue. But everyone claims that's too high so don't do it or you'll die.

 

[cooldood]

I wonder what 3 volumes equals in psi???

 

[diS]

It depends on temperature, lower the temperature less psi is needed to achieve certain CO2 volume.

 

[sea1961]

Depends on temperature....Some where around 28 to 30 PSIG,
See chart: http://www.kegerators.com/carbonation-table.php

 

[highgravitybacon]

I wonder what 3 volumes equals in psi???

I know where you're going with this. It's a post apocalyptic scenario. You awake in a hospital in a world teeming with hungry zombies. You need to escape to the country side to meet up with a bunch of hard scrabble country people who fight amongst themselves. The only car you find is an Olds 88 with a flat tire. The donut tire in the trunk is just as flat. You're thinking, "What if I filled the tire with beer, primed it with sugar? I could inflate the tire! I need 55 psi to fill this tire -- how much sugar should I add?"

We've all wondered this at some point.

 

[cooldood]

Highgravity that is just silly. I would not drove an olds 88 I would take a pickup so I could carry more zombie ammo.

I was going to do a test of capping twist top bottles. Instead of all the anecdotal evidence saying never use them I was actually going to test the seals with an air compressor

 

[ebolabrews]

I made a batch of strong irish red ale, about 7.25% abv, 2 and half months ago and its has been sitting in bottles for about 5 weeks. I drink these tasty and moderately carbonated 22oz bottles about once per week.

Two nights ago, at 2:30 am my wife and I heard a very loud crash. It sounded like someone had smashed our back window. I grabbed my home protection device and began looking for broken glass or an intruder... or an animal?? All of the windows and doors were fine but there were shards of brown glass all over the floor in the beer storage room. A 22oz bottle had exploded with enough force to send dozens of pieces of glass in a 12 foot radius from the box the bottle was in. If the bottle had been sitting on a table and someone was closeby they would likely be sliced up Freddy Kruger style.

I think the warm weather reinvigorated the lingering yeast and prompted one grand finally of CO2 producing sex romp. The temp was in the high 70s/low 80s inside and 90+ outside here in Fullerton.

I will try to post some photos

 

[Entrepreneur640]

I made a batch of strong irish red ale, about 7.25% abv, 2 and half months ago and its has been sitting in bottles for about 5 weeks. I drink these tasty and moderately carbonated 22oz bottles about once per week.

Two nights ago, at 2:30 am my wife and I heard a very loud crash. It sounded like someone had smashed our back window. I grabbed my home protection device and began looking for broken glass or an intruder... or an animal?? All of the windows and doors were fine but there were shards of brown glass all over the floor in the beer storage room. A 22oz bottle had exploded with enough force to send dozens of pieces of glass in a 12 foot radius from the box the bottle was in. If the bottle had been sitting on a table and someone was closeby they would likely be sliced up Freddy Kruger style.

I think the warm weather reinvigorated the lingering yeast and prompted one grand finally of CO2 producing sex romp. The temp was in the high 70s/low 80s inside and 90+ outside here in Fullerton.

I will try to post some photos

Oh man!! Sorry for your loss. Haha. I have been keeping my conditioning beer in Rubbermaids to contain a blast, should I ever have one.
We would all love to see photos if you have them! Thanks!

 

[Wolfbayte]

Oh man!! Sorry for your loss. Haha. I have been keeping my conditioning beer in Rubbermaids to contain a blast, should I ever have one.
We would all love to see photos if you have them! Thanks!

I was out of Rubbermaids (they had other homebrews in them), so I put the ones we bottled in Plastics and Aluminum Resealables (for tailgating) in a styrofoam container. An Aluminum lid blew right through the top. I left everything lest I disturb the others, and a week later, we had a repeat (pictured). While the lid from the first blast was found bent against the closet door on the other side of the room, the second lid was lying right near the second, smaller hole on the right side of the picture. Luckily the cooler contained most of the spill. What little blonde beer did spill on the wall is barely noticeable and did not show up in the pic.

In a related note, from the same batch, we lost two 22 oz PET bombers. These were in a big AHS box with foam popcorn that absorbed the spill. Picture of the PET on this thread: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f13/possible-over-carbonated-plastic-pet-bottles-269004/index2.html

View attachment cooler3.bmp

 

[kevstev]

I just had a bottle bomb. To answer a previous question in this thread on whether it was a firecracker or a roadside bomb, I would say it was more like a firecracker, though more like a muffled pop than any loud bang, more along the lines of taking a brown paper lunch bag and popping that- though this bottle was in a six pack holder, inside a cardboard case box. The glass shards it produced were unbelievably sharp, though none penetrated any layers of cardboard.

I dumped the rest of the batch. I think they were infected, every single one of them gushed, and this was a scottish ale- it should have been barely carbonated.

As someone else mentioned in this thread, I think the "final straw" was the warmer temperatures lately. It was sad dumping 25 beers down the drain

 

[catdaddy66]

I made a mistake when bottling my IPA as I had about .5 gallon extra. I added what amounted to double the priming sugar (4 ozs of corn sugar + DME)! Realized it as I was bottling... D'oh!

No bombs but had to split my 12 oz bottles in 2 glasses! Foam for days...


Sent from my iPhone using Home Brew

 

[moreb33rplz]

Bringing this guy back to life. I ended up with 4 gallons, but added sugar for 5 (2/3 cup table sugar). I think that puts me at about 3.2 volume. Here's hoping they don't explode...

 

[BrerRabbitBrew]

I think the temperature and amount of headspace has got to be the cause of most bottle bombs. I wonder if you could carbonate to four levels in normal bottles just as long as the ambient temperature never exceeded 70F. With a slower bottle fermentation the co2 should have time to dissolve into the beer while more is being created. I dunno, I've never tried it.

 

[supermutantbrewmaster]

I know where you're going with this. It's a post apocalyptic scenario. You awake in a hospital in a world teeming with hungry zombies. You need to escape to the country side to meet up with a bunch of hard scrabble country people who fight amongst themselves. The only car you find is an Olds 88 with a flat tire. The donut tire in the trunk is just as flat. You're thinking, "What if I filled the tire with beer, primed it with sugar? I could inflate the tire! I need 55 psi to fill this tire -- how much sugar should I add?"

We've all wondered this at some point.

Not until right now. I should brew a flat tire clone in preparation for the apocalypse.