Bottle Bombs! What Happened??

[Lukass]

Hey all,

This is around my 20th batch of beer, an extra pale ale recipe that I concocted for the summer. I've NEVER had a problem with overcarbonation, in fact, it got to the point where I began thinking bottle bombs were a myth, until now...

The weirder thing is, is that only about 4 of the beers exploded (the last 4 that I bottled), and the rest of the pale ales taste amazing – with perfect carbonation. I'm wondering if there was an uneven mixture of priming sugar in the bottling bucket, and if the last few beers got extra settled yeast and sugar? I guess I'm posting this because I want to know what went wrong in the process, and to inform you guys that they can happen!

Here is the recipe if you want to examine. The beer had a great fermentation, and needed a blow-off tube. Twas a tasty batch of beer, and Im still enjoying most of them. I'm just unsure of what happened with those last few beers that were bottled..

Extra Pale Ale Recipe

1.5 lbs 10L Crystal Malt to steep
8 lbs Gold Malt extract syrup
5 oz Cascade Hops
1 tsp Irish Moss @ 15 minutes before end of boil
1 tsp yeast nutrient @ 15 min before end of boil
WLP001 California Ale – used yeast starter

– 4 gallons water. Steep Grains until water reaches 170

– 4 lbs Gold Malt @ 60 min
– 2 oz Cascade Hops @ 60 min

– 4 lbs Gold Malt @ 30 min
– 1 oz Cascade Hops @ 30 min

– Add Irish Moss and Yeast nutrient @ 15 min

– 1 oz cascade hops @ 1 min

Pitched yeast starter and aerated well.

1 week in Primary.

Add another 1 oz cascade as dry hop to secondary. 10 days in secondary.

5 oz priming sugar @ bottling

 

[BargainFittings]

Sounds like you had some extra sugar in the last 4 bottles. Uneven carbonation is usually caused by that.

 

[DogboyBrew]

wow...they do exist

 

[flars]

It does seem it may have been uneven mixing of the priming sugar with only four of the last bottles exploding, so far.
I wonder about the one week in the primary. Doesn't seem like enough time to get two consecutive hydrometer samples to determine if FG was reached before racking to a secondary.
Incomplete fermentation could be part of the problem.

 

[thegreatmaibockaddict]

If all the other beers taste fine with good carbonation, then you either have an infection in those few bottles, or uneven sugar.

Pour the priming sugar in the bucket first, then siphon the beer onto it.

 

[Malty_Dog]

If it is uneven sugar levels in the bottling bucket you could try what I do. After racking to bottling bucket I take my sanitized long-handled SS spoon and very very gently create a small whirlpool to make sure sugar is fully mixed and dispersed throughout. Again this is done slowly and gently without creating any air bubbles. Obviously you don't want to introduce oxygen at this point. Some say its not necessary if you rack properly but I've had very even carbonation since employing this method.

 

[TheCanisDirus]

I just take the sanitized bottle filler stick (attached to the tube and all) and stir the newly racked beer for a few seconds right before starting my first bottle. Been all good.

 

[Lukass]

Thanks guys, I'm sure extra sugar/settled yeast at the bottom of the bucket is what caused it. I normally do the gentle stir after racking onto the priming sugar mix, but skipped this step cuz I figured racking onto it would be enough. I'm making damn sure to stir on the next batch!

 

[Hello]

I stir. Not like it owes me money but gentle and slow. About two full revolutions. I just could not quite grasp that pouring priming sugar on the bottom and racking on top actually effectively stirred the solution into all of the beer. So far, I don't have any complaints about off flavors.

 

[Lukass]

OK, so I'm reviving this post, because I wanted to inform you all of why these bottles bombs happened. Turns out, the priming sugar was mixed evenly throughout all the bottles. BUT, the last few bottles were accidentally skipped as far as being cleaned thoroughly, so they ended up getting infected and became gushers. After rethinking this, I realized they were not cleaned because I started half-assing the bottling process and got lazy towards the end. Also because I tried some of the beer from one of the freshly bursted bottles, and it tasted horrible. Unlike the rest of the pale ales that tasted great.

So, moral of the story is, keep those bottles sparkling clean before bottling!! ....or start kegging.

 

[passedpawn]

OK, so I'm reviving this post, because I wanted to inform you all of why these bottles bombs happened. Turns out, the priming sugar was mixed evenly throughout all the bottles. BUT, the last few bottles were accidentally skipped as far as being cleaned thoroughly, so they ended up getting infected and became gushers. After rethinking this, I realized they were not cleaned because I started half-assing the bottling process and got lazy towards the end. Also because I tried some of the beer from one of the freshly bursted bottles, and it tasted horrible. Unlike the rest of the pale ales that tasted great.

So, moral of the story is, keep those bottles sparkling clean before bottling!! ....or start kegging.

Thanks for closing the loop on this thread. So easy to do, but very few people do it.