First Bottle Bomb

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Aggie_JD

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Well, I guess it happens to the beat of us sometimes. It blew the bottom section right off the bottle and the cap is still intact! I thought my fermentation had stalled but it apparently had a mind of its own. Fortunately most of the carnage was contained by the towel underneath the box.

I think I'll be moving the rest of this batch to my spare bathtub.
 
So what do you think caused the problem? What style were you brewing, what was your gravity at bottling, how much and with what did you prime?
 
It was an Irish Summer Ale kit that was my first partial mash. I got it from Austin homebrew. OG was 1.055. It stayed in the primary for 3 weeks. I measured 1.020 which was a bit high, but it held for three days and this style wasn't supposed to be that high ABV so I thought it should be ok.

Primed with their standard amount of corn sugar which I believe is 3/4 cup.
 
I was asking because different styles of beer are brewed with different levels of carbonation. Also I just wanted to know what was being brewed. One of the greatest parts of a website is learning from others' experience.
 
I checked the website and it is 4.5 oz. of corn sugar that is their standard amount for the 5 gallon batch. I don't think i stated but it was a 5 gallon kit. I will watch and see if any more let go.
 
Aggie_JD said:
I checked the website and it is 4.5 oz. of corn sugar that is their standard amount for the 5 gallon batch. I don't think i stated but it was a 5 gallon kit. I will watch and see if any more let go.

I've always used 1 oz per gallon of beer. The 3/4 cup thing is not accurate cuz the stuff packs. Buy a gram/tenth oz scale and use it. They don't lie.
 
So, not to drag out an old thread, but I only had one bottle explode from this batch. That is until yesterday. After over a month with no issues, I had a bottle from the same batch explode again. I'm wondering if the heat inside the house may have been an issue, it got pretty warm yesterday. I bet the house got up to 80 degrees. Back to the bath tub for the rest of the batch so I can keep an eye on them.
 
put it in the fridge, cool it down and drink it quickly. More will likely come. The warmer temp likely contributed and if you cool it you should be ok.
 
I've always used 1 oz per gallon of beer. The 3/4 cup thing is not accurate cuz the stuff packs. Buy a gram/tenth oz scale and use it. They don't lie.

For most this is probably even a little high of a ratio. I stick to around 4oz per 5 gallon batch. Even if it ends up a little under-primed, it will just take a little longer to carb up, but better than having bottle bombs.
 
I had the same thing - 2 bottles blew on a beer that was a tad overcarbed. But really that's it. I think it was just 2 crappy defective bottles as they likely would have been reused from the same brewery.
 
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