Bottles exploding

[PhilzBrewz]

Hi all, had a weird experience last night, had 4 bottles of stout explode on me 2.5 months after bottle conditioning was completed. I fermented and bottle conditioned in my house as usual, temp is pretty steady between 65-70 degrees F. 14 days fermentation, 21 days bottle conditioning. All was good until last night. Clearly there was more fermentable sugar than I thought and perhaps I bottled too soon but why the 2.5 month lag? Any tips greatly appreciated.

 

[GFHomebrew]

Hopefully not an Infection is my thoughts maybe some Brett kicked off some later than expected secondary fermentation.

What's the beer tasting like?

Was your Gravity stable at packaging?

What was the Final Gravity reading?

How did the yeast attenuate and was it on par with previous batches with that yeast?

Cheers

 

[PhilzBrewz]

Hopefully not an Infection is my thoughts maybe some Brett kicked off some later than expected secondary fermentation.

What's the beer tasting like?

Was your Gravity stable at packaging?

What was the Final Gravity reading?

How did the yeast attenuate and was it on par with previous batches with that yeast?

Cheers

Thanks! Didn't taste it, too busy cleaning up the mess, but it smelled great. Was planning on giving it till Nov. (6 months) before drinking it. Gravity had leveled off, final was 1.033. Used Safale US-05 (straight from packet, no starter). Never had issues with that yeast before, always hit target FG or damn near.

 

[Minbari]

Thanks! Didn't taste it, too busy cleaning up the mess, but it smelled great. Was planning on giving it till Nov. (6 months) before drinking it. Gravity had leveled off, final was 1.033. Used Safale US-05 (straight from packet, no starter). Never had issues with that yeast before, always hit target FG or damn near.

What was the OG? Cause that is crazy high for final.

 

[GFHomebrew]

Yeah you wanna be hitting close to 80% attenuation with them yeasts lower if in your stout grist you used some crystal malts or mashed higher ...

Remember I'm not pointing the finger man we've all been there so definitely not judging just interested in helping you figure out what's caused this.

1.033 is scary high FG

 

[Ward Chillington]

As a bottler, it took me some 5 years to have a bottle bomb issue; see the "what are you doing in homebrew today" thread for details.

I felt the same way because everything was "usual" and here's the only things that made any sense and that was 1 of these 3 things.

1. Over carbed. I was making a Belgian Mild and upped the carbonation to be in style. I normally do 2.3 to 2.5 volumes and this I did with table sugar at 3 volumes. It worked just fine but somewhere at about 6 weeks after things were done, I had a blow up. Now while it was localized to a handful of bottles, that points to reason 2.

2. Uneven mixing of the carbing sugar in my bottling bucket. I have no way to prove this but it's a possibility that in my caution not to splash and promote oxidation while transferring from my fermenter into my bottling bucket and adding my sugar water to the bucket, I did not sufficiently blend things. Had I completely overcharged the batch, I think I would have had more problems.

3. Worn out bottles. I'm a cheap bastard and I reuse 12 oz bottles that I have collected long the way. I have only ever purchased 22oz bombers from the LHBS and have a small handful of trash can adoptions of them. But I have noticed that all commercial reuse bottles are not equal. Some are heavier than others and I believe that is due to a thicker wall. They are the same height and shape but up to 3/4 of an ounce heavier so that's gotta be the sidewall of a beefier bottle.. I think I found my older and weaker bottles.

I hope that helps!

 

[Donoroto]

...and how was FG measured?

refrigerating the bottles will definitely take a lot of the pressure off of the glass and you shouldn't have any more explosions.

And, thank you for not tasting beer that has broken glass in it. I know it was tempting, but…

 

[PhilzBrewz]

What was the OG? Cause that is crazy high for final.

1.08 was the OG

 

[PhilzBrewz]

Yeah you wanna be hitting close to 80% attenuation with them yeasts lower if in your stout grist you used some crystal malts or mashed higher ...

Remember I'm not pointing the finger man we've all been there so definitely not judging just interested in helping you figure out what's caused this.

1.033 is scary high FG

1.08 was the OG. I may have been hasty in pulling outta the primary, LOL!

 

[PhilzBrewz]

...and how was FG measured?

refrigerating the bottles will definitely take a lot of the pressure off of the glass and you shouldn't have any more explosions.

And, thank you for not tasting beer that has broken glass in it. I know it was tempting, but…

FG measured at bottling, the last bottle that wasn't able to fill. Yeah, I cooled everything down fast! Thanks!

 

[PhilzBrewz]

As a bottler, it took me some 5 years to have a bottle bomb issue; see what are doing in homebrew today thread for details.

I felt the same way because everything was "usual" and here's the only things that made any sense and that was 1 of these 3 things.

1. Over carbed. I was making a Belgian Mild and upped the carbonation to be in style. I normally do 2.3 to 2.5 volumes and this I did with table sugar at 3 volumes. It worked just fine but somewhere at about 6 weeks after things were done, I had a blow up. Now while it was localized to a handful of bottles, that points to reason 2.

2. Uneven mixing of the carbing sugar in my bottling bucket. I have no way to prove this but it's a possibility that in my caution not to splash and promote oxidation while transferring from my fermenter into my bottling bucket and adding my sugar water to the bucket, I did not sufficiently blend things. Had I completely overcharged the batch, I think I would have had more problems.

3. Worn out bottles. I'm a cheap bastard and I reuse 12 oz bottles that I have collected long the way. I have only ever purchased 22oz bombers from the LHBS and have a small handful of trash can adoptions of them. But I have noticed that all commercial reuse bottles are not equal. Some are heavier than others and I believe that is due to a thicker wall. They are the same height and shape but up to 3/4 of an ounce heavier so that's gotta be the sidewall of a beefier bottle.. I think I found my older and weaker bottles.

I hope that helps!

vert helpful, thanks!

 

[GFHomebrew]

1.08 was the OG. I may have been hasty in pulling outta the primary, LOL!

Woops I think so !

So this screen shot rekons just 57%
attenuation.

And this is what 75% looks like
1.019 fg but even that is being a bit lenient

Wow it's a big beer either way!

 

[Minbari]

FG measured at bottling, the last bottle that wasn't able to fill. Yeah, I cooled everything down fast! Thanks!

I think they meant by what device you measured it.

 

[Blackmuse]

FG measured at bottling, the last bottle that wasn't able to fill.

Herein lies the issue:
Always measure before you start bottling.

Sounds like you've brewed enough beer to have created a pretty reliable routine and this batch just didn't conform to how your other beers matured. Either this batch just needed more fermentation time due to the higher OG or the yeast was sluggish (possibly due to high OG and lack of nutrients).

The lag is most likely due to the yeast not having enough nutrients in such a high gravity situation... This can cause them to struggle with the remaining wort and continue chewing away at sugars at a much slower rate. Is this the first "big" beer you've done? I usually give my bigger beers more nutrients and a bit of aeration (oxygen) at the start - if pitching straight from a packet. My preferred method is to rack big beers (like double bock) onto the yeast cake of a previous batch. I brew a standard beer and 2-3 weeks later brew a big beer and rack off+on right on brew day.

How much yeast did you use? If it was just one packet that may have been it even with enough nutrients... 1.080 would need 2 packs minimum.

As for what to do now....? Cooling them down is a great start. I imagine drinking them might be in order...
Crack and recap? I haven't bottled in a long time and this question is probably best answered by someone else..... lol

 

[Donoroto]

FG measured at bottling, the last bottle that wasn't able to fill. Yeah, I cooled everything down fast! Thanks!

Hi! Not when, but by which method, e.g. hydrometer, refractometer...

The reason I ask, is because 1.033 is kind of high for that yeast. If you measured using a hydrometer, then it's possible that not all the sugar was consumed. However, if a refractometer was used, that seems like a fairly normal number, because in the presence of alcohol a refractometer will always read higher.

 

[Mmmm Bier]

Are your bottles clean?

I got lazy for a while and only rinsed and dried my bottles after the pour. Then I would sanitize and refill. I started having gushers with beer that had been in the bottle for about two months or longer. Went back to scrubbing bottles with a brush and now no more problems.

 

[PhilzBrewz]

Hi! Not when, but by which method, e.g. hydrometer, refractometer...

The reason I ask, is because 1.033 is kind of high for that yeast. If you measured using a hydrometer, then it's possible that not all the sugar was consumed. However, if a refractometer was used, that seems like a fairly normal number, because in the presence of alcohol a refractometer will always read higher.

Thanks! I used a hydrometer.

 

[PhilzBrewz]

Herein lies the issue:
Always measure before you start bottling.

Sounds like you've brewed enough beer to have created a pretty reliable routine and this batch just didn't conform to how your other beers matured. Either this batch just needed more fermentation time due to the higher OG or the yeast was sluggish (possibly due to high OG and lack of nutrients).

The lag is most likely due to the yeast not having enough nutrients in such a high gravity situation... This can cause them to struggle with the remaining wort and continue chewing away at sugars at a much slower rate. Is this the first "big" beer you've done? I usually give my bigger beers more nutrients and a bit of aeration (oxygen) at the start - if pitching straight from a packet. My preferred method is to rack big beers (like double bock) onto the yeast cake of a previous batch. I brew a standard beer and 2-3 weeks later brew a big beer and rack off+on right on brew day.

How much yeast did you use? If it was just one packet that may have been it even with enough nutrients... 1.080 would need 2 packs minimum.

As for what to do now....? Cooling them down is a great start. I imagine drinking them might be in order...
Crack and recap? I haven't bottled in a long time and this question is probably best answered by someone else..... lol

Thanks, very helpful!

 

[Ward Chillington]

As for what to do now....? Cooling them down is a great start. I imagine drinking them might be in order...
Crack and recap? I haven't bottled in a long time and this question is probably best answered by someone else.....

I took the cool them down route. Put them in a "blast proof" container then into the fridge with them! I used a small Igloo Playmate, take care on opening them, you could still get a gusher ...open them over the sink and have a dish towel over your bottle...serve in a iced mug...a room temp glass will foam up.

A lotta work but it beats a dumper.....did I mention that I'm a cheap bastard?

 

[BarbarianBrewer]

FG measured at bottling, the last bottle that wasn't able to fill. Yeah, I cooled everything down fast! Thanks!

What method of priming do you use? Priming solution in the bottling bucket or adding carbonation drops to each bottle? Was the gravity reading taken before or after you added the priming solution?