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Shaun_the_Conqueror
Trad climber
Arcata, CA
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Topic Author's Original Post - Oct 24, 2010 - 07:36pm PT
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I just had a 1 gal jug of a chocolate oatmeal stout that I had brewed "spontaneously" explode on my counter. There was literally glass shrapnel in the wall and glass found as far away as 20ft in my living room. My only thoughts on how this could have occurred is...
Last night I had removed it from the shelf it was stored on during the bottling phase for 2 weeks. The shelf was maybe 6in off the ground and dark to prevent any light from messing with the beer while it was in the bottling phase. I left it on the counter overnight and maybe the temperature of the jug raised a couple of degrees expanding the CO2 inside. What is strange is that the thing was corked with a rubbed stopper and I was originally thinking that if for whatever reason it was over carbonated, the stopper would shoot out. WRONG! Catastrophic beer explosion!
So just a head's up to any home brewers out there. I won't be bottling into anything more then a 22oz for now on. What a f*#king nightmare of a mess! Not to mention this was my best batch to date >_<
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Reilly
Mountain climber
The Other Monrovia- CA
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Oct 24, 2010 - 07:43pm PT
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Not to mention this was my best batch to date
How do you know? Did you get a straw and suck up the detritus?
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Shaun_the_Conqueror
Trad climber
Arcata, CA
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Topic Author's Reply - Oct 24, 2010 - 07:44pm PT
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How do you know? Did you get a straw and suck up the detritus?
Because I only lost 1 out of the 4.5 gals I made and bottled...
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John Moosie
climber
Beautiful California
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Oct 24, 2010 - 07:47pm PT
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I never brewed beer in one gallon jugs. Always used 5 gallon carboys. I lost 15 gallons in one bad accident. Ack. We used airlocks to let the excess pressure out. Not solid stoppers. But you had to make certain the airlock didn't become plugged. Were you using an airlock, or just a stopper?
Sorry about your beer. That sounds like quite an explosion.
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Tony Bird
climber
Northridge, CA
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Oct 24, 2010 - 07:58pm PT
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no excuse for this happening in arcata--some of the best brewers in california up there. talk to your neighbors.
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Shaun_the_Conqueror
Trad climber
Arcata, CA
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Topic Author's Reply - Oct 24, 2010 - 07:58pm PT
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Were you using an airlock, or just a stopper?
In this case I wasn't using either one. Everything had been fermenting in 5 gal carboy's prior to the explosion and this happened after the 2 week bottling phase. I had 2 batches going at the same time, an IPA, and a chocolate Oatmeal Stout. The IPA was DEFINITELY over carbonated, must have added a little more then the 4oz of sugar required for priming. All of the 12oz bottles of IPA would shoot the caps off when you were opening them. The oatmeal stout bottles were fine which is why I'm really surprised that the 1 gal jug blew the way it did. Especially since the 1 gal jug was corked! Whatever though, just another lesson in brewing and like I said, I would never bottle into anything larger then a 22oz bottle after this incident :-)
When I ferment I actually run stoppers with hoses out of the carboy's into a jug of water to prevent my carboy's from plugging up blowing the top off. So far out of the 5 batches I've made this has worked really well and I would highly recommend it since you don't need to worry about anything plugging up.
I have ~6 gal of pale ale fermenting right now in two 3 gal carboy's. Going to dry hop one of the carboys at the end of fermentation to kick up the hops aroma. Should be a nice little experiment since I have a control that's fermenting side by side with it.
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froodish
Social climber
Portland, Oregon
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Oct 24, 2010 - 08:15pm PT
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A 1 gallon jug, like the kind they pack apple juice in? Yeah, those aren't strong enough to bottle condition beer in and things will usually break before pushing out a rubber stopper (carboys too.)
If you want bottles larger than a 22, look for cappable magnum or jeroboam (2x magnum) champagne bottles. Those are plenty strong. Tell your friends to save any they have from New Year's Eve. The cheap bubbly usually comes in the cappable bottles. They'll probably be green though, so make sure to store them in the dark to avoid the lightstruck badness.
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John Moosie
climber
Beautiful California
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Oct 24, 2010 - 08:37pm PT
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Go to the local fancy restaurants and get the capable champagne bottles. Make friends with one of the wait staff and trade bottles for brews. Christmas and new years is a great time to stock up. Or just ask if you can go through their recycling. Sundays would work. I never lost a champagne bottle, but I lost a few 5 gallon carboys.
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Jim E
climber
away
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Oct 24, 2010 - 08:39pm PT
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"Beer explosion"
Reminds me of this scene from the Simpsons.
It was the result of Bart putting a can of Spud in a paint shaking machine.
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pud
climber
Sportbikeville & Yucca brevifolia
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Oct 24, 2010 - 08:52pm PT
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As a result of excessive pressure build up in the bottle, caused by bottling too early when there was still unfermented sugar in the brew. You must wait until all the sugars are fermented out before bottling. Then you bottle your beer adding a small amount of sugar.
A secondary fermentation then occurs in the bottle which produces a small amount of carbon dioxide which gives you the fizz. Too much carbon dioxide will cause bottles to explode.
Least that's what wiki sez..;)
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rlf
Trad climber
Josh, CA
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Oct 24, 2010 - 09:22pm PT
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"It was the result of Bart putting a can of Spud in a paint shaking machine."
"Beer bring pain" HS
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Spider Savage
Mountain climber
SoCal
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Oct 25, 2010 - 01:14am PT
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That sucks for you. But much worse, by far, just spilled the 2nd half of my chilled glass of Gran Marnier in the spa. And I WAS NOT ready for that.
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Mighty Hiker
climber
Vancouver, B.C.
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Oct 25, 2010 - 01:15am PT
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Does the wine cause the scented bubbles to go flat? :-)
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Ghost
climber
A long way from where I started
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Oct 25, 2010 - 02:00am PT
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Somebody upthread already said it. If you want to store liquid under pressure in glass bottles, then you need bottles designed to withstand pressure.
Gallon jugs are not in that class of bottles.
And carbonating beer by adding a bit of sugar just before bottling is something that requires a fair bit of precision: Both in the certainty that primary and/or secondary fermentation is actually complete (or, if not complete, then that you know exactly how far it will continue), and also in the amount and fermentability of whatever sugar you add.
Much easier and more dependable is to run the fermentation to completion, then carbonate in a keg with CO2, then bottle from the keg. Takes some equipment (i.e. money), but well worth it.
Shot below is of a batch where my main brewing companion (and spouse) got careless with her sugar addition. Do yourself a favor and switch to kegs.
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corniss chopper
Mountain climber
san jose, ca
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Oct 25, 2010 - 02:25am PT
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Shaun - its happened before.
The London Beer Flood occurred on October 17, 1814 in the parish of
St. Giles, London, England. At the Meux and Company Brewery[1] on
Tottenham Court Road,[1][2] a huge vat containing over 135,000 imperial
gallons (610,000 L) of beer ruptured, causing other vats in the same
building to succumb in a domino effect. As a result, more than 323,000
imperial gallons (1,470,000 L) of beer burst out and gushed into the
streets. The wave of beer destroyed two homes and crumbled the wall of the
Tavistock Arms Pub, trapping teenaged employee Eleanor Cooper under the
rubble.[3]
The brewery was located among the poor houses and tenements of the St
Giles Rookery, where whole families lived in basement rooms that quickly
filled with beer. Eight people drowned in the flood.
The brewery was eventually taken to court over the accident, but the
disaster was ruled to be an Act of God by the judge and jury, leaving no
one responsible. The company found it difficult to cope with the
financial implications of the disaster, with a significant loss of sales
made worse because they had already paid duty on the beer. They made a
successful application to Parliament reclaiming the duty which allowed
them to continue trading.
The brewery was demolished in 1922, and today, the Dominion Theatre
occupies a part of the site of the former brewery.
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adatesman
Trad climber
philadelphia, pa
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Oct 25, 2010 - 11:18am PT
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As above, don't bottle until the FG reading is stable for several days. You can't simply rely on airlock activity as the complex sugars remaining at the end are broken down slowly and there might not be much CO2 being given off. But the fermentation will still be going and if you bottle then you will either get overcarbonation and bottle bombs.
Also NEVER NEVER NEVER NEVER NEVER bottle in ANYTHING that's not designed for pressure (read: growlers, glass jugs, mason jars, etc). As you now know, that's a recipe for disaster. Heck, I won't even use Warsteiner bottles since they're particularly thin. Following from this do not bottle highly carbonated styles (lambics, etc) in regular bottles. There's a reason they come in champagne-style bottles... you need that much glass to safely contain the pressure.
Me, I only keg anymore as it's much less work and allows me to have better control of the carbonation levels. Makes beer-to-go a bit more of a pain, but that's what growlers are for.
Good to here no one got hurt and my condolences on the lost beer.
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Ghost
climber
A long way from where I started
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Oct 25, 2010 - 12:28pm PT
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Makes beer-to-go a bit more of a pain, but that's what growlers are for.
This thing gives you the best of both worlds. Bottle straight from a keg.
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froodish
Social climber
Portland, Oregon
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Oct 25, 2010 - 12:48pm PT
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Ghost, how do you like the Blichmann beer gun? I've been eyeing one of those for a while. Looks like a nice tool.
Currently my brewing partners and I bottle most batches. The session beers get kegged, but the stronger beers that need some time to mature get bottled. I've been thinking about picking up some 2.5g corny kegs and a beer gun to eliminate the priming step.
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Shaun_the_Conqueror
Trad climber
Arcata, CA
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Topic Author's Reply - Oct 25, 2010 - 12:53pm PT
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Definitely upgrading to kegs ASAP + a huge propane burner and probably a larger kettle. Bottling is a royal pain in the ass for sure. In this case it definitely wasn't a result of adding too much priming sugar to the carboy. My FG was stable for 2 days prior to bottling and like I said, all of the 12oz bottles were fine and didn't have an over carbonation problem at all. When I add priming sugar I add it to the ENTIRE batch in the carboy and not just to the bottles. I posted this topic on a homebrew forum and got the same response in regards to bottling into anything other then a beer bottle. I'm stoked I still have some of this oat meal stout stored in 22oz bottles. Either way, it was a valuable lesson and I'm glad I wasn't in the room when the explosion occurred. I left one of the glass shards embedded in the wall with a post-it note right next to it :-P
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Ghost
climber
A long way from where I started
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Oct 25, 2010 - 01:03pm PT
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I left one of the glass shards embedded in the wall with a post-it note right next to it :-P
That's pretty cool. Post a photo for us.
Ghost, how do you like the Blichmann beer gun?
It's an engineer's wet dream. Given that I'm not an engineer, I'd appreciate a few minor changes in the human use department, but they really are minor. In terms of its function, the thing works perfectly. If you want to talk about it some more, email me.
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