First Batch Bottle Exploded

Question

I'm in the bottling phase with my first batch of beer. Came home last night and one of the bottles had exploded.

The beer spent 7 days in the primary fermenter and hit the target gravity per the kit. Then 2 1/2 weeks in the secondary.

When I transferred to the primary fermenter, I poured the liquid back and forth like the kit suggested and it resulted in a lot of foam so it was hard to tell how much water I needed to top off the batch with. By the end of the process I ended up with only 4 gallons instead of 5.

Reading here I think the issue was too much priming sugar (I used what came with the kit which was meant for 5 gallons) combined with storing them in a place that was a bit too warm.. The door to the room I was storing in got shut and furnace warmed it up more than I thought (72+ degrees).

I moved them to the fridge. Was that the right thing to do? If so, how long should I leave them in there before drinking? They were only in the bottles for 5 days before one burst.

Answer 1

To answer your question, yes, you did the right thing. The residual yeast in solution that were eating the priming sugar and producing CO2 will go dormant when it gets cold. Putting the beer in the fridge simply stopped any more natural carbonating so you can drink them at any point now.

Did you thoroughly mix the priming sugar into the wort or did you just add it and then bottle? I wonder if the priming sugar - which it sounds like there was probably too much of to begin with - exists more in some bottles than others. The only thing you can really do at this point is to check a few bottles to see if they're overcarbonated and if there is variable carbonation. I'd do that over a sink. Some people may suggested re-bottling, but that would be an huge PITA.

Answer 2

Five gallons worth of priming sugar going into four gallons of beer is most likely your problem. The possibility of inadequately stirring it into the beer before bottling (surprisingly not all that uncommon for beginners) may exasperate the problem to the point of bottle bombs.

If over-carbonation is a common problem for several of your bottles, you may consider relieve the pressure by re-capping them with extra caps. Very slightly crack the seal of the cap with a bottle opener, let the pressure out slowly, wait a little bit, then take the whole cap off and recap it with a new one. Just make sure you're suited up for bombs. Seriously, put on your shades when you do it, throw some gloves on, and toss a kitchen towel over the bottle before you reach under it to break the seal on the cap. Bottle bombs are terrifying for a reason.

Keep in mind they'll continue to ferment, even in the fridge, albeit slowly, so if you don't relieve the pressure, drink 'em quick.

Answer 3

I don't believe it was too much sugar. It might be, but to settle on that means you overlook other possibilities like contamination. The 20% increase in sugar means that you went from 2.7 to 3.2 vol. of CO2. 3.2 is around where things like hefeweizen and Belgian beers are. Pretty much any bottle should be able to withstand 3.2. If it's uneven mixing, then you'll find some bottles that will be undercarbonated. If you get those, then you can logically deduce it might be uneven mixing. But I really don't think the amount of sugar is what's causing your problems.