NA: Minor Homebrewing Emergency

SixPapaCharlie

SixPapaCharlie

May the force be with you
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Aug 8, 2013
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First Officer 6PC
Came home today and the house smelled like beer. I was excited at first. It's Friday, I had a long week at work. Maybe the wife made me this great beer dinner and was waiting for me dressed as the St. Paulie Girl.

Then I saw the shattered glass everywhere. "That B**ch! I thought. Why would she make me this great beer dinner and then throw glass everywhere?" Surely it is a trap. I smell beer, I come running and bam I step on glass just like in that movie. It was too good.

I texted her. "Have you been home?"
She replys "No, I am at the gym"

Suddenly I realize that maybe someone has broken into my house and put glass all over the place and then poured beer on it. Its that old bit where I end up eating all of the glass thinking it is chunks of beer. I'm not falling for that one twice. I might have licked a little of the glass. Just the tiniest bit though.

So there I was in the back of the ambulance in a lot of pain when the ambulance driver said "Was it homebrew?" I replied "Who wants to know?"

YES!!! That's it I said, One of my neighbors broke in to steal my homebrew recipe and they dropped a bottle on the way out. You are a genius man!!!!!

"Or" he interrupts. "Maybe one of your bottles exploded."

What to do... What to do...
It appears one of the bottles grenaded itself like a mofo and now I am not sure what to do.
I cleaned up the glass. I took one out in the backyard and opened it very carefully.
It was WAY more carbonated than normal but tasted fine.

Never had this happen before. I put them all on ice which I believe will kill the yeast.
But I have questions.

Will they be done carbonating of they get back up to room temp?
Is it possible that this one bottle was somehow weak?
I had planned to put a case of these in an airplane in 3 weeks. Would ya risk it?
Anyone had bottles explode before? Is it that big a deal?
 
If it was a bottle of the cross country monkey that would really suck.
 
eman1200 said:
If it was a bottle of the cross country monkey that would really suck.
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It wasn't labeled yet so it was just homebrew.
The labels arrived today though. I am going to put them in a cooler for the flight at least if they go off, they will be contained.

Now who is going to ferry me from Mountain Home to Gastons?
 
I was just about to ask if it was the one with the nudie Martha King label... guess not.

You still have a while before Gastons, so I imagine if there's a real issue you'll have at least one more explosion - in which case, no, don't fly with them. If no more explode, you're probably good to go. But I'd still take precautions for the flight.
 
A Texas man pulled the chute in his plane after beer bombs began exploding in the cockpit. It is unknown why the man was transporting beer bombs across state lines. The pilot has been arrested and is currently sharing a cell with a very large and hairy inmate named Bubba. Film at eleven.
 
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Chilling them down is a good start.

Same priming sugar as before? Bottle aberration, proceed cautiously, but proceed.

Might have made a mistake with sugar? Open a couple to see how bad the situation is (in a sink, with a towel draped over). Consider cracking them all and re-capping.

There are three week recipes out there if all is lost.
 
catmandu said:
Chilling them down is a good start.

Same priming sugar as before? Bottle aberration, proceed cautiously, but proceed.

Might have made a mistake with sugar? Open a couple to see how bad the situation is (in a sink, with a towel draped over). Consider cracking them all and re-capping.

There are three week recipes out there if all is lost.
Click to expand...

Can you really do that? Open and re cap?
What will that do to the flavor?
NOte that I already have them on ice so I am guessing there will be no more living yeast to do anything if I were to re cap.
 
Gotta do some of that bottling shtuff, Mav. Open some and decide. Vesuvian carbonation, you can probably get away with re-cap, test another couple in a week or so and decide if you have something to share with others, or something to keep at home. Consider a three week recipe as a back up.

Not so much carbonation, let it roll.
 
I have 52... er 51 bottles. I will recap half and see how they are in 2 weeks.

They guy at the store goes "White labs yeast is 2 for 1. Add em both and the yeast won't have to work as hard."
Granted that doesn't add more sugar so maybe not an issue. I bet I just didn't leave them in the secondary long enough.
This is irritating.
 
Since you alerted the authorities, the revenuer will be by shortly to collect the taxes.
 
I was thinking, maybe you should try cider? Betcha Amanda likes it! :lol:

Dickens Cider.jpg
 
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How many batches have you used these bottles for? After 4 or 5, seems mine got weaker and I lose more and more just capping them
 
RDWHAHB. Fly with them on ice and it will keep internal pressure down. Your taste test may be more sensation that actual over carbonation (warm+big bubbles if it was recently bottled).If you recap with oxygen absorbent caps, no sanitizing the caps, and give the bottle a shake after capping to activate you shouldn't get any flavor change.

But, if there is sugar remaining, once they warm up the yeast will wake up. How long have they been in the bottle? They may be done fermenting to carbonate and are dropping out. I figure that takes two weeks max and probably closer to 3-5 days.
 
Step 1. Place all beers in a cooler on ice and transport to the airport
step 2. Place a pressure cooker in the car next to the cooler o' beers and throw giant tube of KY jelly in glovebox
step 2. Head to airport
step 3. Have ramp people pull plane out and roll carpet
step 4. remove beers from cooler and place in giant pressure cooker
step 5. get ramp people to car
step 6. instruct ramp people to carry pressure cooker to plane and explain to be very very very careful because contents might explode as you remove KY from glovebox and place into shirt pocket
step 7. toss pressure cooker into back seat of plane
step 8. tear ass out of there with rolling preflight and expedited departure
step 9. ready camera(s) and KY jelly
step 10. post photos of F-15 fighter escort to POA
 
Years ago, I made a Scotch Ale. Not sure why, since that is not a style I particularly like. Had what sounds like a similar problem - bottles exploding. Catastrophic coming from together.

They don't blow the caps off. Mine mostly shattered at the shoulder where the bottle necks down. Had marks in ceiling drywall. Shards of glass everywhere. It was alarming and seemed dangerous.

Put the beers into large coolers with boards and cinderblocks on top, inside the guest room shower. Had about 30% failure.

Especially with your little kids around, you may want to put the bottles in an easy-to-clean up place.

My "Double Overhead Cam India Pale Ale" was much more successful, as was my "Stronger than You can Handle" Quintuple Espresso Porter. (It was only supposed to be an Espresso Porter but I did it wrong.)
 
SixPapaCharlie said:
NOte that I already have them on ice so I am guessing there will be no more living yeast to do anything if I were to re cap.
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You won't kill yeast with low temperature unless you freeze it solid. Doing so will cause expanding ice crystals inside the Yeast cells to destroy them. This is also not recommended for the glass bottle containers!

Low temps merely make the yeast go dormant until it is warmed up again. -Skip
 
Skip Miller said:
You won't kill yeast with low temperature unless you freeze it solid. Doing so will cause expanding ice crystals inside the Yeast cells to destroy them. This is also not recommended for the glass bottle containers!

Low temps merely make the yeast go dormant until it is warmed up again. -Skip
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Yes! This is how I keep my sourdough starter alive, keep it in the fridge so the yeast is slowed down and pull it out on the weekends to make pancakes, feed it, replenish it and stick it back int he fridge till the next weekend.
 
I once had a carboy blow its stopper. It was sitting on my kitchen cabinet while fermenting. I guess the house got too warm, and we came home to the smell of beer. Hops and wort were blown violently onto the ceiling. We got it (mostly) cleaned off, but it left a faint circular stain. Wife wasn't exactly thrilled about that.
 
Welcome to the wonderful world of home brew. Invest in coolers to store the beer in after you bottle it. Put cardboard between the bottles to keep them from going all nuclear chain reaction on you. Minimizes the mess. Helps control the temperature, also.
Distilling spirits is actually easier than making beer. My next home project. :D
 
@JCranford is asleep on my couch. when he wakes up I'm going to give him one of these beer grenades and see what his thoughts are from a safety ava of course taste perspective.
 
SixPapaCharlie said:
@JCranford is asleep on my couch. when he wakes up I'm going to give him one of these beer grenades and see what his thoughts are from a safety ava of course taste perspective.
Click to expand...

When I woke up groggy from my nap, I had a beer grenade thrust into my hands. My first thought of course was 'WTF are you handing me a beer grenade!?" After holding it at arms length for a bit and it not exploding, I went ahead and opened it. Carefully. It was pretty tasty! Gaston's is in for a treat!
 
Unfortunately jcranford typed that before really trying it. Here is the last known photo of him before it all went south. R.I.P friend.tmp_7124-20160924_183524-640x360-275370168.jpg
 
.....well the sun was setting....

upload_2016-9-25_16-18-53.png
 
I had a liter bottle of Simpson Springs Ginger Ale explode many years ago. It was stored on the floor of our pantry. My best guess was the reusable bottle wasn't.
 
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