Bottle Explosion

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A faulty bottle is not likely to be the case here, but it is possible. The four main culprits for an exploded bottle are likely to be 1.) over carbed because the priming sugar was too much for the measured amount of your beer; 2.) the beer was bottled before fermentation was complete and the priming sugar just added to the excess sugar; 3.) your priming sugar was not well mixed and some bottles are now over-carbed (to the point of exploding) and some are under-carbed; and 4.) an infection. The first three should be noticeable from your notes, so if you kept detailed notes, look back and see if you missed something. An infection is likely to show up as some off flavors too, so when you taste that first one, you'll get a further indication if that is what happened. Then you can begin to look at your sanitation procedures.

Since you had a bottle already explode, you should take some precaution to protect against any further messes. But the bottles in something that will contain the liquid as well as any glass that may go flying. I'll suggest that you open a beer to see whether it is carbonated or not, and to taste it to see what you've got. To protect your self, wrap that bottle in a towel and be next to the sink with your glass. It may be a gusher, or it could be no carbonation. If it's a gusher, then it's very likely that the entire batch is over-carbed and dangerous.

Safety should be kept in mind to the point of destroying the entire batch to avoid any injury and messy property damage if you determine that every bottle is likely to be a potential bottle bomb. If you begin to find that inconsistent carbonation is what you've got, then I'd chill the entire batch right away to stop the fermentation that is occurring inside the over-carbed bottles, and drink each beer with some precautions taken. Yeah, you're going to have some flat beers, but lesson learned here.

I'm going to place my bet on #1 or #3 above, but it's too hard to call without knowing more details from your brewing and bottling sessions. Feel free to reply back with the time span of the fermentation period before you bottled; whether the gravity readings were stable after fermentation was thought to be complete; the amount of priming sugar added and what the volume of your beer was; and what procedure you used to add your priming sugar. Answers to those questions will tell us a lot, and we should be able to give you a more specific answer.

Edit: I just read your post again, so I see that you did not take any gravity readings.

 

Was the priming sugar package 5oz? If so, it was too much for a 5 gallon batch. Made that mistake my first batch also.

 

By using a priming calculator. http://www.northernbrewer.com/learn/resources/priming-sugar-calculator/
You typically only need 3-4 oz but it depends on the carbonation level you want (style of beer) and your volume. That's where the calculator comes in. Also, did your five gallon batch actually have five gallons when it came to bottle it?

 

KeyWestGator has adequately commented on the priming sugar, so I won't add to that other than to say the proportion of sugar to the beer doesn't have to be precise to the nth degree, but it does help to know your beer volume pretty closely so that you can figure out the right amount of sugar. It I determine that I have 4.5 gallons of beer, I'll use two quarts to boil my calculated priming sugar so that I meet exactly my 5-gallon recipe. So the two cups that you were told to use does not have to be two cups.

The inadequate stirring of this solution into your beer is a frequent error, but if this is your problem, then this likely is the last time that you'll make that mistake. Most homebrewers will put the sugar solution in the bottom of the bottling bucket and siphon the beer on top of it. Unfortunately, too often that does not mix it well enough so that some gentle stirring is also highly recommended. I use my stainless steel brewing spoon to stir from the bottom with upward strokes, being careful not to break the surface and create splashing. I'll also use this method to stir 3 more times during the bottling process because that sugar is heavy stuff and wants to settle out quickly.

Do you have any idea what the general temp of your basement might have been during fermentation? Possibly it was too cold and the yeast slowed down and were not finished doing their work after two weeks, so you may have bottled a partially fermented beer. That's why using the calendar is generally not a good approach to decide when fermentation is complete, unless you know that you gave the yeast ideal conditions to perform their task. Using a hydrometer is the very best way to decide that question, so that you can be sure.

When you get home and pop the cap on another beer to check the carbonation and to taste it, I suggest that you use that beer to take a hydrometer reading while you have it in a glass. (You can still drink the beer after you take a reading.) Try to have the beer's temp around 60 degrees (the base temp for most hydrometers), and then check the reading against what the final gravity target is for your recipe. If your reading is very much above the target, then you've likely got all of your bottles over-carbonated. USE CAUTION WHEN HANDLING THESE BOTTLES BECAUSE ANY JARRING OR BANGING AGAINST THE COUNTER TOP, ETC. COULD BE THE MATCH SETTING FIRE TO THE FUSE AND CAUSING AN 'EXPLOSION'.

There are a number of commercial brand sanitizers that are available through homebrew shops, suppliers, etc, and the two most popular ones are StarSan and PBW. I use iodophor sometimes too.

 

My guess is that since the beer fermented for two weeks it was done fermenting, but poor aeration, yeast handling, or pitching, resulted in a less than ideal fermentation leaving residual sugars that overcarbed your beer.

Lots of new homebrewers get caught up in "recipes" as the solution to subpar homebrew when they need to focus on process. Usually KISS (keep it simple stupid) recipes and good process make the best beer.

 

Forgot to add - Get those bottles in your fridge ASAP. That will decrease the chances of any bottle bombs.

Also, always make sure you are patient. You did good by letting the beer sit two weeks in primary. Three weeks might have helped. I would bet if you let these beers sit for two weeks in the fridge they will taste a lot better than they do right now.

 

Good to know! Thanks for the feedback. Enjoy as many of those beer as what you can, but I don't recommend that you give any of them away to friends since that could be risky. Invite your friends over, and you pour for them (but always near the sink).

 

One question. If the sugar solution falls due to higher gravity, why is it better to rack on top of said solution? You'd think racking to bottling bucket then adding your priming suges would be better. That way when you stir, everything is falling, and you don't have to worry about the "upwelling" stirring motion, no? Plus once you rack, you can get a more precise volume measurement.

 

I think a lot of homebrewers think that the flowing motion of the beer coming out of that racking tube will provide enough agitation to put that sugar solution into suspension. Many swear by it as a proven method. I have a feeling that it may depend on whether that sugar is a thick 'syrup' or a sugar solution that is a quart or so in volume. I really don't know. But I think the risk of over-agitating your beer and the risk of oxidizing it keeps people from wanting to stir it, and that is valid. Adding sugar from the top after racking is an okay method which I sometimes do. However, sugar is heavy and will tend to try to drop out regardless of whether you add it from the top or at the bottom, so I choose to gently stir with the "upwelling" motion (to borrow your term) at the beginning and 2-3 times during bottling just so I don't end up having inconsistent carbonation. So far I've had no problem with oxidation and have had consistent carbonation.

 

#bottlingproblems

 

Yea, I always give it a gentle stir with a big brew paddle after I've racked my beer into the bottling bucket. It always ensures an even mix of beer/priming sugar.

Did you taste any of the beer from one of the blown bottles? sounds weird, I know, but I did once when about 6 of my bottles blew up from a batch. It tasted horrible, and I came to the conclusion that they were gushers (infections in the bottle). The rest of the batch tasted great, but what happened was I overlooked cleaning some of the bottles. Not saying that happened to you, but that's something to consider down the road as well. Glad to hear some of the others taste good though - that's always a good sign! I'd still be careful handling the others though if I were you...

 

Not that I don't agree with your "four main culprits", but faulty bottles are much more of a problem than many may think, especially if people are re-using commercial bottles and not checking for cracks/fractures before they fill them with their own beer. This would seem like the case in this scenario as the bottle that the OP just opened did not have carbonation issues.

 

I collect mostly 750s these days and find that probably about 1 in 5 are either overtly cracked full-thickness or have a micro stress-fracture pattern along one of the seams from prolonged exposure to internal pressure. A lot of C&Ced bottles have cracks in the neck because of the increased down-force from corking. I'd say that 12 oz. bottles are probably about 1 in 10, because of lower bottling pressure, but they're thinner glass, so they aren't as durable as the nice, thick Belgian style bottles. Not to belabor the faulty bottle point, but I think that it's important for homebrewers to inspect their glass and I don't think a lot of them are doing so.