First bottle Bomb

hopefully just a bad bottle, but there is a youtube video solely dedicated to safely venting bottles. Chilling them right away is also a great idea to slow carbonation and drive co2 back into solution. My one brush with bottle bombs was due to a stuck fermentation so if you were fully attenuated this is less likely. How much priming sugar for how much beer and style?

 

Did you add the priming sugar to the entire batch and let it dilute for 20-30 minutes before bottling?

 

Probably contaminated. It wouldn't be crazy for some gunk to be stuck in a single bottle and cause an infection. If other bottles seem overcarbed there's probably a larger contamination issue.

 

I've had some mild gushers lately, which I think is a sign that my cleaning/sanitizing regimen might need a bit of improvement. I often eyeball how much water I'm using when I sanitize my bottles, and I'm starting to think that I've been over-diluting my StarSan. Thankfully, nothing has exploded just yet...

 

It's not. Nor is it necessary.

 

Did you gently stir to ensure proper mixing of the sugar solution with the beer?

Cheers!

 

I do not understand what "every several bottles" means but if you performed a gentle stir then you should have proper mixing. Below is something I posted a while back describing my bottling process:

"I add the priming sugar (as a water/sugar solution) to my bottling bucket and then rack the beer (5 gallons) on top of the water/sugar solution. After the beer has been transferred I gently stir the beer using my racking cane to ensure that the sugar is properly mixed with the beer."

Cheers!

 

I just can't picture in my mind's eye what you are doing here. Can you please expound on what exactly you are doing with your sugar solution?

I can't fathom why you would choose to not just place the sugar solution on the bottom of the bottling bucket and siphon the beer on top of the sugar solution.

Cheers!

 

This is a common practice and it is advocated for by John Palmer in How to Brew.

I won't argue as to whether or not it's necessary, but it's worked well for me so far.

 

So, you added portions of the sugar solution a bit at a time throughout the transfer duration? I would have never conceived of that. It seems that as long as the net result is proper mixing this method should 'work'?

Solely based upon my personal experiences I would suggest that you 'simplify' things and just add the sugar solution once at the beginning of the transfer and then perform a few gentle swirls at the end of the transfer, I have bottled 370 batches this way (so far) and I have always had consistent carbonation levels using this method (no bottle bombs).

Cheers!

 

No. Palmer advocates waiting if adding sugar directly to the fermenter, not when racking beer on top of priming solution in a bottling bucket. Priming in the fermenter is not common. Neither is waiting when using a bottling bucket.

 

He stirred after every few bottles, that's all.

 

Fair enough. Went back and read this for clarification. Still seems like a good practice to let the solution dilute evenly. Cheers.