Yesterday I was moving some of my bottles around in my cellar. I don't remember being rough with them just pulling them out to reorganize to create more space. About 4 hours later I go back down and I notice a smell of beer so as I further examine, I found my last bottle of holiday ale I brewed from last year is in pieces.The bottom of the bottle is still where it was last placed and the cap was still attached to the neck but the body was everywhere spreading 22oz of beer ad shards of glass all over the place. I do not think the beer was over carbonated because because I drank a bottle last week and it was great and didn't do the foam thing that you see when you open an overcarbed bottle. What I am asking is do you think moving the bottles around and maybe bumping it caused the glass to crack a little then the pressure just made it go off?
Its possible a single bottle couldve been overcarbed from something getting into the bottle before filling? or on the cap?
You are lucky to be alive. Please use plastic bottles in the future.* You correctly narrowed down the possibilities. Either the bottle was overcarbonated, resulting in a bottle bomb, or the bottle was defective/damaged/too weak. I'd need to know more about your bottling pratices (how you add and mix your sugar, and how much sugar, and how much beer, and how you sanitize your bottles), and how long ago you bottled this batch, to hazard a guess as to which. *Not real advice.
It was5 gallons, I followed the directions as everything came in as a kit. I added the priming sugar gradually as i siphoned from the car boy to the bottling bucket. Everything was clean. I used star san with the bottles dried them then stuck them in the dishwasher with no detergents (just the heat) left them in until it was cool the the touch then took the bottles 1 at a time from the dishwasher to the auto filler then capped. The caps were sitting in a bowl mixed with water and sanitizer. I am leaning toward weak bottles I was very clean through out the entire process and the batch did not seem to taste off. Plastic bottles will be a must from now on.
Did you boil your priming sugar in water and add that to the bucket? Or did you pour dry sugar into the bucket? Also, how much sugar was there? And was the volume of beer in your bottling bucket actually 5 gallons? Or something less?
If the glass shards were everywhere then bottle pressure has to be at least a part of the cause. Possibly the bottle was not sitting on the cold floor before you re-arranged, and then put it on the cold floor to create an uneven temp for the glass to try to handle, but couldn't and the temp variation created a weak stress spot. Normal carbonation pressure could have been enough to send the shards outward, but if they went very far then over-carbonation seems like it has to have been a factor too.
thats weird that it would happen a year after bottling. in my experience bottle bombs go off pretty quick if its a carbonation thing. could be bacteria which would explain the delay
