I had my first one this week. A bottle of our 2nd annual "Cunning Linguist" barleywine exploded in my cupboard in the garage and drained all over everything. I was cleaning it up while talking to N8 who told me I should be wearing protective eye wear. Luckily no more bottles exploded.

Just one, many years ago....

None here, I gave that one to Rob.

None for me but I have only been in the game for 18 months. I have seen the dimple created by my capper push out instead of in from the pressure, this is when they go right to the fridge for immediate consumption. I'm sure that it is only a matter of time.

Luckily just one so far... coincidentally it was also a BW... I wonder if they are prone to doing that?

--/\/\--

one or two bottles of the notorious saison. I read that they were more highly carbed, so I used a bit more priming sugar. Coupled with the slow-to-complete fermentation of that yeast... Blam-o!

No bottle bombs here, which I am suprised as in the pioneering days of homebrewing, priming was not as exact as it is now

I did once have a couple of bottles that I forgot to cap. It took a while to figure out there that funny smell in the garage was coming from.

Reminder....don't drink while bottling!

Do you think that would help in Tom's case??

This happened back in 2000 and was posted on rcb:

Well there we all were...my girlfriend and her son just watching the
tube after a dinner of smoked ribs, baked beans, corn bread and honey
along with some smoked porter and topping it off with some of last years
Barley Wines...until we heard a loud explosion...like someone lobbed a
fragmentation granade out the kitchen...at the same time it blew the
kitchen refrigerator door open. We were all like "what the hell?" and
then I realized....I had made a starter of 1056 a few weeks ago and
capped it thinking "well it should be ok cuz it's refrigerated" ...bad
idea...all the plastic bottles of ketchup and soda got ripped to
shreds..we had to don surgical gloves and use 2 rolls of paper towels
and hosed all the contents of what was left on the first shelf in the
sink to get all the glass off.

You win, Bob!

To quote N8: "Dambagumby!" A yeast starter bomb. Nice.

Didn't have any exploding bottles yet. I'll probably have one sooner or later.

About 2 years ago we brewed up some funkd up nasty beer brewed with mostly left over supplies. It tasted sooo nasty so learning from previous lessons about letting beer just age for a year or so and then giving it another go that's exactly what I did. 1 year later... opened up the case and noticed that about 1/4 the bottles had exploded. Not taking any chances I duct taped the case closed and asked my father to toss it in the glass pile at the dump for me as he works right next door. He wanted me to just clean out the bottles and re-use them but I told him to trust me and just dump them. The next day he drove up to the glass "pit" (a 10+ foot deep concrete hole) and tossed the box in... !!!!!BOOOM!!!!! The dump personel after dusting themselves off from hitting the floor ran outside to see what the heck just happend. They thought a bomb had gone off and where ready to call the police. Needless to say, scared the crap out of my father and people claimed to have heard the explosion from the other side of the dump.

That's always a winning story.

I thought it was the saison, not the kitchen sink beer. But yeah- that was a nasty batch. Never try to clean house by throwing a bunch of leftover specialty malts together.

" You win, Bob!"

Well Denny, I wasn't a winner with Joann THAT day

never had a bottle bomb myself but I started kegging after the first 5 or 6 batches anyway.

Fortunately, no. But I've had a lot of gushers...

Actually Rob, that quote would have to be credited to Matt.
I believe that was his reaction to my La Chouffe clone.

I've had no bottle bombs, but had a carboy plug the air lock and build up enough pressure to spray Imperial Stout all over my kitchen ceiling.

I threw away my locks and use a blow off now.

Gary

So you a true to the line: "You know you're a home brewer if you've even used a mop on a ceiling!"

Same happened to me once with an IPA. I was only about 2 months into homebrewing and was living at my parents house at the time. Top blew right off the fermenter. That was almost the end of the homebrewing. Mom was none too pleased her finished basement smelled like a brewery.

I also used to own a 1 gallon growler that I used to bottle condition in. That sucker blew during my second ever batch. Fortunately that was in my college house and I just sent to boys down there to lap it up off the basement floor.

Can we still say bomb on the internet?

No exploding bottles here after 4 years.

None yet!

Note the "YET".

Chuck S.

I have had some caps grow a dome but none have exploded yet.

I used to keep one bottle of beer in a clear New Castle bottle for show during my first 8 batches. My very first show bottle of a brown ale burst 2 years later all over my white walls.

Since then, some have burst, but I didn't noticed since they were boxed up.

never had one

None yet, but I keg now, so it may be none ever...

Just one a single beer in a single batch and all the others were rather uncaronated at that.... I guess I didn't mix the priming sugar very well if at all... The beer brew in my brother n laws car while pulling up in front of his gf's house. lol serves him right.

Over-carbed batch + hot house = bottle bombs. Apparently I found that magical temperature threshold when I would turn the A/C off during the day in the middle of summer. I remember being very perplexed coming home to find streak marks on the wall with no apparent source.

I never had a beer bottle bomb, but I made two cases of Root Beer once, and that was a dangerous situation.
Used the wrong yeast- Red Star Ale yeast- and one night two weeks later I kept hearing this Pop-Pop in the dark of night... got up to discover the broken bottles, still in paper beer cases, leaking root beer and glass all over my utility room.

Gently carried the remains out to the garage. What a sticky mess, dangerous too. Never do that again.

Once with some cider.
KAAA BOOM!

Funny topic. Never had one bomb on ME, but I've had one bomb in my friend's fridge, one bomb in my friends car -while he was driving it-, and one bottle of rootbeer, which was actually my roomate's creation, not mine, bomb in Alesmith's fridge, hehe.

Should of with my first brew. Enough priming sugar for 5 gallons but only bottled 4 gallons. Oops.

My primary bucket lid blew off of a 1090 brew when my airlock got clogged, I would have thought the stopper would have blew out before the lid, those are pretty tough to get off, it was in the bedroom, my wife just smiled.....

I bottled a batch of sparkling cider and did not sufficiently stir the botteling bucket.
Had two 32 oz bottles explode in my carboard box and ended up with 1/2 gallon of cider on the kitchen floor.
Wife did not like that at all.
Fortunately, the glass was completely contained in the box.
Sounded like something hit the house.

Nope.....never.

I've never had one...yet...(as I knock on my wood desk) Although, I'm sure the home brewing experience isn't complete until it happens.

Haven't had a bottle bomb myself, but just opened a bottle today that had a little suprise in it! I opened it up and it seemed like it was foaming an aweful lot as I was pouring it out. Looking at the bottle, I seen something stuck to the inside. Rinsing it out, out came a fly.............. needless to say, that bottle went down the drain real fast! What a way to go though eh? Drowned in beer..........we could all be so lucky. ;-p

thanks for all the good laughs. i thought about putting a whole pack of yeast in a two litter bottle of water and lots of sugar and leaving it outside to see what happens. it could be a good laugh.

this is unrelated but my friend is a welder and he used to make oxygen acetaline bombs in red party cups. one day we moved up to a gallon milk jug and just about half of his street came out think that he finanly blew up the house. we couldnt hear well for 3 days. it shook windows and set off car alarms. scary loud but so funny. there wasnt a piece larger then half an inch of that milk jug when we were done.

Does a bucket bomb count? No bottle bombs.
Fred

Years ago, when I brewed at home, I had a bottle blow that caused a shard of glass to be imbeded in the ceiling joist. I take overcarbonation very seriously.

Dan

well i finally had my first and this one was completly my fault. normally when I measure corn sugar to bottle I use a small 1 cup measuring glass, well this time I had had a few drinks brewing and I used my larger two cup measuring glass turns out I added 1 and 3/4 cup of suger for bottling. I only bottled a week ago and am considering pulling the caps and recapping the beer, anyone think this could possibly work?

I've had one, back in the Mr. Beer days when I was priming each bottle. I ended up with only half a 1 liter PET bottle worth of beer and guess I measured wrong. The dog happily found that bottle all over the basement.

Kris: John Palmer's book mentions venting and recapping as a possible solution to adding too much sugar. So, it can work.

yes I must admit, I had 2 bottles explode in the pantry of my mother in law.coincidently she took a few of my special stouts home and they were over primed and on a hot day thay went up.........I think I also may have bottle to early, happens to the beat of us

Nope, but I'm a kegger. I do fill and prime bottles from time to time, but I use PET soda bottles, and this is not for long-term storage.

Has anyone ever had a bottle bomb with a plastic bottle?

I never had a PET bomb, but I got close. I made some root beer and used 2 liter bottles. I forgot about one of them behind the door and the house had been hot. When I found it, you would have thought it was a balloon instead of a 2 liter bottle. I carefully picked it up, placed it in the back yard and fired a rifle at it. Sure am glad it didn't explode in the house.

http://www.angelfire.com/il/macroman/beer-bucket-blow.jpg


This happened to a bucket during fermentation, but no, I've never had a bottle blow up on me. I'm kind of wondering if anyone has ever had a bucket explode...

I had one bomb. It exploded in my face and all over the kitchen(even on the ceiling) when I opened it.. Smelled bad---infected somehow. The rest were fine. Long clean-up!

I've never had one, luckily. Although I've got a brown ale right now that could be a contender. All the caps are domed, and it's very very carbonated.

My friend's brother makes wine. He made a batch of rasberry wine that I guess he didn't sorbate. A bottle that he gave to a friend of his mom ended up exploding. It was in a wooden cabinet and a shard of glass two inches long had impaled itself through the cabinet door. In his defense, he told everyone he gave it to that it should be drunk right away.

Never had one, but I have always thought about it, and was going to ask "do they REALLY explode" or just break. Guess this kinda answers that for me!

Yes! Many years ago, 40+ to be almost exact! It was the first 5 gal. batch I ever made with Cane sugar and bakers yeast and two 3.5 lb. cans of Blue Ribbon hopped malt extract and a recipe that a friend had given me. I still have the 6.5 gal. carboy I fermented in! I bottled in 1 quart pop bottles and put them down in a kitchen base cabinet where it would be cool, I believe it was August and really hot for New York state weather. My girlfriend and I were sitting out on the front porch of our new house out in the country we had just rented, when all of a sudden we heard this KA-BOOM! Followed by 5 or 6 more very loud glass shattering, booming, banging, crashing noises coming from the inside of our apart. We both jumped up and carefully crept inside thru the dining room, living room and peeked into the kitchen where all the noises were coming from. There spread all across the floor in front of the cabinet was a pile of pot, pans, can goods, and broken glass all sopping wet with home brew. It was spread in pattern that looked like a grenade had gone off. The cabinet door was hanging by one hinge, the other hinge had its screws torn right out of the wood. We could not believe it. After carefully examining what had transpired, 6 bottles had exploded and blew out everything in front of them, through the cabinet door out into the kitchen. I gently removed the remaining 14 quarts, 2 at a time, carrying them as if they were nitro-glycerin filled and quickly opened them outside in the yard, one by one with a huge bath towel spread over my gloved hands and the bottle and I swear honestly that when that top was popped the gusher took the wet towel at least 3-4 feet into the air. Even after I sprayed down the yard with the hose for at least an hour, a person could smell stale beer for at least a month afterwards. Needless to say I vowed to become the best home brewer I could, and after 40+ years I can say that I am still learning new things with every batch I make. It truly can become a life long hobby...Just be careful!!!
...Ironhorse...

I used a 5 gallon water bottle - the kind found in office water coolers - as a fermenter. Because I didn't have a stopper, I just cut a hole in the plastic cap and stuck in the airlock. And I screwed up the hole - it was not perfectly round, so the airlock didn't form a complete seal with it. I was kind of worried that it wouldn't be airtight enough, but what happened next made it irrelevant.

So I'm at work and my wife calls me. She asks if I'm sitting down. She and my son were playing only to hear a loud boom, and she found the fermenter without cap and airlock. The trub had clogged the airlock, the and blown the cap and airlock clean off. Apparently the trub did seal it airtight.

Fortunately, I place the fermenters in the bathtub of the guest bathroom, so the mess was contained. And fortunately the cap and airlock weren't damaged, so my wife just put them back on, loosely.

I'll let you know how it tastes once I've bottled it.

I had a 22 oz. bottle of stout freeze and break on the top shelf the back of the refridgerator. Not a brewing error but still a big mess.

Not really a bottle bomb but a bottle volcano! If the new brewers have never had a bottled infection are you ever in for a treat.

After one year of brewing I've had two. First one was last winter. It got cold all of a sudden and slowed down the yeast. I didn't think much of it and bottled anyway. Bad idea. The next one was just a few months ago. Used a new yeast which still wasn't done after three weeks. Bottled anyway and... Blamo.

i got a call from a friend yesterday ... i helped bottle a batch a couple weeks ago and i got 2 bottles for my trouble. anyway, he had his first bottle bomb with these so i got in the fridge asap. i opened one tonight and sure enough, it was a gusher! mehtinks, he had a bit of a stuck fermentation.

Not a bottle bomb, but, I was letting my saved yeast, in a small pedialite bottle, come up to room temp before pitching into a starter. Hiss, BAM! Forgot to loosen the cap :-/
luckily just the cap blew off and I had another in the fridge. Yeast EVERYWHERE!

Ed, I kept some saved yeast in capped beer bottles and thankfully figured that uncapping them before they warmed up would be a good idea. Even so, giving them a little crack caused the contents of the bottle to blow out through the opening. Moral of the story: use tinfoil instead of something that can hold pressure for saving yeast.

Booniebrew, babyfood jars are great for yeast. They store easy, stack high etc. Besides it seem I always know someone knocked up so they are always free :/

Well this AM I was initiated.... While I was brewing some coffee this AM I attempted to open a swing top of Bob's Holiday porter. On Sunday AM I knocked it off a shelf 6 ft high and it did not explode. Rather the swing top fizzed and beer and gas escaped the seal. Since I failed to exchange any of the swing top seals on that batch I know it will be Root Beerish in flavor. So this AM I popped it open....... After an hour of cleaning... I'm back in the kitchen cleaning more tonight... Ceiling, floor, walls, under cabinets, coffee maker, blinds, clock, my belly, and anything else within 15 ft. The bottle didn't explode but the swing hardware is now distorted in shape...

I forget what the beer was, but I was moving cases and twelve packs about in my fermentation closet when I found that one of the twelve packs was stuck to the shelf that it was sitting on. When I got it to move, it left some cardboard behind. I opened the case to find that one of the bottles had split. I think that the bottle was damaged by my bench capper, as I remember one of the bottles making a funny popping sound when I crammed the cap on. I didn't see any cracks in the bottle, but they must have been present. The bottle, instead of exploding sort of broke in half, diagonaly across the center of the bottle, leaving pretty much just the two pieces.

The only beer bomb I have ever had came from reusing a couple St. Peter's oblong-shaped bottles. Out of the entire batch I brewed, 3 of the 4 St. Peter's bottles exploded. I just assumed the glass was too thin or the shape wasn't conducive to rebottling. Any ideas?

I haven't yet. Yet.

Curiously, I bottled an all sugar ginger-beer when the gravity was 1.014-1.016 without priming straight from the primary. Nothing has blown up after a couple of months, and the carbonation is alot like champagne. I still have to open them in the sink though.

BTW the ginger beer looks fantastic, but lacks any robust flavor.

I bottled some bottling bucket remnants once. The bottle was only 1/2 full and eventually it exploded. I kept it inside the garage in a wooden cabinet. The inside of that cabinet still has glass frag imbedded in it that I can't remove.

Oh yeah, it was quite a while ago though..Only back in the days of "2-Row Klages", "Eroica hops" in 1998 when I was very poor, brewing to drink and thought "1.020" was a fine attenuation for a beer that started at 1.050. I don't even want to know what I thought "pretty good" homebrew tasted like back then.