I recently grabbed a case of bottled brew that had been sitting in my brew room for 4 to 6 months to give to a friend. I gave him the older brew to clean up some that wasn’t being drunk in a timely manner. I knew some of the styles were highly carbonated from sitting so long. Initially they were fine after the normal carbonating period. However, the longer they sit the more carbonated they get. Apparently, I make more than I can drink. On his way home he had a couple of them burst on him. The bottle. Not just the cap. I suppose the extra joggling around didn’t help. I have been adjusting the amount of sugar that I use in the bottling process, but I’m not sure that is the correct angle of attack. I need them to carbonate, but not morph into bottle bombs. Any other ideas?
You need to properly calculate and weigh out the sugar. If you are measuring by volume it is not accurate.
A good rule of thumb is .75-1oz per Finished gallon of beer
How did the beers taste? Any chance they were infected?
it’s one of theses options
- you added too much sugar to properly finished and clean beer
- you added more or less the right amount of sugar to properly finished beer that then became infected with a more robust organism capable of fermenting sugars and starches that were not available to the original yeast
- the beer was not properly finished and there was a lot more fermentable sugars remaining than you thought.
it shouldn’t get more carbonated with time unless you are using a wild yeast.
Even then, if it’s getting more carbonated over time it’s scenario #3.
true, even then there has to be SOME starch for those yeast to consume.
Since they’re exploding, it sounds likely they’re infected.
A clean beer will still explode if it’s way over-carbonated. My vote goes to bottling too soon.
Just given the time frame involved, if it were only bottling them too early, they’d probably explode sooner. If it takes 6 months for them to explode, that sounds like a bug. If they exploded within 3 weeks, then I’d say too much sugar is likely.
I agree with everything said so far. I’m guessing you didn’t chill the bottles before he took them. It might have kept them from exploding if they were really cold while he transported them. They would still be over carbed but they might not have exploded.
Paul
You’ll get a gusher before any beer bottle comes close to exploding. Based on the OP’s comments it has to be wild yeast. And, jostling highly-carbed bottles can result in failure. I’m interested if any taste tests were performed.
I have been brewing for +/- 10 yrs and have bottle conditioned every batch. There are many forms of fermentable sugars that can and have been used for priming. There also is a very slight flavor contribution from each to consider. I use table sugar in a Pale ale or IPA where the main flavor is hops, but I use DME in a Munich Helles or Kolsch where the flavors are more delicate and consider molasses or maple syrup in a Porter or Belgian Double. Another important factor to consider when priming a batch is “How much do I use?”, I use this calculator to help guide my additions: Homebrew Priming Sugar Calculator Remember that volume and beer temp at the time of bottling are very influential factors and that measuring the priming sugar/DME by weight is much more accurate than measuring by volume. Cheers and Good Luck!
Thanks for all the replies. To answer some questions, the beer tastes fine. I drank some this weekend. The bottles in question have a definite sign of over carbonation. The caps are domed up. I promptly put them in the fridge to stave off further beer room blasts. I’m leaning toward too much sugar. However, I will keep all the other possibilities in mind. The packs are pre-measured but seem larger than they should be. I will put one on a scale tonight and see.