Exploding beer bottles

[Novice]

This is the second time I have bottled my beer and the bottles have exploded.

I am brewing with grains and hops and then after a week in a fermeting bucket I am bottling the beer into primed beer bottles.

Any idea where I am going wrong?

After two exploding bottles today I have poured away 40 pints, I only bottled the beer on Sunday!

[ArmChair]

Two things:

How much sugar are you priming with?
You only need lad a tsp per pint/500ml bottle

Are you letting the brew fully finish fermenting?
Ie taking a reading 3 days apart and making sure it's the same before bottling!

[TC2642]

As djseaton said, you need to check your SG and FG, amount of priming sugar, also what bottles are you using?

[The Dribbler]

Aye you need to take a Hydrometer reading and ensure it's below around 1012

else.

Wait 10 days and then bottle.

and Only use 1/2 a teaspoon per pint bottle.

[boingy]

Yep, you're bottling it too early or adding too much sugar. Or both.

Have you got a hydrometer?

[Novice]

Thanks all, I think I am bottling too early.

Re priming should I always prime beer bottles and what about if I use a barrel?

[orlando]

Thanks all, I think I am bottling too early.

Re priming should I always prime beer bottles and what about if I use a barrel?

You can of course do either. In fact you can take a similar approach to priming both in the same way. If you decide to cask make a solution of household sugar between 50-100g depending on the amount of fizz you want in about 250ml of water and boil for 10-15 minutes. Put into the barrel and carefully syphon the beer on to it without splashing, you now do not want any oxygen as this will shorten the life of the beer and make it taste carboardy. Give it a stir to ensure evn dilution, again avoiding introducing air and og course doing so with a sanitised spoon. For bottles you would do exactly the same thing but this time putting the beer into a bottling bucket or barrel and then syphoning into each bottle in the usual way. The advantage of this method is you can more closely guarantee that each bottle will get the right amount of sugar. Just make sure you follow the advice above and have a minimum of 3 readings the same over 3 days.

Follow that and you will be drinking more beer than you clear up and not have to hurry past any stored beer with a worried look on your face.

[mark4newman]

Hi

A couple of other tips

1) If you get flip top bottles, you can release the pressure and then recap the bottle. So avoiding throwing them all away.
2) Maybe do a forced ferment, so you know where the beer should end up
3) Bottle 500Ml into a plastic, sparking mineral water bottle and then squeeze out the air before closing. You can then tell how the carbonation is going, just by giving it a squeeze. (Also I would suspect this bottle would be the first to explode if anything was going to)

[jonnyt]

No chance, pet bottles are rated above 30 psi so technically nearly as strong as the Chinese cornies.

[mark4newman]

Hi

Learn something new every day.

OK then, don't expect the PET bottle to explode first. However give it a feel to see how firm it is.

[super_simian]

Buy a hydrometer. Make sure your beer is done fermenting. NEVER EVER GO BY TIME ALONE!

[Martin G]

My pale brews can take two weeks to ferment and the last few points can take a several days so in those cases the two consecutive hydro readings rule is hard to read.

[Cuckoo Barmy]

Leaving it longer before bottling also means the beer will be clearer and a have less sediment in the bottle.

[orlando]

It isn't "wasted" time either as beer conditions quicker in bulk, there is also the upside of the yeast clearing up the off flavours it produces during the ferment, patience is the one ingredient we can't get enough of.