Bottling cider

I attempted to bottle 1 gallon of cider in a glass jug. I primed with 20 grams of corn sugar. 4.5 days

later it exploded. I was in the area at the time. Luckily it was inside a closed cabinet in secondary

containment.

Three possibilities come to mind…

1 - Fermentation was not complete.
2 - Priming sugar was not mixed thoroughly, and one bottle got way more sugar than it should have.
3 - The bottle had a defect, preventing it from holding pressure.

Can you tell us more about your process for bottling? Going off of NB’s priming sugar calculator, you should have only had 2.3 volumes CO2 in your cider, and that is nowhere close to enough pressure to cause a bottle to blow.

Jugs and growlers aren’t designed to hold the pressures achieved during natural carbonation. Parts of these containers have thin glass because of the shaping process.

Glad you weren’t hurt.

Good catch! I missed that completely. Yes, jugs are not rated for pressure at all. You need amber beer bottles or champagne bottles to hold pressure. EZ-cap bottles are a nice compromise for small batches, and you can get them in pretty large sizes.

Thanks for the responses. In the years I’ve been brewing I never came across any information that a properly primed beverage would create too much pressure for a gallon or half gallon glass container. Maybe this story will keep someone from getting injured.

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