I brewed La Petite Orange about 4 months ago and it has been bottled in 22oz bottles for at least 3 months. About a week ago my wife moved some of my bottles to the cellar leaving all the the bottles standing, with the exception of one. The one that exploded was lying on its side at about a 30 degree angle.
My question is was the position of the bottle the cause for the explosion or was it just destined to explode? I would like to think that it was meant to be since I never had an issue placing bottles on their sides in the refrigerator and they were bottled a lot less than 3-4 months.
If it was the bottle’s position then I guess I will be storing all bottles standing.
Anybody?
Bottle position and movement could have roused the yeast but I don’t think that it would be a reason for it to explode.
Are you sure that one didn’t fall over, hit something and break?
I don’t think bottle position would have an effect on exploding, but if you have one, you might have other about to go - unless it was just a poorly cleaned bottle. Open another from the same batch and see if it gushes. You might want to put them all in the fridge to prevent further microbial activity.
I don’t believe the bottle was infected. It was brand new, rinsed with water and sat in StarSan solution for 10 minutes before bottling. Also it didn’t drop or knock against anything hard. It was resting atop 11 bomber bottles and 1 qt sized PET bottle within a cardboard box (that the bombers came in). It didn’t have room to drop, or move for that matter.
Per your suggestion, I’ll open another one.
I refrigerated a bottle for 2 days then opened it. No gusher. I poured into a stemmed pilsner glass and about 2/3 of the pour resulted in a long lasting head. After 15 minutes I poured again with the same results. Just a small amount of yeast remained in the glass-----about 1/8 teaspoon. Beer tasted great.
The story doesn’t end here. Confident, I gave my neighbor a bottle of the Petit Orange. He stored it upright in his refrigerator. Thirty seconds after closing the door the bottle exploded. I cannot figure out why 2 of the 12 bombers exploded (so far) and probably never will. I have bottles of a Bourbon Porter, Session and Saison sitting next to my Petit Orange and nothing has happened.
I am going back to my PET liters-------a lot safer.
Sounds like your bottle priming sugar didn’t get mixed in well. A couple bottles got more than their share?
Could very well be since the bottles were new, rinsed and sanitized and there was no direct correlation between bottle placement and explosion. In any event it’s back to plastic for me. Those shards can do a lot of damage!
