first bottle bomb....

bottled my spotted cow cream ale on 11 April in ez cap 16 oz bottles with the FG a 1.010. All was well until this weekend. After labeling, the bottles went into the basement on Saturday. Sunday afternoon (7 June) one of the bottles was found on its side with 1/2 of the bottom laying beside it…literally one half. bottom 1/2 inch of the bottle on one clean side of the seam split off. Had opened a press cap bottle of the same brew earlier in the day. No over carb, no gusher… hoping for no additional casualties!!

Whew! Sounds like you avoided injury. After 13 batches I’ve managed to avoid bombs so far.

only injury was my pride, loss of an ez cap bottle and the valued contents of the bottle…

Your bottle could have failed because of a stress fracture, not from over carbonation. It would be a good idea to put the rest of the bottles in a container that will contain flying glass, in case some are over carbed or fermentation is continuing due to bottle infection.

bottles now in boxes and/or in fridge. The fact that the bottle broke in such a weird way, with precisely half the bottom sheared off at the joint in the glass, leads me to think it was a flaw when the bottle was made. Opened one of the conventional press cap bottles I did from the same batch and it was not over carbed.

Be very careful. Bottle bombs are seriously dangerous.

Yep…only happened to me with one batch but once was enough. Glass can travel 60 feet! :shock:

My brother had a plastic bottle detonate in his fridge. The top blew off and the bottle did the rocket thing and actually bent the wire shelf. Had a nice mess to clean up too.

Several bottles from my first batch exploded, so I put the survivors in the kitchen sink and dumped ice on them to cool them and reduce the pressure.

“Seemed like a good idea at the time,” said the cowboy after he jumped in the cactus patch.

It turns out that dumping ice on highly stressed glass can cause localized stresses. Another bottle blew and a shard hit me in the back of my left arm. The ER doc and I had a good laugh - my wife did not laugh. The doc sewed me up, and I went on my way.

That was about 1990 and I’ve been kegging ever since.

Please, if there’s any chance a bottle is over-carbed, wrap it in multiple layers of heavy towels before you handle it! Do Not hold it in your lap! Do not listen to it to see if it’s making noise! Do not look at it closely to see if there are any bubbles!

Bottles definitely don’t last forever either. I’m not sure how many uses we get per bottle, but the wife and I try to be careful about inspecting each one before the final wash/sanitize step.

I’ll notice the occasional hairline, usually around the neck, when I do, it goes straight into the recycling bin. Since almost every case of beer I buy comes with 24 free bottles, it’s not worth risking over-using a bottle.

So far the worst I have had is capping a bottle and it basically sheared off at the neck. Luckily no injuries.