Thursday, June 30, 2016

Hand grenades

Early this summer, had 3 different beers explode in bottles.  First time.

First was Tripel 132, then Hop Marzen 133, then APA 135.

The Tripel was multiple bottles/events, beer wasn't fully fermented before bottling, then a bit too much primer (compensating for slow winter carbonation).  As soon as basement temps reached summer levels (ie, 60s) kablooey.  What a mess.

Shortly after, the marzen had at least one, and maybe more go off.  It's possible it was a chain reaction and just one bottle actually went off on its own.  This batch was unevenly carbed, and heavily primed in winter conditions.  It went off within a day or two of the Tripel.

Finally, a single APA went off, I didn't notice it for a while, because the mess was dry and moldy when I found it.  That one was probably the final bottle filled, with extra sugar and junk from the bottom of the bucket, although I can't verify for sure.

The Tripel and Marzen I quickly refrigerated the remainders of the batch and choked it down cold as fast as I could.  The APA I just left on the shelf, no more problems as of yet, although it was somewhat unevenly carbed.

Lessons learned:  mix in priming sugar more effectively.  Label final bottle or two for early consumption.  Don't over-carb in winter months, just be patient and wait for the beer to carb up.

Also, I'm not very happy with Starsan.  Things don't get clean, and sanitation is iffy.  Need to go back to bleach and/or boiling stuff, although Starsan for final bottle prep may be OK.

Messy and dangerous business.    

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