Bottle Bombs and Geisers

[Inkleg]

Wow, I would have been worried about them shattering when I opened them. I would have had eye protection, gloves, etc. on just to be safe.

I'm not saying you should have, just that it would have been on MY mind.

True, but where's the "Here hold my beer and watch this" fun in that.

[mashani]

Last summer I brewed a batch that got infected also. Blew out 33.8 oz PET bottles through the bottom. Big mess. Kept hoping it was limited to just a few bottles, but not so. Still have a bunch of 12 oz glass to go. No idea where I went wrong either. Lactobacillus gets worse as time goes on too.

Oh, I reported you to the beer police for destroying that much beer and laughing... LOL

FWIW, it's probably not Lactobacillus in an infection like that. Lacto might cause foamers, but it is less likely to cause bombs or geysers. Lacto has some fermentation limits and even sour level limits.

Now, acetobacter has no such limits (well it does but they are like 10x more then lacto)... it will ferment stuff as well as all the alcohol anything else makes, do pretty much forever depending on how much oxygen is available since it's PH limit is very low (so low it can make acid strong enough to blister your tongue), and make your beer fooking sour. That's no fun.

If its not really fooking sour, is probably something more like a less domesticated strain of yeast, like Sacc var. Diastaticus. IE Bella Saison and Wyeast 3711 are a "slightly domesticated" strain of that type of yeast. It will keep fermenting down to 0.99something given the chance, so will easily cause ginormous bombs or gushers if it's a minor infection agent instead of intended yeast strain.

Or maybe some type of Dekkera or Brettanomyces if it's tasting really funky, but most Brett also has limits, IE I can safely bottle my Brett C. beer as long as I am aware of the infection without getting even foamers and if I am unaware all I get are foamers, not geysers like that.

[RandyG]

Sorry for your loss Leigh! Being a brewer that experiences this quite often, I always try and salvage the brew if it seems consumable. I figure out how many bottles I'm going to drink in a certain evening etc.Put them in the fridge the night before.About half an hour before drinking them I put my largest funnel into my largest slimline,pop the bottles and let the foam go into the slimeline.I put the lid back on and put the whole works in the fridge.In about half an hour,the foam has subsided and I drink the beer.If it has no carb,I borrow some of SWMBO's Miller lite and add it to the glass.Not the best way of doing things but it works for me. Cheers.

[FedoraDave]

It's always tough to face an infected batch. I've had them myself. Gushers as well as bottle bombs.