Why did my homebrew explode?!
Why did my homebrew explode?
I have brewed 20 or so batches of beer before in my home but never had this happen. I brewed July 4th and had placed the fermenter in my basement to ferment. It was a cool dry place. I followed the kit directions exactly. When I went down this morning. There was beer everywhere. The fermenter was still intact but the plug that measures CO2 production was across the room and there was this white crust around the rim. Was this just a freak accident or did I get bacteria in the brew or what? Of course is it also safe to drink?
Answers: It sounds like your airlock got clogged up somehow, resulting in a buildup of pressure from fermentation until...BOOM! Basically, you have to have some way for the CO2 being produced by the yeast to escape. The same sort of thing can happen when bottling if you add too much sugar--the pressure in the bottles builds up...you get the picture. During fermentation, this is usually taken care of by allowing the air to escape--which it obviously wasn't in your case.
It may be safe to drink (the are no bacteria that live in beer that are harmful), but I wouldn't reccommend it--after being exposed to the air, there's too much chance that bacteria got in and will ruin the process, resulting in a horrible tasting beer. to much sugar and yeast
http://free-chat-no-rules.blogspot.com/... It has happened to me before too. I knew why it happened and it was because I transferred to the secondary fermenter too soon. The inital head had not fallen enough before I put into the glass carboy. I woke up the next morning after that and I had to clean up the sticky, ceiling, floor, walls....The other reasons also given could be the problem too though. you may have also just had to vigorous a fermentation going, to much CO2 to escape through the airlock quickly enough would pop it too...i wouldn't want to drink it but yes its safe, the longer it was exposed to air the the higher the chance is that youll find a beer that actually tastes worse than large american lagers