Tap-A-Draft system

[becca]

Hello!

I bottled a batch today and had hoped to only use two of the Tap-A-Draft bottles and then use small bottles for the rest. I added all of the priming sugar to the batch and then did just that. Of course afterwards I read that I should only have used 2/3 of the priming sugar...

The question is, how much trouble am I in with my Tap-A-Draft bottles? Will they explode? Would it work if I bled off some of the carbonation in a week and then closed them up again?

Thanks so much for any assistance you can offer.

[grapeadmin]

I don't think they will explode but you are likely to have really carbonated beer. I think just bleeding off some of the co2 would work just fine.

thanks
john
g and g

[becca]

Well that's good. I put them in a garbage bag just in case.

Along these lines, however, do you have any advice on how I could accomplish this goal of doing two tap-a-keg bottles plus 16 or so 12oz bottles and get them all carbonated properly? Part of me wants to do the 2/3 sugar into the batch first, do the tap a kegs, then add the rest but that would oversugar the bottles...

[grapeadmin]

If it were me, I would rack the clear beer into the (2) tap a kegs and then prime each tap a keg with the 1/4 or so cup priming sugar. Then I would use the coopers carbonation drops on the 12 oz bottles. For the 12 oz beer bottles, you would prime with one carbonation drop per bottle.

thanks
john

[LIBNICK]

I just found out on vacation they can and will explode...We had a very low carb brown ale in one and put only one cartridge in and it blew out the entire back within about 1 minute, spraying beer everywhere..luckily no one got hurt but a gallon and a half of brown ale was everywhere...It sounded like a bomb went off it was so loud...

This has also apparently happened before - [url]http://community.mrbeer.com/index.php?option=com_kunena&Itemid=58&func=view&catid=12&id=93678[/url]

The one in that pic looks exactly how ours went, split the back of the jug wide open...I have a pic of ours also but pics are turned off...

[grapeadmin]

Thanks for the post. I will have to remember to warn people about this.

thanks
john
g and g

[rcarson]

I dont know if this is relivant but I have recently read that when making soda( a highly carbonated beverage) that plastic bottles should only be used 3 of 4 times due to the stress of pressurization and the release of pressure, disposable soda bottles are designed for single use like glass disposable beer bottles that are lighter weight than returnables. Maybe this can be a contributing factor to the bottle problems. How does the construction of the tap-a-draft bottles compare to regular soda bottles?

[grapeadmin]

They have changed them recently. They are now brown instead of blue and they seem to have a thicker wall now. Perhaps they are addressing this issue.

john
g and g