Exploding (Rum) Bottles!

So I spent about an hour today cleaning up all my bottles and my cooler after a bottle exploded. Not a beer bottle, the rum bottle I used in desperation when coming to the realization that I had far too much beer and too few bottles to put it in. Let me emphasize something you should already know prior to bottling - from all the reading you should do prior to making your first batch of beer - you need to use QUALITY bottles; beer bottles. There are two outstanding reasons for this: 1) they are less likely to explode under the pressure created in conjunction with carbonating your brew; 2) they'll last longer and you can re-use them more times (forever...?) before they break. A tertiary reason is that you will be less likely to have to deal with this (or worse):

However, the single most important reason, the one you really should care about - you won't waste any of your precious brew! I'm already down a good majority after running short on bottles and now losing my last-ditch-effort rum bottle. So, get good BEER bottles and save yourself some time, and good beer.

A few off-topic notes: I ordered a new gadget today - a "Freezer/Refrigerator Thermostat". This doohickey has a probe that runs into your fridge or freezer and out to a thermostat box on which you select a desired temperature; that is desired temp, singular, not a range. The thermostat plugs into your wall outlet and your fridge or freezer plugs into the thermostat. Then the thermostat turns the whole appliance on and off to reach and maintain your exact, specified temperature. This is crucial for good lagering of your beer; or so I've read. I also ordered - this stuff from Home Brew Party - another stopper and fermentation lock assembly (another thing I forgot last weekend) as well as some additional Amber DME which I will use to prime the American Amber currently in the primary fermenter; as opposed to dextrose/corn sugar, the use of extract is the purist method of carbonation. Last, I picked up a whole bunch of Oxi-Clean at the local WallyWorld to ease the removal of gunk from the inside of my carboys. And now, I should have all I need to simply BREW for a good while!

Oktoberfest/Marzen week next week! Also be on the lookout to for a chance to win your very own Upship! Brewing T-shirt!
- Jack