Mason Jar Bomb- A Warning

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beefeater33

Lifer
Apr 14, 2014
4,063
6,119
Central Ohio
So I'm rummaging around my tobacco stash this morning and find this:

ypmS4hW.jpg

It's 9 100 gram bricks of Wessex Gold in a 1/2 gallon mason jar. I sealed these up in July of 2014.

HHHMMMMMMMMMMM, looks pretty tasty I say to myself, why not break into it?
Well, I went to unscrew the cap and BAM!! The cap blew off, sounded like a SHOTGUN blast! Totally caught me off guard.... I nearly Shat myself, wife comes running, thinking I discharged a gun! This thing had some F&#*king PRESSURE! Aging be damned, I'm going to "burp" all my jars today, gonna wear safety glasses & earplugs too..... 8O
Anyone else have this happen?.......

 
Wow, I bet those have really been having some magic happen. I don't like the larger jars. I have some of the half gallon and gallon jars, but the larger the jar, the more tensile pressure the glass has to deal with.

The smaller jars, I can knock over my backyard fence with a baseball bat without breaking. The quart and larger... not so much.

 

ashdigger

Lifer
Jul 30, 2016
11,379
70,060
60
Vegas Baby!!!
While not the same explosive action I have had a few that were bulged and shocked me when I opened them. I check every jar before opening now. I'm like cosmic, I use smaller jars too.

 

beefeater33

Lifer
Apr 14, 2014
4,063
6,119
Central Ohio
the larger the jar, the more tensile pressure the glass has to deal with.
You know, I never thought about this- makes sense. There's a lot more volume in those big jars. I normally use the smaller ones as well, pints and half pints......... Lesson learned!

 
Mar 1, 2014
3,646
4,916
You could just puncture the lid with a drill when you eventually go to open it if you think it's pressurized.

Unless you think the glass is anywhere near failure and it's close to exploding, that could turn nasty.

 

sw0snuff3r

Starting to Get Obsessed
Oct 3, 2014
239
1
I've had this happen with some bulk Toque snuff once. They process bulk when ordered so it was very fresh. It had been in the jar only a couple of months and just as you mentioned, sounded like a shotgun blast when opened and the lid flew out of my hand. The jar went from a cool cellar to the upstairs where it was hot and humid for a couple of hours before opening. I attributed it to the temperature change and fermentation, did your jar go through a temperature change before opening as well?

 

grouchydog

Can't Leave
Oct 16, 2013
413
1
You could just puncture the lid with a drill when you eventually go to open it if you think it's pressurized.

Unless you think the glass is anywhere near failure and it's close to exploding, that could turn nasty.
If in doubt, wrap the jar in a towel first.

 

mayfair70

Lifer
Sep 14, 2015
1,968
2
As Grouchydog recommends, a sturdy towel to open older jars is a good idea, and can protect you from potential glass fragments. You are very lucky it wasn't worse. I've been hearing my little jars popping softly the past few weeks. I keep them near a window, not in direct sunlight, and we've had the windows open on cool nights.
When I was growing up, we used those and quart jars to store peaches. We did an open canning process where you boil the fruit, jars and lids at the same time in separate pots on the stove. It is basically a sterile technique to then scoop the peaces through a funnel into the jars and use tongs to put the lids on. You then tighten the lids and wipe down the jars with a towel. Once every few years a jar would explode sending shards of glass and scalding hot peach magma flying in all directions. You had to keep the pots the same temperature or the glass would shrink or expand and cause the glass to shatter. The thought of a kitchen table full of little orange time bombs is strangely comforting to me now. Stay safe ! :)

 

Cliff_K

Starting to Get Obsessed
Oct 5, 2016
148
23
Ferron, Utah
I had a 8oz jar blow the top when I opened it a couple of weeks ago. And 2 4oz jars that sealed to the point I had to use a bottle opener to pop the tops off

 
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