Emergency Question! - Vaccum Flask Full Of Carbonated Beer Won't Open!

[Mintaka]

I made some ginger beer and was stupid enough to put some in my metal screwtop vacuum flask.

 

Ginger beer with yeast is famous for expanding and carbonating, now the lid is stuck tight, I'm afraid the whole thing might explode like a bomb....

 

any quick ideas for lowering the pressure inside maybe so I can open it safely?

 

:blink:

 

 

Thank you!!!

[Turtle]

put the vaccum bottle in the freezer and leave it undisturbed. periodiclly try the cap - without undo shaking of container - until it comes off.

[Qfwfq]

put the vaccum bottle in the freezer and leave it undisturbed. periodiclly try the cap - without undo shaking of container - until it comes off.

I'm not sure, because a lower temperature would likely decrease solubility. I don't know what the best temperature would be.

 

One approach could be some mechanism that can press the screw cap down hard, enough to relieve friction on the screw threading, but without hindering its rotation. If the worst comes to the worst, perforate the thinnest part of the screw top to relieve pressure and then solder it once open.

[sanctus]

Or you can try the brute force way. If the vacuum flask is breakable :-). Build up a device that allows you to smash it from distance and you save :-). Like you behind a wall and you push a heavy stone on the botle laying on the other side of the wall :-)

 

 

EDIT: This if you don't want to have the vacuum flask anymore, obviously...

[Turtle]

I'm not sure, because a lower temperature would likely decrease solubility. I don't know what the best temperature would be.

 

One approach could be some mechanism that can press the screw cap down hard, enough to relieve friction on the screw threading, but without hindering its rotation. If the worst comes to the worst, perforate the thinnest part of the screw top to relieve pressure and then solder it once open.

 

i read just the opposite on solubility. :confused:

 

Explain why a warm soda produces more 'fizz' when opened than a bottle of cold soda does.

In the case of a gas dissolved into a liquid, usually higher temperature leads to less dissolved gas. So, a warmer soda cannot "hold" as much gas as a colder one. When you open them, the warmer one will release more of its gas and you hear more fizz.

The colder an element is the more condensed it is taking up less room's. [sic]...

 

some vacuum bottles have glass liners, some have steel, but in either case i don't think they would explode from beer. i read somewhere that plastic pop bottles are designed to contain gas @ 20 atmospheres and that co2 in pop - and presumably beer - is only at 2 atmospheres. :shrug:

 

besides cooling the beer in the freezer, which will take a while because the vacuum is going to insulate it, the cooling is likely to cause the cap & bottle to contract as well. my thought is it's kinda like heating a bolt then letting it cool to loosen it. if cap & bottle are disimilar materials, the cap plastic and the bottle metal for example, this ought to work even better than if they are similar. there is always trying a pipe wrench i guess.

[Qfwfq]

i read just the opposite on solubility.

Makes sense, for a dissolved gas, considering Le Chatelier, though it might not hold good if the liquid starts to freeze.

[Mintaka]

Thanks all for your help. It was a metal lined flask, I should have said.

 

I was worried because when brewing the pressure builds up a lot and glass bottles are meant to have the corks tied on because they do explode.

 

Anyway, I was lucky, my arm strength finally did the job and the top went flying about 30 metres into the air with a very loud bang.

 

I won't be so careless again.

 

Cheers. :rolleyes:

[Qfwfq]

...the top went flying about 30 metres into the air with a very loud bang.

Did it spray like champagne? You won the Grand Prix man!!!!!!

 

:wave: :xparty: :circle: :cheer: