On 22/10/2013 15:43, Tom Gardner wrote:
On 22/10/13 14:15, Pam Moore wrote:
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You haven't lived until you've had an egg explode in the microwave!

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I haven't had that but I have had a bottle of homemade elderflower
champagne, in an old screw-top bottle explode in my kitchen, luckily
at around 6 am before anyone was up.
Glass embedded in ceiling, walls venetian blind etc, all over
everything along with the contents of the bottle.
That was about 30 years ago and I have only made it once since!
At least the egg would be contained in the microwave, I assume.

Plastic bottles are pretty safe - if there's an excess of pressure,
they visibly inflate and split rather than shatter.

My father once put champagne in the freezer to chill it quickly.
When opened, the cork left a dent in the ceiling, the contents
hit the ceiling, and all that was left in the bottle was a frozen
mesh, presumably water.

Reminds me of when I was a youngster, made a batch of sparkling
elderflower wine, bottled it and put it in the bottom of my wardrobe.
This was up against the wall that had the airing cupboard on the other side.
I had a couple of demijohns bubbling away in the bedroom as well, well a
few months on I went to get a bottle out to try and found it had no
bottom, and the next was the same, in-fact they all had blown their
bottoms off, and with the smell from the brewing I hadn't noticed.
Another time I made a batch of Stepney the drink that took it's name
from the London borough. That was put into the old screw top beer
bottles. well I took one into the kitchen to open it, luckily the
kitchen window was open as the top took off when I had it almost undone,
I was left with about half an inch of sludge in the bottom of the bottle
and the stopper almost 30ft across the garden. A brew it yourself fire
extinguisher,