Jeremy Clarkson reacts to 'hand grenade' cider emergency on Clarkson's Farm

What did you miss?

Jeremy Clarkson was left panicked by a warning that his cider bottles were exploding and had injured a customer, in the latest episodes of Clarkson's Farm.

The former Top Gear star was busy building a carpark and preparing for his pigs to give birth when he was called in to deal with 'cider-gate', revealing the bottles for his Hawkstone cider had become "hand grenades, and was warned it was "very serious".

The new episodes of his Prime Video — released on 10 May — show Clarkson had to abandon Diddly Squat Farm and head to the brewery to deal with the incident taking up "valuable time" during his busy day.

What, how, and why?

Clarkson, 64, was busy digging a ditch as part of preparations to build his hard-won farm shop car park when he received a call about the cider bottles.

The former Top Gear presenter called farm manager Kaleb Cooper and told him: "Yo. Do you want the bad news, or the bad news... The cider's exploding." The pair immediately headed to the Cotswold Brewing Co, who he had collaborated with to produce his own lager, beer and cider line Hawkstone.

There he was informed by lager brewer Nick that thousands of bottle were likely affected by the problem and that it was "properly serious". Clarkson said: "Someone has been injured I gather. Someone in Derbyshire has got a cut finger."

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The cause of the issue that was causing the glass bottles to explode was identified as a micro-organism in the white sediment of the bottle continuing to ferment it in the bottles. Clarkson said: "So that sediment is eating the sugar and turning it into a Mills hand grenade."

Clarkson and Cooper then opened a bottle of cider underwater in a bucket as The Grand Tour star asked: "You really do have to be this careful?"

Clarkson then issued a warning about the exploding bottles to customers on social media, which made the Oxfordshire local evening news. He claimed that since there was no time to get a professional PR firm into advise him, he was forced to word the emergency warning to customers himself.

He said: "What I've written is 'F*** f*** f*** f*** f*** f***. There’s been a massive c**k up and as a result, there’s a very slim chance, some of our Hawkstone CIDER bottles might, there’s no easy way of saying this, explode. If the cap has the code L3160, open it underwater, pour it away and get in touch for a refund.' "

Clarkson added: "That is like putting your hands up in the headmaster's office 'Sir I've been smoking.'" The TV star checked social media and found pictures of broken cider bottles being shared by disgruntled customers.

What else happened on Clarkson's Farm?

Clarkson also revealed he had had a pig ring named after him. The Who Wants To Be A Millionaire host had some rings custom made for to help protect his newborn piglets. He had the rings made after one of his pigs killed her newborn piglets by sitting on them and suffocating them. The pig rings were delivered the same day as 'cider-gate'.

Clarkson took a call from the manufacturer of the steel rings he had ordered for his pigs to give birth in. He told them: "Couldn't happen on a worse day if I'm honest but I'll see you in half an hour."

The large steel ring that fits into the ground contains the female pig in labour, so that her piglets can feet from around the ring, protected from the danger of being crushed to death by their mother.

Clarkson told Cooper: "You know he's patented my idea. He's called it the Clarkson ring. I really hope these work. I'm looking forward to it this time. It was heartbreaking last time."

All episodes from Clarkson's Farm season three are available to stream on Amazon Prime Video now.