Balls Ups

[DrewCarey82]

2nd brew forgot to prime with sugar, it was the old pet coopers bottles as well had to uncap and then rescrew on extra tight after priming, had blisters on my thumb and what ever the finger is next to it after woulds.

Not soon after I went glass lol!

 

[winkle]

Wait til you take off the ball valve on the kettle, clean it to within an inch of its life then replace and boil, only to discover its on the wrong way and won't open cause the handle hits the kettle.

 

[razz]

Winkle, that is GOLD

 

[mika]

No Razz....it's not just gold...it's Champagne Comedy !

Great reading this thread.

 

[petesbrew]

I tried to use gravel as a false bottom in my mash tun it worked quite well.

I tried to convince the forum that it was a good idea, I called it 'Gravel Buster Ale'

People Heckled and jeered me

To this day people still give me 'SH one T' over it .

I wish I had not mentioned it ,

It could be regarded as a 'Balls up' .

How can people be so unkind :unsure:

Pumpy :huh:

Thats just out there... but how'd it taste? :blink:

 

[rustie]

Yet again I've had another balls up.
What luck I have!

Lesson learnt - don't brew with too many beers under your belt.

Had some friends over last night for dinner. After dinner the guy was keen to see me make a brew.
I made up the XTRACT Pilsner. Nice and easy. We started adding the water. I said, "see that black line? That's 23litres. Fill it to that." No problems. I take the hydro reading... 1034. Far out, that's the lowest I've ever had.... oh well. I add the yeast... think about it, re-read the intructions "FILL TO 20Litres".
BUGGER.

Looks like a light pilsner is on the way.... um, is it too late to add any dextrose after I've added the yeast?

No its not too late. Don't put it in dry though, it will fizz up all over the place. Desolve in water, or drain off some of the Pilsner, desolve in that & return to the fermenter.

Cheers rustie

 

[DJR]

Wait til you take off the ball valve on the kettle, clean it to within an inch of its life then replace and boil, only to discover its on the wrong way and won't open cause the handle hits the kettle.

That's why there's a nut on top of the handle, so you can take it off and put it back on the right way I've done that one before as well!

 

[Darren]

How about standing in line at the hardware store and remembering that the kettle still had not reached the boil before I left.

Got home to a huge mess and the shed was full of gas as the boil-over had extinguished the flame.

cheers

Darren

 

[Blackfish]

How can people be so unkind :unsure:

Pumpy :huh:

Is that you Kamal!?

Ok Ok, here's mine

AG #1 The maiden voyage of my copper wash boiler kettle, which has a pickup in the centre bottom and an old style gate valve that screws all the way out.

Boil finished, hose on, ready to dump into the fermentor to no chill. Open the tap, no flow!
Damn it the pickup is jammed with break/hops. No probs, unscrew the valve and insert chopstick to clear it.

and clear it does! sending a 1/2" stream of near boiling wort onto my hand holding the valve knob. I swear loudly and drop the knob into the fermentor. Not wanting to leave it in there during the ferment, I make several attempts to snatch it out as the level rises. 3 tries and I get it but at the price of 1 scalded hand.

It was red and throbbing for 3 days and curiously the only thing that gave relief was a cold beer in hand!

I have since updated the valve. <_<

FHG

 

[Doogiechap]

Some useful advice.
When using Co2 to transfer from fermenter to keg via filter. When the process is finished, don't unscrew the lid of the fermenter and have a big sniff to see if there are any 'off odours'. It will knock you on your proverbial. Seriously, the effect was instant and I was not far off blacking out :blink: .

 

[Pumpy]

Thats just out there... but how'd it taste? :blink:

It was sparkling clear and did not taste like the bottom of a fish tank but not much body for an AG

Pumpy

 

[therook]

It was red and throbbing for 3 days and curiously the only thing that gave relief was a cold beer in hand!

Hey fhgwgads

Similar to the affects of Viagra

rook

 

[Blackfish]

"It was red and throbbing for 3 days and curiously the only thing that gave relief was a cold beer in hand!"



I wouldn't know about that rook! No experience with that whatsoever!!!!

 

[Jye]

Not exactly a stuff up but more of a what not to do...

When standing next to the kettle controlling a potential boil over DO NOT decide to chew on some columbus hops :blink: I was stuck controlling the boil and unable to spit them out any where since I brew in the garage... surprisingly enough they arent so tasty in their raw form

 

[haro]

My biggest screw up was today.. i just bought my whole keg setup, so this was my first time kegging. I carbed my beer it was all good i tested the outlet value on my keg and nothing happens... so im like wtf.. in order to fix the problem i had to de-pressurize the beer so of course beer sprays all over me etc etc. I eventually found the problem which was a dry-hop bag had burst all into the secondary and this in turn clogged my beer line when i tested it... so pretty much i had to transfer to another keg, filter and carbonate the crap out of it and drink it really fast so that infection would'nt occur..

big screw up

ps (had a few)

 

[poppa joe]

My biggest BALLS UP.......
When i moved from Sydney to Gold Coast..
I left behind 8 Corny Kegs....(Wife said we dont need these)
Cheers
PJ

 

[brendanos]

I tried to use gravel as a false bottom in my mash tun it worked quite well.

I tried to convince the forum that it was a good idea, I called it 'Gravel Buster Ale'

I would've thrown some tree branches in there too just to make sure!

 

[THE DRUNK ARAB]

Not exactly a stuff up but more of a what not to do...

When standing next to the kettle controlling a potential boil over DO NOT decide to chew on some columbus hops :blink: I was stuck controlling the boil and unable to spit them out any where since I brew in the garage... surprisingly enough they arent so tasty in their raw form

That is absolutely hilarious Jye :lol: .

Thanks for the tip.

*Goes to freezer to try a Warrior hop pellet*

C&B
TDA

 

[newguy]

Just discovered my biggest screw up yesterday. 10 gallons of cardboard dunkel. I left the carboys in my garage (made a lagering chamber out there) for about 6 weeks and brought the 2 carboys into the house a week ago. Noticed that the water in the airlocks seemed to have evaporated a bit as the water level was so low that there was no longer an airlock anymore. Air could get straight through.

So I left it and had a taste last night. Yuck! Cardboard! Now I have 10 gallons of dunkel drain cleaner.

Since we're talking about screwups, here's another one (and a save). I made my first mead last November, and kegged it about a month ago. Now a friend who has made several award winning meads tells me I'll need to add acid to it when it's done and I believe him since I know nothing about mead. So I bought a 100g pack of 'acid blend' for making wine from the local HBS. The formula my friend gave me came out to 97g of acid, so I dumped it all in. What a mistake! Acidic doesn't even begin to describe this stuff.

I was seriously thinking about dumping it all out when I thought "bases neutralize acids." So I went to a pet store and in their fish section I found 'pH up'. On the label it says it contains sodium hydroxide (NaOH). Aha! So I added this stuff to taste, and 4 tablespoons in about 18 liters brought it from undrinkable to really, really good.

In case you're wondering, NaOH + acid = H2O + a 'salt'. Not toxic.

 

[Barry]

Good Day
Jye's hop tasting reminded me of my experience. Eating peanuts out of a small bowl while focussed on the boil. Grab a hand full of nuts without looking and chewed down on them. Had a mouthful of EKG's, bitter, bitter, bitter. I was also in the garage but spat it out anyway.