Brewing Disaster

[Adzmax]

I'd lined up a nice JS Pilsner style recipe to brew last Sunday and was looking forward to a nice day in the sun relaxing. Saturday had been a HUGE night and I must admit it was hard getting out of bed but I had beer to brew

Anyhow to cut a long story short I was setting up my equipment and getting ready and after a recent purchase of some fitting for my hose I thought I'd fill my sparge vessel in place rather than lugging it around from the tap around back. I connected up my temperature controller and connected the probe to in then plugged in all the leads and headed off inside to get more equipment.

I came back outside with my arms full to find black smoke bellowing from my sparge vessel. After a big night it took me a second or two to click, the bloody thing was on fire, I'd switched it on with no water inside, what an idiot! Anyhow the thing was WELL alight, I had to kick it off the decking onto the bricks below and watch the thing burn to a crisp, no matter how much water I got on it it simply would not go out. It eventually burnt out but my brew day was ruined and so was part of the new decking. I've learned two things from this, 1. Don't brew hung over as it requires thinking, 2. Once you have a good routine stick to it. Anyhow just thought I'd share and ask the question -

What is your single biggest brewing disaster and how did it happen?

Pics below of before and after

Before

After

All that was left of the bucket

My kick was good!

Don't think this is any good now

NOT HAPPY!!!!

 

[warrenlw63]

Man that is plain sad.

Also I guess a lesson learned.

Warren -

 

[Tony M]

F**KK,
I grieve for you. When you get round to building a new kettle, incorporate into it a thermal cutout. you can scrounge one off any old electric HWS on the side of the road and stick it onto the outside of your HLT. The one I have cuts off the juice at about 85C so if you run dry, you wont burn the house down.
Once again, my commiserations.

 

[Adzmax]

Yeah big lesson learned, I won't be doing that again trust me

Tony M - I was thinking of something like that myself. Perhaps a low voltage circuit that go's open when there is no water preventing it from turning on. I use a Mash Master temperature controller kit which has a cut off but I'm assuming it got hot so quickly with no water that the plastic just burst into flames. I'll think of something nice and safe. I've always been so careful with it in the past too when using it. I always keep an eye on the water level so it doesn't boil dry....ahhh well.

 

[Muggus]

Damn, thats a big bummer Adzmax!

I had probably my biggest brewing (related) disaster to date the other day. Due to large amount of clutter, and limited space in my brew room, I've had to store my cartons of beer on top of one another and, from what I can gather, I must've had a bottle explode in one such case underneath another case cause a chain reaction and crushing the best part of 20 bottles of brew in the process. The clean up job was not too enjoyable.

 

[haysie]

Adzmax,
Similar , not as bad.
Too much too do too little time, root around with the new milmaster, keg a beer, rack a beer, brew a beer. All sounds too good doesnt it.
The milmaster, the rack, the keg, the drinking went dandy andy, the troubled started when i clicked on one of "newguy" posts that led me too stout recipe. MMMM thats look good, order the goodies add the base, mash in, alls well, drain 1ltr stuck!!!! blow, add hot sparge water, blow, add immersion heater stir, blow, farrrrrrrrkkkkkkkkk.
Wheres that bag i got somewhere? under the bench? yes there it is> the dog is sleeping on it! Oh well, havent boiled the ***** yet, "off the bed libby"
Line the boiler with the bag, urn by urn tip it in, cursing every ### person from here too timbuk2.
Now its time too get rid of that godforsaken grain, problem being 7 kilos, an operator with a few cdrinks and sure enough black ***** from a$$hole 2 breakfast everywhere, boiler, floor, wall, burner, operator.
Hmmm, feeling the wrath by this stage, soo all burners on including the immersion and then take the bedless one for a walk.
On return, things are well n truely boiling and add 70grams EKG, inside for a little internet/ahb stuff and back 70min later, little bit of flame out ekg, set up plate chiller.
WOW, about 5 litres in, BLOCKED as well, the farkin plate chiller, hmmm, after all the mess about 1am in the morning B) here i am legless aerating my brew, 25deg, i`ll pitch unstarted wyeast 1084.
That was 1am saturady morning, now approaching 72 hrs, it has not sweated, foamed, farted or even given me the least bit of encouragement.
The packet was removed from fridge earlier that day , smacked yada yada.

You gotta laugh, because WTF else we gotta do? Buy a slab

 

[Darren]

Haysie,

Give the fermenter a swirl

cheers

Darren

 

[haysie]

Cheers Darren
Done that a few times already. As mentioned pitched 25, but, i went to bed forgetting the temp control was still on crash temp............... which was 2deg, when i found it the next day, many hours later it was 14deg , i wrapped it in heat wrap and pad, hit 22 within 4 hours, have held it there, and will hold out another 48 hours.

 

[Tony]

And every time you walk up the stairs to see the burnt ring in your decking you will remember to put water in before you turn on the power.

Brewing with a hangover....... brewing is the best thing for a hangover, better than a greasy hanburger.

Just remember the water and you will be fine.

your not a real brewer untill.....

chin up mate..... you could have lost 5 x 50 liter batches to infections in the last 3 months like me. bugs got in the moulding of the firmenters and spoiled lots of beer and just after getting on top of it i got a different infection in a beer.

ive had to throw out all my gear and trying to gather up the money to buy new firmenters ect but its not happening.

cheers

 

[Cummins]

I lasted 4 AGs before I tipped all the water from the HLT (A nice 16L electric Urn) into my mashtun..... without turning the power off. Ran it dry too! Now it just trips the circuit breaker when I try and turn it on. Dont know much about them, if this problem can be fixed, or if its buggered? I can still use it with an immersion heater, but its basically just a metal bucket.

 

[goatherder]

Replace the element Cummins - they are available from electrical supply type stores if you tell them the model of your urn. It shouldn't cost you heaps and I believe they are easily replaceable.

 

[Darren]

chin up mate..... you could have lost 5 x 50 liter batches to infections in the last 3 months like me. bugs got in the moulding of the firmenters and spoiled lots of beer and just after getting on top of it i got a different infection in a beer.

ive had to throw out all my gear and trying to gather up the money to buy new firmenters ect but its not happening.

cheers

Hey Tony,

Dont stress it too much. Grab a new firmenter as it is probably the main cause of your problems. For the rest of your equipment forget the ansie pansie "no rinse" sanitisers, Try some granular pool chlorine (a handful in a bucket of water). NO bugs survive a good dose of chlorine. Although I donot endorse the use of chlorine for everyday sanitation, 250 litres of beer down the drain requires drastic action.

cheers

Darren