Embarassing Mistakes Department

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PeterS

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Hane you been embarassed how stupid you are sometimes.? Well, not so much embarassing, since I could have kept it to myself, never the less it was a stupid mistake. My Note in a recent AG brew reads:

"Downed on 30 Mar 05. No fermentation activity evident after 48 hours. On checking the SG of my other fermenter that was ready to be bottled, it showed an SG of 1.041."

The story unfolds as fiollows. I had two identical fermenters in use at the one time. One was ready to be bottled, the other was waiting to pitch the yeast at the right time. I took out the fermenter that was on CC in the fridge and placed it next to the other one. Stupid mistake number one. They are both identical. I had a phone call that stuffed everything up. Well, not everything, accept my routine. When I came back, I pitched the yeast into the fermenter that I thought I should have. No wonder there was no activity after 48 hours, the yeasties have already consumed all the available food and there was no more for any newcomers. I actually put the other fermenter back in the fridge for further CC as it looked cloudy without checking the SG at this stage. Of course it is coudy, it is still a wort awating the fermentation process.

I have learned my lesson. All my fermenters are now marked with an very large letter.

If you have not done so, I advice that you do so immediately, unless I am the only stupid fellow arround here.

Come to think of it, I was enjoying a good drop of Pale Ale at the time.....
 
Your not the only one. I have three brews CCing. All three are similar looking ales but I have no idea which one is which.
Did I start from the left as I put them in or did do it right to left??
I now have a texta in hand to mark my fermenters and cubes.
Chris
 
TasChris said:
Your not the only one. I have three brews CCing. All three are similar looking ales but I have no idea which one is which.
Did I start from the left as I put them in or did do it right to left??
I now have a texta in hand to mark my fermenters and cubes.
Chris
[post="52646"][/post]​

I am sorry for you Tas Chris, at the same time, I am glad that it does not only happen to me.

:beer:
 
Haven't done this particlular mistake, but have managed ones of my own. I was yeast farming, had two yeasts out on the bench and streaking them into petri's, walked away, came back, and now, which was which? Chucked them away as I could not say which was which.

To avoid these issues, I write up a brief description of the beer, start date, og, yeast, style (if any) and hops and tape this to the outside of the fermenter. This gets transferred at the same time as the beer is racked, and then if the beer is kegged it is taped to the outside of the keg.

Makes life much easier with a lot of kegs and fermenters around.

The same with any yeast stuff, label, label, label. If in doubt, chuck it out.

Grains get labeled with date and source.

And hops. Even then, you can have a loss. I know of a brewer that carefully placed all his hops in glass jars in his freezer, all with texta marked on the outside, but this texta was waterbased and all the markings became illegible.
 
I'm in denial of all my mistakes. I just convince myself somebody else did it.

One tip re: labelling - I find it easier to permanently label all my fermenters / flasks etc with a number, then just keep a notebook with a page for each one. It is easier to scribble in a notebook than attach a label to something that's cold and wet.

Just don't lose the notebook <_<
 
pint of lager said:
I know of a brewer that carefully placed all his hops in glass jars in his freezer, all with texta marked on the outside, but this texta was waterbased and all the markings became illegible.
[post="52650"][/post]​

done that before! :angry:
 
I've had that happen to several of my yeasts. Now i write on the lid.
 
I've been lucky enough not to have any major cockups as yet. Done the occasional near-miss like leaving the tap open while racking, but I usually catch that in time. When I was still new to brewing I fermented a Coopers Heritage lager at 27C, tasted like raisins.

I do know I'm going to have a serious incident one day unless I stop carrying around saucepans of hot wort barefoot with no shoes on.
 
Though I did just speak too soon. Beer fridge got too cold and burst a grolsch bottle.

Ah well, at least it wasn't on the top shelf. Anyone who wants some Eisbier, come round with a straw quickly
 
Kai said:
Though I did just speak too soon. Beer fridge got too cold and burst a grolsch bottle.

Ah well, at least it wasn't on the top shelf. Anyone who wants some Eisbier, come round with a straw quickly
[post="52664"][/post]​

:lol: :super: Das ist super-funny!
 
guilty of capping the beer i was drinking while bottling a brew on more occasions that i will admit to ;)
 
Had a few kits laying around that I wanted to get rid of, so I did a part mash stout. I was chilling the wort before racking to the fermenter and couldn't work out why my post boil gravity was so low! As I'm standing there watching the wort chill, I looked across the bench and saw the kit, still unused, staring at me! :rolleyes:

D'oh! :blink:

TL
 
I feel shame when a beer goes wrong.

I know that it's all part of a learning curve, but inevitable losses are still often regretted.
The one that got away. I may never brew it again. I must make another coz I wanted to taste "that one" without the wild yeast flavours.

U know what I mean.

BTW, I'm racking an Amarillo APA onto 28g fresh Amarillo pellets 2nite.

Testify!

Brother Seth out :beerbang:

P.S. Anyone out there into "I Spit on your Gravy"? :p
 
my current shame is buying a liquid yeast, getting to about a 1l starter ready for splitting into smaller bottles, deciding i really should clean up the kitchen for dinner, then finding several unlabeled identical plastic water bottles the next day in fridge. obviously one has the yeast & the other 2 just had dme wort. mmmm all the same colour. guess i should i have taken 30secs to label them ...
it wouldnt have been so bad if i hadnt planned to put a brew on that day ....
 
On the weekend transfering from the mash tun to the boiler. Boiler is filling up slow.... whoops, the kettle tap is open :( Lost a few litres to the floor.
 
Did a Trappist Ale via the usual methods.

When I fill bottles I usually just sit the cap on the top of the bottles to expel oxygen, then crimp about 15 mins later. Was a little bit bleary-eyed that afternoon (new year's day hangover).

This is a case of the domino effect in action. Turn around elbow hits capper. Capper tips over onto 14 bottles of Belgian Beauty with caps just sitting on the top.

In tenpin bowling terms I got me a strike. :blink:

Most of the beer wound up on the floor, the balance on the wife's new curtains and freshly painted walls.

Needless to say everything brew-related is kept to the garage these days. :eek:

Warren -
 
nonicman said:
On the weekend transfering from the mash tun to the boiler. Boiler is filling up slow.... whoops, the kettle tap is open :( Lost a few litres to the floor.
[post="52726"][/post]​


Not many brewers have not fallen for the open tap trick , I transfered to my CC jerry , tap open in the laundry , and I am off checking the AHB website.

Result , half a jerry of wort , the other half all over the floor , under the washer , in fact wort in most places difficult to clean up.

I was not on the top of the list of the most popular hubbies for a while :p

Batz
 


Not many brewers have not fallen for the open tap trick , I transfered to my CC jerry , tap open in the laundry , and I am off checking the AHB website.

Batz
[post="52761"][/post]​
[/quote]

I fell for the open tap bit as well Batz. I thought I was smart to prevent future catasrophies by painting a big red dot on top of the tap handle. The problem is I still do not know what it supposed to represent when it is up. Is it open or closed. I think we need a ball valve type of tap in out fermenters like in our kettle. Cost play a part in this though. Than again, you get what you pay for...

Cheers and :chug:
Keep on Brewin'
 
Decided to make 36 litres of pilsner and what the heck let's also do a double decoction for the first time. New kettle and pick up works perfectly with plugs, never tested it with pellets. What do ya know, the pick up doesn't work with pellets. 36 litres of boiling hot wort and no way to get it out the boiler and through the CFC.

In the end it was syphoned off into fermenters and I decided just to stick them in the fridge on the lowest setting. Took 24 hours to cool to pitching temp. In the end the beer sucked, not because of any funky flavours due to poor cooling and not pitching the yeast for so long, but because I used too much late additions and the beer was completely out of balance.

A long an frustrating brew day for a very poor result. But I did learn a lot.

Cheers
MAH
 
I set my boiler (plastic 30L fermemter with element) up on the side of the swimming pool so i can recirculate the pool water through my chiller to be more efficient. I thought i was pretty smart to come up with this....until i experienced my first boilover resulting with about three litres of wort 'escaping' into the pool. I didnt even notice because i was inside reading AHB. I tried to cover it up from SHMBO, but the pool changing from clear to dark brown overnight was a bit of a give away!
 
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