Stupid things you have done on brewday.

[manticle]

Steep the missing choc malt in a small grain bag, boil the liquor for 10-20 minutes and add in. I have done the exact same thing with a stout before.

 

[surly]

I forgot to plug back in the temp controller on the freezer after using it as an actual freezer. Pilsner got cold conditioned a bit too much.

I have frozen my kegs twice now. Pretty embarrassing.
The last time I blew the tops off 2 longies of coopers too and the keezer was full of beer-slurpee.

I was cleaning the damn thing out after an out-post leaked and flooded the keezer with beer. I forgot to put the temp probe back in. Cleaning out the same thing twice in 2 days was just a little annoying

 

[Gelding]

leaving carboy tap open while racking in, finding out a lot later

 

[Truman42]

Steep the missing choc malt in a small grain bag, boil the liquor for 10-20 minutes and add in. I have done the exact same thing with a stout before.

i had only just doughed in when I noticed it so was able to add it in anyway.

 

[robbo5253]

On m last brew I was draining first running a into a bucket to transfer to kettle when the oven timer went off for a loaf of bread. Went and saved the bread before remembering the tap on the MLT was open. Ran back out to see first runnings over flowing onto the shed floor. Unsure how much I lost but sparked a bit more and boiled longer to compensate.

 

[elcarter]

First away brew day at a mates, had to wait for some spare elec sockets... so got a few pints in.

Did the water calculations on the fly for my first double batch little inebriated and care free. Odds certainly against me.

Wort levels came up 5L short in the second cube.

Decided to just add the warm water from the HLT to top it up.

Still to this day I count my lucky stars I got away with it.

 

[Gelding]

Once I thought I'd dash the market to pick up some milk n bread, thought I had 30 mins while timing hops a schedule in a 60 min boil... then got caught in a traffic jam... f f f f f

 

[Mardoo]

Bottling day too far off topic? Total noob mistake. Got a used fridge for cold-crashing/settling yeast and used it for the first time this brew. Went to bottle yesterday, prepped the bulk prime and everything else, transferred the beer to the bottling bucket. Hmmm, only 15 liters??? Look in fermentor...damn. A big beer berg sitting at the bottom of the fermentor. It has occurred to me that the fridge could run too cold, but I'm hurrying. New Year's party starts in 90 minutes, beer had been bulk primed already, just have to bottle it up anyway. I hope that 2.7 vols of carbonation goes well with Manticle's Dark Mild. I was shooting for south of 2 vols.

Lesson learned: always look in the fermentor before bottling, and for fark's sake, don't hurry anything. Dammit. :blink:

 

[OneEye]

Managed to freeze a yeast starter solid.... was cold crashing it so I could decant and step it up. Just thawed it and did it anyway and it the yeasties still did their job after their arctic holiday!

 

[Scooby Tha Newbie]

Stoped making Rye bread in the bakery. My apprentice ordered a bag of Rye. LIGHT BULB!! Thought no great loss will make my first (Rye) larger style beer. 5 kg if grains 600grams of Rye flour hops all good. Fermented at 11c for 21 days. Did all the good stuff. Thought it was a touch thick no big deal. Keged it wouldn't carb up wouldnt go thu my taps. Seems I made 20lts of apricot jam. Tasted nice but couldn't get past the syrup consistency.

 

[_HOME_BREW_WALLACE_]

I bottled 60ish stubbies after priming with the large scoop while I was pissed. I realized after about 10 days when all these bottle bombs started going off. A quick job of putting the remainders in the fridge at about midnight wrapping them in a tea towel as I handled them.

I have started a brew day after being at a mates place sampling quite a few APAs trying to replicate the beer again at 11.30 pm. The ambition was there the ability wasn't much so. Mashed for about 3 hours and boiled for 4 (for memory). Turned out shockingly burnt /caramelized got through them though when desperate for a beer.

Used a ripped biab bag once, didn't turn out liked I hoped when hoisted the bag.

 

[MastersBrewery]

i had only just doughed in when I noticed it so was able to add it in anyway.

I'm sure it was one of manticles tips to add dark grains late to the mash to "smooth out the character of bitterness and roasting", you may have inadvertently improved the stout

 

[Black Devil Dog]

I was looking at some photos today, that I'd taken as I was going through my process a couple of months ago and I noticed that my digital scales, that I use to measure my grain and hops, were set to millilitres and not grams. :huh:

Haven't fermented it yet, but I know which batch it is. Might not be quite as I planned. (insert self uppercut emoticon here)

 

[Kumamoto_Ken]

I was looking at some photos today, that I'd taken as I was going through my process a couple of months ago and I noticed that my digital scales, that I use to measure my grain and hops, were set to millilitres and not grams. :huh:

Haven't fermented it yet, but I know which batch it is. Might not be quite as I planned. (insert self uppercut emoticon here)

Aren't they the same (assuming your scales think it's 1ml of water)?

 

[Crofty]

I pitched hefeweizen yeast into my Bock wort and the lager yeast into my wheat beer wort on a double batch day....

Hefebock turned out fantastically... Lagerweizen was ok for 2 days after I keg hopped 20g of cascade... After that it was undrinkable.

 

[Black Devil Dog]

Aren't they the same (assuming your scales think it's 1ml of water)?

1 litre of water = 1kg. Different for solids though.

 

[Kumamoto_Ken]

1 litre of water = 1kg. Different for solids though.

Yep, so 1ml of water equals 1 gram.

But if your scales are anything like mine (and they may be much better), they don't know if it's water or dried malt extract or hops that's sitting on them. Mine assume if you have it set to read in ml that you're measuring water.

If you have it set on ml and are weighing 30grams of hops it'll just say 30ml, and it shouldn't make any difference to your recipe quantities.

Edit: an attempt at better clarity.

 

[mosto]

I usually add some carapils to most beers to aid head retention. Last brew I couldn't find my bag of carapils (I'm sure I've got some, just can't find it). Instead, I had a light bulb moment when I vaguely remembered reading/hearing of doing a protein rest to aid head retention. So I mashed in at around 55c and held it there for 15min before ramping up. Beer is in the keg and tasting lovely, but head disappears in seconds. It was only at this point, I decided to confirm my vague learnings of protein rests. A quick google reveals a protein rest is actually detrimental to head retention, but aids clarity. By no means disastrous, and by no means my biggest brew day stuff up, but another small lesson learned on my journey.

 

[Mardoo]

Rest at 72 for head retention. Works a treat. Glycoproteins at this temp IIRC.

 

[lukiferj]

Technically not on brew day but I was filling a keg this morning and went to force carb it. Only I had left the release valve open. Now I'm covered in delicious hazelnut brown ale. :lol: