Worst Brewing Disaster. Ever!

[Zizzle]

Oops. Have you tracked down the bug yet? Fired your QA department?

Hardly in the league of many stories here, this is my software mishap story from the other night in case you didn't see it in the brewbot thread:

I stupidly walked away while testing out some new code that runs some of the steps in parallel (e.g. heating HLT to set-point while recirculating). The code was buggy and applied power to the HLT when it didn't have water in it. I smelt something was not happy, ripped the lid off the HLT to see both the elements glowing yellow hot. Hit the reset button. Remarkably they both survived, although now have a nice shade of blue. You can't beat the $9 kettle element:

I don't know how this may have effected their life span, but it sure did get all the gunk off them.

 

[sqyre]

Oops. Have you tracked down the bug yet? Fired your QA department?

Hardly in the league of many stories here, this is my software mishap story from the other night in case you didn't see it in the brewbot thread:

I stupidly walked away while testing out some new code that runs some of the steps in parallel (e.g. heating HLT to set-point while recirculating). The code was buggy and applied power to the HLT when it didn't have water in it. I smelt something was not happy, ripped the lid off the HLT to see both the elements glowing yellow hot. Hit the reset button. Remarkably they both survived, although now have a nice shade of blue. You can't beat the $9 kettle element:

I don't know how this may have effected their life span, but it sure did get all the gunk off them.

I was just chatting to incider and he reckoned you were distracted testing your lastest invention...

"The BumBot"

It has an uncanny resemblence to incider but made of metal and touches its toes at the press of a button..

Hangon a minute... :blink: now i know why Sean wanted all that aluminium foil...

Sqyre...

 

[RobboMC]

Yes, this is a brewing disaster; read on.

My SWMBO has a nice hedge running up the fence, she is a very serious gardener. The hedge was getting overgrown and was having trouble getting through the gate, so I took to the hedge with a wipper snipper. She went absolutely beserk, through the roof!!! I only cut a few leaves off, but it was enough to cause all h*ll to break loose as far as she was concerned.

Unfortunately for me at the time I had a lovely Coopers Heritage Lager going in the shower recess. When I got home from work the next day I rushed into the bathroom to check the temperature of the brew, only to find that SWMBO had opened the tap and the whole thing had run down the drain.

I think there's a lesson there somewhere. I have a new brewing rule, whenever I boil the kettle I make her a cup of tea. Seems to make the brewing go a whole lot better.

 

[Fents]

Yes, this is a brewing disaster; read on.

My SWMBO has a nice hedge running up the fence, she is a very serious gardener. The hedge was getting overgrown and was having trouble getting through the gate, so I took to the hedge with a wipper snipper. She went absolutely beserk, through the roof!!! I only cut a few leaves off, but it was enough to cause all h*ll to break loose as far as she was concerned.

Unfortunately for me at the time I had a lovely Coopers Heritage Lager going in the shower recess. When I got home from work the next day I rushed into the bathroom to check the temperature of the brew, only to find that SWMBO had opened the tap and the whole thing had run down the drain.

I think there's a lesson there somewhere. I have a new brewing rule, whenever I boil the kettle I make her a cup of tea. Seems to make the brewing go a whole lot better.

:blink: thats not a brewing disaster! thats domestic brewing violence! get a court order out for her to stay 30 feet away from all fermentors h34r:

 

[ham2k]

Yes, this is a brewing disaster; read on.

My SWMBO has a nice hedge running up the fence, she is a very serious gardener. The hedge was getting overgrown and was having trouble getting through the gate, so I took to the hedge with a wipper snipper. She went absolutely beserk, through the roof!!! I only cut a few leaves off, but it was enough to cause all h*ll to break loose as far as she was concerned.

Unfortunately for me at the time I had a lovely Coopers Heritage Lager going in the shower recess. When I got home from work the next day I rushed into the bathroom to check the temperature of the brew, only to find that SWMBO had opened the tap and the whole thing had run down the drain.

I think there's a lesson there somewhere. I have a new brewing rule, whenever I boil the kettle I make her a cup of tea. Seems to make the brewing go a whole lot better.

geez... was there a rabbit in the fermenter?

 

[Steve]

only to find that SWMBO had opened the tap and the whole thing had run down the drain.

I would've been straight onto the hedge with a tin of petrol and a match :lol:

 

[petesbrew]

Having the fermenter in the shower recess, wouldn't you run the risk of an odd pube getting in the airlock whenever you or SWMBO jump in? :blink:

 

[Zizzle]

only to find that SWMBO had opened the tap and the whole thing had run down the drain.

Time for a new woman I'd say. I don't even know someone that mallicious & vengefull, and certainly wouldn't want them in my life.

 

[lucas]

I would've been straight onto the hedge with a tin of petrol and a match :lol:

too right. if that were my SWMBO she would lose MBO status very quickly. how very juvenile

 

[Cortez The Killer]

That's terrible

 

[Maple]

OK, so not my worst disaster, but the latest one... (it's a long list)

Bottled my latest on the weekend, and much to my dismay, the hop bag was open (read: empty). Of course I had only discovered this after all the bottles had been filled. All the hop pellets had escaped, and were for the most part all on the bottom of the fermenter. Curious, I had put the bottle up to the light, and sure enough, little bits-o-hops in the bottles. Question is, will these settle out in the bottle conditioning time, or shall I expect little green flakes in my beer?

 

[chimera]

if not you could pour your beer though a tea strainer!

 

[Tseay]

Late hopped iinto the bottle ? - BIG RESPECT

 

[wabster]

Late hopped iinto the bottle ? - BIG RESPECT

Agreed. Remember the old coders adage, it isn't a bug it's a feature!!!

This may be the Next Big Thing in home brew Cheerz Wab

 

[newguy]

Late hopped iinto the bottle ? - BIG RESPECT

I've seen dry hopped bottles of IPA at several competitions before. Given enough time the hops settle out. The aroma of these bottles can't be beaten.

 

[Darren]

Hop pellets in bottles make gushers is my observation.

cheers

Darren

 

[Yeasty]

Ive had the ole start filling the fermenter with the tap open still trick happen

 

[Phrak]

I've been pretty fortunate with my brewing luck - I usually follow a system which keeps me out of trouble. It's when I'm in a rush that something usually barfs up... Like today, for example. No major f*ck up, fortunately, but it's one of those moments that makes you go "ahhh ****" <_<

"Where'd my refractometer eye-dropper get to? ahhh ****, under my kettle" <_< :

 

[AlwayzLoozeCount]

this is realy stupid but all my mates have had a good laugh at my wounds and my story so i thought i should tell. I decided to try one of those Ibrew bett-a-brew 3.4kg things. They come in a plastic container with a screw on lid. I did the brew as per instructions sort of. tipped stuff in fermenter boiled the kettle tipped bit of boiling water in the plastic container swirled it around to try get all the stuff out, tipped that in my fermenter, noticed there was a bit of crud up higher in the container and on top of the inside of the lid so i decided to put some more hot water into the plastic container then screw the lid back on and shake it up a bit. Bad Idea. The lid popped of in my face, I am kinda glad that i absorbed most of the blow because this stuff is so damn hard to clean up. I just ended up with the inside of my right nostril all scabed up and my chest got burnt a little bit. the stuff went everywhere all over the floor, bench, stools, walls and a painting on the wall..... yes im stupid, and I wasnt even drunk

 

[Insight]

this is realy stupid but all my mates have had a good laugh at my wounds and my story so i thought i should tell. I decided to try one of those Ibrew bett-a-brew 3.4kg things. They come in a plastic container with a screw on lid. I did the brew as per instructions sort of. tipped stuff in fermenter boiled the kettle tipped bit of boiling water in the plastic container swirled it around to try get all the stuff out, tipped that in my fermenter, noticed there was a bit of crud up higher in the container and on top of the inside of the lid so i decided to put some more hot water into the plastic container then screw the lid back on and shake it up a bit. Bad Idea. The lid popped of in my face, I am kinda glad that i absorbed most of the blow because this stuff is so damn hard to clean up. I just ended up with the inside of my right nostril all scabed up and my chest got burnt a little bit. the stuff went everywhere all over the floor, bench, stools, walls and a painting on the wall..... yes im stupid, and I wasnt even drunk

Cathartic though don't you think? I popped the radiator cap on my old Torana many years ago, diagnosing a problem. Luckily I was wearing sunglasses at the time! My mate assisting me laughed for a bit, then passed me a VB stubbie for the injury (it was a long time ago, believe me).

 

[schooey]

I could fair dinkum cry.....

Brewed my first ever chocolate porter tonight. Looks excellent coming from the kettle into the fermenter, smells a treat, tastes freakin' fantastic! I screw the lid on tight, put my thumb over the airlock hole and proceed to shake the **** out of it to aerate it (my bloody aquarium pump died) and then guess what...

The lid just came straight off, jumped all the threads....

By the time I got it upright on the floor there was only 15L of a 33L batch left in a 60L fermenter.

Lesson 1: Make sure we have ALL the gear, ALL workig before we brew.
Lesson 2: Even big blokes can't juggle 30 odd kilos when it's got a mind not to be in your hands any more
Lesson 3: Fill the fermenter at the front of the garage where its easy to hose out, not way up the back where its nigh on impossible

I'm going to drink some really strong beer now and wallow in my own self pity.. :wacko:

 

[Inge]

Had a really bad day yesterday, but finally got around to brewing at about 4pm. Started to relax, feel a little better. Everything went smooth, sparge went well, with efficiency, gravity and volumes all being spot on. 4 and a half hours later, as i was running the finished wort into a cube for chilling, the pickup tube got crammed with hops.

With no syphon, and no sanitary means to retrieve the fast cooling wort, I conceded defeat and dumped 22 litres of APA on the garden.


Made myself a ghetto hop screen today, not having this happen again, I'll give you the hot tip. :angry:

 

[Tony]

Schooey...... I use plastic coopers spoon from big W to stir air into the cooled wort. I just keep pumping air into it with the spoon till its frothed up near the lid. I can only imading what you said when that lid came off :blink:

Inge...... i had this happen with my first brew using hop flowers. They blocked the pickup and nothing would come out. I was going to tip it out but decided to stick my arm in a firmenter full of iodophur solution then in the brew it went (50 liters of it) I cupped my hand over the end of the pickup and got it all out slowly. Never got infected or anything.
Also you could have just upended the kettle into the firmenter and strained it as you went (im asuming you used flowers)

If the brew goes bad, youve lost nothing but if you save it its a bonus. THats my way of looking at it.

cheers

 

[dpearce]

This happened just last night, and is more of an inconvenience than a disaster, but anyway...

Before I started on my first ever mead I decided to make some space in my drying rack by putting some things away. One of the things in the rack was my hydrometer, as I'd used it just the other day. Not wanting the hydrometer to get damaged I dropped it's tube... not realising that i'd taken the end off it when i washed it up the night before. The hydrometer dropped right through the tube and the base shattered on the kitchen counter.

It was my last hydrometer too

So now I have to put off finding out what the starting gravity was. And buy a new hydrometer.

 

[Thommo]

I chucked a sickie in early December last year and did a triple Brew day. Told the boss I had put my back out.

Everything went smooth as silk, even finished cleaning up just before a big storm hit.

Woke up next morning and the Karma Police had caught up with me. My back was screwed for a week.

 

[Wrenny]

I had a blocked kettle tap the first time I used flowers. I just tipped the whole kit and kaboodle into the fermenter. Hops, trubs, everything. Turned out to be a very ballsey schwarzbier. Quite nice actually.

 

[Snow]

Ah I love this thread....

ok - time to add to it.

I was doing only my second full batch AG the other day. All going swimmingly until it was time to chill the boiled wort. Being hygenically minded, I had put the copper immersion chille into the boiling wort 10 mins before flameout to sterilise it. The water (from my rainwater tank) which was already inside the chiller coils started to boil after a while and expanded, sending some boiling water up each end of the attached hoses. Anyway, after flameout, I turned the pump on to run the cold water through the coil and went upstairs to do some cleaning up while the chiller did its thing. After about 15 mins, I came down to check the temp and realised I couldn't hear the sound of water dropping into the tank. Went into the garage and found it covered in water . The boiling water had softened the hose and it slipped out of the clamp, thus allowing it to run freely into the workshop. Ruined $50 electric scales, $100 drill, 40kg potting mix, various tools, furniture and some grain. NOT HAPPY!!! :angry:

Needless to say, chiller will be drained and claps checked next time <_<

Cheers - Snow

 

[SDJ]

Geez you guys crack me up Ive made some stuff ups but you guys take the cake!! keep up the good work.

 

[Muggus]

I was going to tip it out but decided to stick my arm in a firmenter full of iodophur solution then in the brew it went (50 liters of it) I cupped my hand over the end of the pickup and got it all out slowly. Never got infected or anything.

Hahaha that's awesome Tony!
Have to keep that in mind if i'm ever in trouble with blockages.

 

[MVZOOM]

6 weeks ago. A mate dropped my refrac into the boil. Bugger.