Worst Brewing Disaster. Ever!
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warrenlw63
Just a Hoe
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achy02
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My worst disaster to date was when I was making a K and K brew with some LDME and hops. I added the LDME and hops while still hot and it raised the temp of 20 odd litres of kit wort I already had. I was doing all of this in the kitchen. I had some blocks of ice in the freezer and so i hatched a brilliant scheme to put a block in the kitchen sink with water and lower full fermenter in to cool. Of course I failed to move the dish rack and the half dozen beer and wine glasses next to it. Naturally as i put the fermenter in the sink, the ice slid to one side and the fermenter tipped on its side. I dont know how much wort I lost but it made a tsunami of sticky fluid that knocked all of the glasses on to the kitchen floor and all over my freshly done dishes. I nearly cried. It took me about an hour to clean it up and I had to make up a good excuse as to how I broke most of our glassware. I think I blame an earthquake.....
Tony I feel for ya. I cant imagine what a hot wort burn would be like. it must of hurt like hell.
Tony I feel for ya. I cant imagine what a hot wort burn would be like. it must of hurt like hell.
Tony
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Who was it years ago that was cooling a pot of boiled wort in the laundry tub, when their wife went and threw a hand full of dirty sock into the laundry tub, as she always did, only they landed in the cooled wort.
Maybe it was on the old grumpys forum.
I still laugh when i think about that one.
Your not a real home brewer unless...........
cheers
Maybe it was on the old grumpys forum.
I still laugh when i think about that one.
Your not a real home brewer unless...........
cheers
Effect
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My first brewday, the wort was boiling, only had about 15 mins to go. So I have a quick shower before I have to put it into a no chill cube. I lift the kettle off the burner to put it onto something higher so it can gravity feed into the cube. As I have just had a shower I thought it wouldn't be necessary to put shoes back on. So my big toe thinks it would be a great idea to touch the kettle whilst it is on the floor between places. Sealed it like a steak on the barbie. Ran for the bath and put it under cold water for a few mins....Got back to the kettle, forgot to whirlpool, and as I didn't have a hop screen yet....the hops clog up the pickup tube. I have to leave for a party in 5 mins to dj for at it...my foot is well burnt and now I can't even get the wort out of the boiler. GRRR. I blow through the tube connected to the valve on the kettle, whirlpool and get it all into the cube.
All sorted now, but will always wear closed in shoes when brewing.
newguy
To err is human, to arrr is pirate
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Glad to hear you're okay Tony.
I use a CFC and I boil it just before and just after I use it. The first boil is to sanitise it and the second is to dissolve and dislodge any sticky wort left behind after I've flushed it out with water. I have a SS pot that's just big enough to hold the CFC and completely submerge it.
The house I was living in at the time had a small wooden deck off the kitchen. Once the pot came to a boil, I'd take it all out to the deck and pour the boiling water onto it. This took care of the odd weed that would come up through the boards and it also took care of the odd mouse family that would take up residence. I always wore shoes when I did this. Until one day.....
I wouldn't have burned myself at all if I hadn't been wearing socks. I poured out the water and a tsunami went straight for my foot. Before I could move, it had soaked my sock. I now had a 100C soaked sock on, and I couldn't take it off quickly enough. It's kind of surreal - take off a sock, chuck it across the backyard, and it leaves a vapour trail of steam.
You know the arched part of your foot where the skin is thinner? That entire portion blistered. Walking was a bitch.
I use a CFC and I boil it just before and just after I use it. The first boil is to sanitise it and the second is to dissolve and dislodge any sticky wort left behind after I've flushed it out with water. I have a SS pot that's just big enough to hold the CFC and completely submerge it.
The house I was living in at the time had a small wooden deck off the kitchen. Once the pot came to a boil, I'd take it all out to the deck and pour the boiling water onto it. This took care of the odd weed that would come up through the boards and it also took care of the odd mouse family that would take up residence. I always wore shoes when I did this. Until one day.....
I wouldn't have burned myself at all if I hadn't been wearing socks. I poured out the water and a tsunami went straight for my foot. Before I could move, it had soaked my sock. I now had a 100C soaked sock on, and I couldn't take it off quickly enough. It's kind of surreal - take off a sock, chuck it across the backyard, and it leaves a vapour trail of steam.
You know the arched part of your foot where the skin is thinner? That entire portion blistered. Walking was a bitch.
Barley Belly
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Here's my worst...............so far :huh:
Today was to be my first AG.
I'd amassed my primitive gear (33l Esky Mash Tun stainless braid type, 40l Aluminium kettle with tap, using a camping three burner as heat source) planned to batch sparge into spare fermentor, then tip into kettle for the boil, then no chill in a cube.
Had a dry run yesterday, boiling 25ltr from tap temp to boil in around 50 minutes, tranferring to mash tun via silicone hose, mash tun held good temp over 90mins, drained out fine, so all in all thought I'd have a good run at my first AG.
Got my grain and had it cracked for me at MHB's as well as the 65g hops required for my 20l virgin batch, forgot the Whirlflock tabs but managed to grab some off Mark today.
Heated my 11l of mash in water to 73deg, transferred to my pre-heated mash tun, added grain and stirred well, mash temp came in around 62deg which was below my 66deg target so I added a full kettle of boiling water and got the temp up to 65.4deg, which I figured, will do without reboiling the kettle. Sealed up and cover with an old doona with insulationfor it's 90min mash.
While it was mashing I filled the kettle back up with another 20l of water, 7l for mash out and 10l for sparge, with some left over in case I came up short. I also divided the hops into 4 separate containers ready for the boil. An hour to go on the mash so I started to get the sparge water up to temp and reheated to boiling just in time for the 90min mash to end. Added the 7l mashout water, stirred well, and got the temp up to 76deg, 2deg short of my intended 78deg so I added a little more water to get up to temp, stirred in well and let sit for 10 minutes.
Time to drain my first runnings, placed tap over my fermentor and drained around 1 litre of cloudy wort into jug until it started to run clear, poured jug back into tun and let the clear wort run into the fermentor, it was going at a snails pace and after 20mins or so I'd only collected around 500ml, I ran a cable tie up to tap to see if there was a blockage but it was still just trickling. After about 30mins it had all but stopped :angry: I know you are not supposed to disturb the grain bed but I had no flow, so I had no option, even after stirring the grain bed continously there was still on a slow dribble, and the wort was getting cloudy The stainless braid I used must be too fine!!!
PHARK!!!!!!!!!!
I've got 17l of water and soaked grain in my mash tun and it's not going anywhere, tried moving the braid around with a spoon and countless other things all to no avail.
TIME TO ABORT
Thoroughly pissed off, I picked up the mash tun with every intention of throwing the whole contents on the garden.
I tripped up the steps and smashed my big toe into the top one and had sticky wort and grain all over my pebblecrete.
I looked at my big toe in my chinese workboots and realised there was claret pooring out, so three hours wait at Maitland Hospital Casualty and then a trip into Hunter Street GP Access, finally 5 hours after my worst brewing disaster I am back home, very sore and sorry for myself and still very pissed off about my mash tun.
I guess first AG was just not meant to be
Here a pic of my toe I took on my phone at casualty.
Today was to be my first AG.
I'd amassed my primitive gear (33l Esky Mash Tun stainless braid type, 40l Aluminium kettle with tap, using a camping three burner as heat source) planned to batch sparge into spare fermentor, then tip into kettle for the boil, then no chill in a cube.
Had a dry run yesterday, boiling 25ltr from tap temp to boil in around 50 minutes, tranferring to mash tun via silicone hose, mash tun held good temp over 90mins, drained out fine, so all in all thought I'd have a good run at my first AG.
Got my grain and had it cracked for me at MHB's as well as the 65g hops required for my 20l virgin batch, forgot the Whirlflock tabs but managed to grab some off Mark today.
Heated my 11l of mash in water to 73deg, transferred to my pre-heated mash tun, added grain and stirred well, mash temp came in around 62deg which was below my 66deg target so I added a full kettle of boiling water and got the temp up to 65.4deg, which I figured, will do without reboiling the kettle. Sealed up and cover with an old doona with insulationfor it's 90min mash.
While it was mashing I filled the kettle back up with another 20l of water, 7l for mash out and 10l for sparge, with some left over in case I came up short. I also divided the hops into 4 separate containers ready for the boil. An hour to go on the mash so I started to get the sparge water up to temp and reheated to boiling just in time for the 90min mash to end. Added the 7l mashout water, stirred well, and got the temp up to 76deg, 2deg short of my intended 78deg so I added a little more water to get up to temp, stirred in well and let sit for 10 minutes.
Time to drain my first runnings, placed tap over my fermentor and drained around 1 litre of cloudy wort into jug until it started to run clear, poured jug back into tun and let the clear wort run into the fermentor, it was going at a snails pace and after 20mins or so I'd only collected around 500ml, I ran a cable tie up to tap to see if there was a blockage but it was still just trickling. After about 30mins it had all but stopped :angry: I know you are not supposed to disturb the grain bed but I had no flow, so I had no option, even after stirring the grain bed continously there was still on a slow dribble, and the wort was getting cloudy
The stainless braid I used must be too fine!!!PHARK!!!!!!!!!!
I've got 17l of water and soaked grain in my mash tun and it's not going anywhere, tried moving the braid around with a spoon and countless other things all to no avail.
TIME TO ABORT
Thoroughly pissed off, I picked up the mash tun with every intention of throwing the whole contents on the garden.
I tripped up the steps and smashed my big toe into the top one and had sticky wort and grain all over my pebblecrete.
I looked at my big toe in my chinese workboots and realised there was claret pooring out, so three hours wait at Maitland Hospital Casualty and then a trip into Hunter Street GP Access, finally 5 hours after my worst brewing disaster I am back home, very sore and sorry for myself and still very pissed off about my mash tun.
I guess first AG was just not meant to be
Here a pic of my toe I took on my phone at casualty.
Tony
Quality over Quantity
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I remember my First AG.
IT was with my Esky..... that i still use wit hthe mod i made that day many years ago to get the wort flowing.
It was set up with a bit of 3/8 copper tube bent around as a pickup and about a dozen 1/8 holes drilled in it. This is before false bottoms were redily available on line.
I mashed in, let it mash and when i opened the tap i got about a nip glass out. I stired it, blew up the tube..... even tried sucking the tube to encourage flow but it was stuck fast.
So i doned the wifes (way to small) rubber gloves and tried to remove the tube with an 8" shifter.
That lasted about 10 seconds. HOT.
So i emptied the mash out into a couple of buckets and wrapped a bit of SS mesh i had sitting around, over the pipe and secured it with a couple of cable ties. Put it back, tipped the mash back in and it ran out fine.
Ive used it like this for many years now. It works so why change it.
Didnt bust my toe up though. Did you really go to hospital for that? did they tell you to wear boots in future
hope it gets better soon. It looks like it hurt a tad!
cheers
IT was with my Esky..... that i still use wit hthe mod i made that day many years ago to get the wort flowing.
It was set up with a bit of 3/8 copper tube bent around as a pickup and about a dozen 1/8 holes drilled in it. This is before false bottoms were redily available on line.
I mashed in, let it mash and when i opened the tap i got about a nip glass out. I stired it, blew up the tube..... even tried sucking the tube to encourage flow but it was stuck fast.
So i doned the wifes (way to small) rubber gloves and tried to remove the tube with an 8" shifter.
That lasted about 10 seconds. HOT.
So i emptied the mash out into a couple of buckets and wrapped a bit of SS mesh i had sitting around, over the pipe and secured it with a couple of cable ties. Put it back, tipped the mash back in and it ran out fine.
Ive used it like this for many years now. It works so why change it.
Didnt bust my toe up though. Did you really go to hospital for that? did they tell you to wear boots in future
hope it gets better soon. It looks like it hurt a tad!
cheers
bouncingcastle
Well-Known Member
Ouch!
That's why i brew in steel caps... The one time I don't - I'll probably have that happen to me!
Glad to hear it was only a stubbed toe (nasty one at that though)
That's why i brew in steel caps... The one time I don't - I'll probably have that happen to me!
Glad to hear it was only a stubbed toe (nasty one at that though
)
monkeybusiness
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Digging up an old thread, but when I first saw this thread some time ago I figured it was only a matter of time before I felt an obligation to post. Sure I've left the tap open and done a few other dumb things, but nothing really noteworthy. Well now I think I am worthy to join this elite group.
I was waiting for my first runnings to fill my jug (I like to let the first runnings slowly) and turned my back to do something. Must have gotten distracted and forgotten what I was doing because i came back five minutes later to find the jug overflowing and a MASSIVE puddle on the floor.
This isn't so bad I hear you say. Well, while big the puddle didn't look big enough to contain the 10L of sparge that was now absent from my mash tun.
What I should point out is that its late and cold so I'm brewing inside. On timber laminate floors. Not the good quality ones with ply backing, but the cheap stuff with mdf. The sort of stuff that swells up like a festering wound when wet.
So now the better part of 10L of wort is sitting under my floorboards and when I walk on the kitchen floor I can hear a squelch squelch squelch and if I push down hard enough wort bubbles up between the joints.
Time to review the house insurance policy cause its going to be bloody ugly in the morning. And I still have to tell the missus. She'll understand :unsure:h34r:
I was waiting for my first runnings to fill my jug (I like to let the first runnings slowly) and turned my back to do something. Must have gotten distracted and forgotten what I was doing because i came back five minutes later to find the jug overflowing and a MASSIVE puddle on the floor.
This isn't so bad I hear you say. Well, while big the puddle didn't look big enough to contain the 10L of sparge that was now absent from my mash tun.
What I should point out is that its late and cold so I'm brewing inside. On timber laminate floors. Not the good quality ones with ply backing, but the cheap stuff with mdf. The sort of stuff that swells up like a festering wound when wet.
So now the better part of 10L of wort is sitting under my floorboards and when I walk on the kitchen floor I can hear a squelch squelch squelch and if I push down hard enough wort bubbles up between the joints.
Time to review the house insurance policy cause its going to be bloody ugly in the morning. And I still have to tell the missus. She'll understand :unsure:
h34r:
MaestroMatt
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So...I remember reading this topic ages ago thinking "Poor buggers! I am glad nothing like this has ever happened to me!"
Well, now it has....
To save re-writing all the info again, I have made a write up of my worst brewday ever on my blog (link in signature) - which includes a few choice horror photos.
To feed your curiosity, the concrete outside my garage is now well watered with wort!
Matt
Well, now it has....
To save re-writing all the info again, I have made a write up of my worst brewday ever on my blog (link in signature) - which includes a few choice horror photos.
To feed your curiosity, the concrete outside my garage is now well watered with wort!
Matt
Spartan 117
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So...I remember reading this topic ages ago thinking "Poor buggers! I am glad nothing like this has ever happened to me!"
Well, now it has....
To save re-writing all the info again, I have made a write up of my worst brewday ever on my blog (link in signature) - which includes a few choice horror photos.
To feed your curiosity, the concrete outside my garage is now well watered with wort!
Matt
you poor poor porr bugger.. makes my broken carboy and 18L of beer seem like nothing.... RDWHAHB
Aaron
Tony
Quality over Quantity
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Oh bugger... what a mess!
I had a bit of a disaster the other night but nothing on that scale of loss.
It actually would have won a prize on Funny home video show i recon!
A year ago Ducatiboystu visited for a few cold ones and brought along a 750Ml beer bottle full of 1318 british ale yeast for me to use. I love this yeast so put it in the back on my keg fridge to keep cold.
The other night i decommissioned the fridge and moved everything into the new kegorator. I found the bottle of 1318 and thought........ mmmmm...... if it smells ok i will stick it in a starter and see if it kicks off.
So i....... thinking nothing of it, cracked and removed the twist top lid and was greeted by a VERY loud PSSSHHhhttt sound.
It was like slow motion, the entire bottles contents seemed to turn to bubbles but it just hung there..... not moving.
I thought...... oh crap! and started trying to re fasten the twist top lid.
The rest would have looked realy cool in slow motion i recon. The contents of the bottle evacuated in about 5 seconds........ the lot!
I ran for the back door of the garage but by the time i got out (5 steps running) it was spent and everything within 3 meters radius of my path had brown yeasty beer running down it, including myself.
I put the bottle down on the ground outside where the last 10mm in the bottom continued to foam out, turned around and just burst out laughing.
I had to hose my garage out and im still finding yeast spary on stuff.
What a mess.
cheers
I had a bit of a disaster the other night but nothing on that scale of loss.
It actually would have won a prize on Funny home video show i recon!
A year ago Ducatiboystu visited for a few cold ones and brought along a 750Ml beer bottle full of 1318 british ale yeast for me to use. I love this yeast so put it in the back on my keg fridge to keep cold.
The other night i decommissioned the fridge and moved everything into the new kegorator. I found the bottle of 1318 and thought........ mmmmm...... if it smells ok i will stick it in a starter and see if it kicks off.
So i....... thinking nothing of it, cracked and removed the twist top lid and was greeted by a VERY loud PSSSHHhhttt sound.
It was like slow motion, the entire bottles contents seemed to turn to bubbles but it just hung there..... not moving.
I thought...... oh crap! and started trying to re fasten the twist top lid.
The rest would have looked realy cool in slow motion i recon. The contents of the bottle evacuated in about 5 seconds........ the lot!
I ran for the back door of the garage but by the time i got out (5 steps running) it was spent and everything within 3 meters radius of my path had brown yeasty beer running down it, including myself.
I put the bottle down on the ground outside where the last 10mm in the bottom continued to foam out, turned around and just burst out laughing.
I had to hose my garage out and im still finding yeast spary on stuff.
What a mess.
cheers
superdave
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Been meaning to post my brewing story in here for a while.
Was doing a k&k one night, boiling the water for my hops, adding the sugar, opening my tin of goop; then I was attacked! The lid of the goop tin sliced my hand open between my thumb and index finger. Luckily there was a delay in bleeding so I could get away from the goop and put some pressure on it before it started to flow. Managed to continue brewing with one hand (commitment B) ). Since it was late Sunday night I didn't bother with trying the local GP and went straight to the hospital for stitches...Now since I'm one handed, and it was winter I was wearing my best get-up of ugg boots and trackie dacks. Get to the hospital and it turns out every man, child and dog is down there with 'swine' flu. So instead of waiting with 50 sick people for 4 hours I go looking for a GP. Turns out it too is full of 'swine' flu victims, so only got the stitches in at around 1am.
The moral of my story, make the step up to grain. I haven't used a tin of goop ever since :lol:
Was doing a k&k one night, boiling the water for my hops, adding the sugar, opening my tin of goop; then I was attacked! The lid of the goop tin sliced my hand open between my thumb and index finger. Luckily there was a delay in bleeding so I could get away from the goop and put some pressure on it before it started to flow. Managed to continue brewing with one hand (commitment B) ). Since it was late Sunday night I didn't bother with trying the local GP and went straight to the hospital for stitches...Now since I'm one handed, and it was winter I was wearing my best get-up of ugg boots and trackie dacks. Get to the hospital and it turns out every man, child and dog is down there with 'swine' flu. So instead of waiting with 50 sick people for 4 hours I go looking for a GP. Turns out it too is full of 'swine' flu victims, so only got the stitches in at around 1am.
The moral of my story, make the step up to grain. I haven't used a tin of goop ever since :lol:
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