Your Worst/Dumbest Brewday Stuff Up...

[Ciderman]

Just poured about 5L of perfectly good wort on the ground because the fermenter tap was open... *****!

 

[spog]

Bottling a brew while drinking,,,,,ahh **** I just capped the beer I was drinking.
No worries just look for the not so full coldest beer,uncap it and drink in victory the open another and the same again....Bugga !

 

[Tahoose]

Haha spog, unlucky mate.

Most of hear I can say I done one variation or another, keeps you honest.

 

[Siborg]

My first AG stovetop was a few months ago now, my first brew went along the lines of mash, boil and then the problem started.
After reading all the posts on cooling the wort, decided to put the Big W pot into the bath, and trickle cold water into said bath to chill the wort down. Left the bathroom went to the computer and unfortunately, got a little distracted on reading one of the posts on AHB and forgot the bath was still running. Some time later I heard this funny noise and went "oh no" (won't publish the words actually used). Raced back to the bathroom and the bath was overflowing, I had a good inch of water all over the bathroom floor, bedroom floor and part of the hall. Damn, and the misses was due home, right about now! Grabs the mop and starts tying to enter damage control mode. Guess who arrives home and discovers husband with a mop in his hand and looking just a trifle sheepish. Ahh well, just as well she loves me. No permanent damage, thats the main thing. Have definitely learnt the lesson of not leaving the tap running if I am not in the room LOL

But was the beer OK???

 

[shacked]

I put 23L of wort (from a 20L cube no less) into a 23L glass fermenter, pitched belle saison @ 26C and sealed it up. Realised 12 hours later (4am) that this probably wasn't the best approach and stumbled around in the dark setting up a makeshift blow off tube.

Next challenge will be removing the bung which I pushed in too far...

 

[idzy]

Don't know if it is the worst, but was recent and very annoying. Was having trouble with my mill getting a good crush. Decided to add some water to help. Ended up creating dough and huge problems. Never again.

 

[droid]

this is like a feel good thread for me, i really can't think of much if anything...

<edit - sorry the worst brewday stuff up would be probably the first one - i mean that's jumping in a bit early eh

oh yeah

• first AG brew no recipe no app - stood there looking at 4kg's of grain being mashed and wondering what alcohol i was going to get, what volume wort to get - how this was all going to happen...
• burnt feet wearing thongs, quite a common one that one here
• bittering addition chucked in and subsequently boiled over the top and onto the floor leaving me wondering what IBU's i actually had in there

that'd be all i reckon
oh wait

• tap open on cube when filling from plate chiller
• chucked roast barley in at the beginning instead of the end supposed to be just for colour
• got a pit pissed and couldn't finish the boil
• got a bit pissed and forgot to hook up plate chiller just put massive 0minute hop addition in - by the time i hooked it all up it had 20-30minutes more at the higher temps
• didn't have enough water to sparge
• didn't do a run through and had blocked plate chiller full of little spiders so gave up on chilling a brew that was calculated to be chilled - brought tears to my eyes...drinking it that is
• spilled hot wort on the wooden kitchen floor - at least the floorboards stop squeaking for a while

just everyday brewday things really :blink:

 

[Droopy Brew]

Pre crush mash. Very inventive Idzy.

 

[tj2204]

Not a brew day stuff up but....

I went to pour a cream ale tonight from a pretty much full keg, pours foam. so I'm thinking wtf is going on did I plug the beer disconnect in to an empty keg by mistake? Open the keezer, smell beer, look down and there's a swimming pool of at least 16 litres of cream ale in the bottom of the keezer. Pretty devastated.

Oh, then I brought the wet dry vac up from the garage to clean it up and the ****** blew beer all over the dining room.

 

[Rocker1986]

Just had a cube on Sunday night get infected with what I'm guessing was acetobacter from the smell of it. It was due to be pitched on Monday. Had been sitting there for weeks so I'm guessing this **** got into it pretty recently, and wasn't there at the time of cubing it. It blew the tap out of the cube and obviously the wort ended up all over the laundry floor. Bit of a pain in the arse and has thrown out the brewing schedule a little bit, but I'll carry on...

I rinsed and cleaned the cube and would have done more to it, but I can't get the bung even to fit into it properly now, at least not securely enough for use with hot wort so I'll retire it from brewing after one batch :lol: and use it elsewhere, maybe in the garden or something. I have four others, so it's not like I'm short of replacements.

 

[Danscraftbeer]

Bugger. If you guys were closer I'd grab some of that waste brews for my new batch of vinegar.
Don't underestimate vinegar in a culinary sense. I'm working on a home brew acidulator.

 

[Rocker1986]

You'd have been lucky to get any after it spilled all over the concrete floor :lol:

Most of it had dried up by the time I found it too.

 

[klangers]

The brew that broke me, aka my second all grain brew (imperial lager):

- DIY mill (pasta maker) broke halfway through milling 10kg of grain. Remainder 5kg was painstakingly crushed by hand with a rolling pin. Never again.

- Needed to lift kettle up onto bench to begin boiling. Forgot that tap was open. Lifted it up, hose pulled off and ~90 deg C sticky wort poured onto my arm. Worst burn I've ever had. Skin peeled off instantly and have a nice ovoid scar on my left arm.

- In order to administer first aid, I elected to leave the boil for the day after. Bad idea. Came back to a lukewarm pool of horrid smelling filth. Tipped it all down the sink, so I had a 3rd degree burn and a pile of broken metal and ruined dreams.

Beer that nearly broke me, but plot twist!
- Was brewing a beer for my brother's wedding (no pressure lol). Belgian dubbel which blew krausen all over my fridge. Was away for work during the week. Came back to a fridge that had been colonised by horrible little krausen/wort eating worms. Since they hadn't got into my nicely gladwrapped fermenter I elected to leave it. But everything else stank like ****, so I moved into cold crashing to kill the worms and the smell, which seemed to work...

- I froze the beer during cold conditioning, and needed to rely on yeast being alive for bottle conditioning/carbonation. Curiously, it ended up stratifying - so I had an accidental eis-Belgian-dubbel on the bottom, and pretty much water on the top. I set aside the suspect final bottles which were basically water, and kept the first lot. They too aaaaaaages to carbonate and never really got there, but it suited it well and was a beer that compared to the best dubbels. Everyone liked it at the wedding and since it was even stronger than the originally planned 9% due to the accidental eisbocking, it was a very successful day.

 

[wide eyed and legless]

I would suspect most brew day stuff ups is a result of drinking while brewing, I along with others have left a tap on, but that was sober and I never drink while brewing. Bottling is a different kettle of fish, the smell and sight of fresh clean beer I can't resist, unlike spog it is the beer I am bottling I am drinking.

 

[A.B.]

yeah I've done the "fermenter tap left open trick". great way to invent new swear words.

I've also done the "pitch the yeast on the floor trick" due to clumsiness.

 

[shacked]

I would suspect most brew day stuff ups is a result of drinking while brewing, I along with others have left a tap on, but that was sober and I never drink while brewing. Bottling is a different kettle of fish, the smell and sight of fresh clean beer I can't resist, unlike spog it is the beer I am bottling I am drinking.

Yep, I'd agree with drinking on the job being the main contributor. I've found that the second brew on a double brew day is always a bit wobbly for that reason.

 

[Zorco]

You'd have been lucky to get any after it spilled all over the concrete floor :lol:

Most of it had dried up by the time I found it too.

my petrol pressure cleaner is my best investment! Brewery and kids.... Their mess that is

 

[Zorco]

The brew that broke me, aka my second all grain brew (imperial lager):

- DIY mill (pasta maker) broke halfway through milling 10kg of grain. Remainder 5kg was painstakingly crushed by hand with a rolling pin. Never again.

- Needed to lift kettle up onto bench to begin boiling. Forgot that tap was open. Lifted it up, hose pulled off and ~90 deg C sticky wort poured onto my arm. Worst burn I've ever had. Skin peeled off instantly and have a nice ovoid scar on my left arm.

- In order to administer first aid, I elected to leave the boil for the day after. Bad idea. Came back to a lukewarm pool of horrid smelling filth. Tipped it all down the sink, so I had a 3rd degree burn and a pile of broken metal and ruined dreams.

Beer that nearly broke me, but plot twist!
- Was brewing a beer for my brother's wedding (no pressure lol). Belgian dubbel which blew krausen all over my fridge. Was away for work during the week. Came back to a fridge that had been colonised by horrible little krausen/wort eating worms. Since they hadn't got into my nicely gladwrapped fermenter I elected to leave it. But everything else stank like ****, so I moved into cold crashing to kill the worms and the smell, which seemed to work...

- I froze the beer during cold conditioning, and needed to rely on yeast being alive for bottle conditioning/carbonation. Curiously, it ended up stratifying - so I had an accidental eis-Belgian-dubbel on the bottom, and pretty much water on the top. I set aside the suspect final bottles which were basically water, and kept the first lot. They too aaaaaaages to carbonate and never really got there, but it suited it well and was a beer that compared to the best dubbels. Everyone liked it at the wedding and since it was even stronger than the originally planned 9% due to the accidental eisbocking, it was a very successful day.

Get this man onto your next million dollar contract.

Stares death in the face, overcomes adversity, Thor like endeavour, biological infection assessment skills and all the time a commitment to success.

A scar from a bro's brew.

.
NonononononYES brewery
Brothers' scars brewery
Melted, infected - not dejected Brewers
Scorched success brewery

 

[Jez]

Nearing end of boil, suddenly remember I forgot to chuck in the copper chiller to sanitise it. Quickly get it in and go get another beer. Come back 5 mins later to find one of the lengths of garden hose & brass fitting on end of chiller is boiling away in the pot. Quickly pull it out but hose quite soft as you'd expect. I've pressed on and fermented and just kegged the brew - surely 5 mins in the boil won't matter Just tasted it and I'm hoping the plasticy taste I'm getting is my imagination or just the hops needing more time to balance.....

 

[Dave70]

I would suspect most brew day stuff ups is a result of drinking while brewing, I along with others have left a tap on, but that was sober and I never drink while brewing. Bottling is a different kettle of fish, the smell and sight of fresh clean beer I can't resist, unlike spog it is the beer I am bottling I am drinking.

In my heart, I know you are 100% correct.

But a dry brew day for me is about as likely as sober karaoke.