Your Worst/Dumbest Brewday Stuff Up...

[Danscraftbeer]

Broke my own record. Installed a thermowell into my Kegmenter. Long story short I didn't pressure test it.

All done properly it seemed the original rubber seal wasn't good enough for pressurization. Filled with 40lt new beer wort pitched with yeast (already a twelve hour brew day, just one of those days). Pumped some Oxygen into it to see the doom that the seal failed and beer squirting out. So late and tired I depressurized it (it seemed ok depressurized). Left the pressure release open. I placed it in the ferment fridge in a 50lt black tub just in case. Next morning the kegmenter is sitting in about 10lt of fermenting beer.
Set up a plastic fermenter to transfer and rescue the rest I tried lifting the kegmenter out (too heavy) tipped that black tub with 10lt of beer onto a carpet floor!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :angry2:

Then the rest of the toiling that followed. Finding a good seal, pressure testing, cleaning that carpet etc. Safe to say that's the hardest brew experience I've ever had.

 

[Grott]

You deserve a beer, no several beers.

 

[Coodgee]

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

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

I always wait until it's chilling before i crack the first beer.

 

[timmi9191]

I always wait until it's chilling before i crack the first beer.

clearly a brew day stuff up.. :super: :super: :super:

 

[Dave70]

I always wait until it's chilling before i crack the first beer.

I'm a highly functional inebriate.

 

[Danscraftbeer]

Carpet Circles. Anyone relate to this Phenomenon?



This the same crap carpet I spilled the beer on. That's the signature of a hot boiled sanitized kegmenter.

 

[Zorco]

Carpet Circles. Anyone relate to this Phenomenon?
This the same crap carpet I spilled the beer on. That's the signature of a hot boiled sanitized kegmenter.

Made by an old brewer with a plank of wood and a soldering iron!

Brewing scars are weirdly cool.

 

[spog]

Carpet Circles. Anyone relate to this Phenomenon?



This the same crap carpet I spilled the beer on. That's the signature of a hot boiled sanitized kegmenter.

Bung a smiley face in the middle and know one will be the wiser.

 

[Mardoo]

Or just paint a giant W on either side and it'll say WOW, maybe a surprised emoticon too. No one will notice the burn.

 

[Moad]

I brew on a gas fired herms with the coil in the HLT, it ramps real slow so I turn the MT burner on to assist getting to mash out temp. If I am drinking on brew day I can almost guarantee I forget to turn it off... I've had boiling grain on a few occasions.

Forgetting to turn off various taps on fermenters is probably the worst because you are thinking you are on the home straight about to get stuck into a few brew... NOPE

The biggest mistake was starting a brew then being reminded by mrs Moad we had dinner plans. She wasn't happy going to dinner alone

 

[Kingy]

The biggest mistake was starting a brew then being reminded by mrs Moad we had dinner plans. She wasn't happy going to dinner alone

I've done this a few times haha

I havnt had a bad brew day for a while.

I crack my first beer after I clean the mash tun out and the wort is boiling. It wasn't like that when I started brewing tho. I was usually to pissed to clean everything up until the next day. That doesn't happen anymore.

 

[Weizguy]

Whenever a homebrewer has to tip a batch, I always picture it's like that heineken ad where someone drops a slab of heineken and everyone the world over feels the pain

I was listening to a BN/Jamil podcast a while back,and the advice was given about the willingingness to tip a bad batch is apparently a vital part of being a brewer.

It certainly would not serve you well if you dip your toe into commercial brewing, and you're too precious with your beer to tip a bad batch.
Sending a batch of bad beer for packaging/sales would sour your brewery's reputation, especially in the early days, so it would be cheaper in the long run to run it to the drain and re-brew.

 

[AJS2154]

I thought it would be a great idea to brew without a false bottom this morning.......not sure why, just did.

Yep, burned a hole in the bottom of my faithful old brew bag. FMD......not to mention I destroyed the grain I bought for the footie club brew day.

Oh well, life goes on. Worse things have happened at sea.

Anthony

 

[wynnum1]

I was listening to a BN/Jamil podcast a while back,and the advice was given about the willingingness to tip a bad batch is apparently a vital part of being a brewer.

It certainly would not serve you well if you dip your toe into commercial brewing, and you're too precious with your beer to tip a bad batch.
Sending a batch of bad beer for packaging/sales would sour your brewery's reputation, especially in the early days, so it would be cheaper in the long run to run it to the drain and re-brew.

Or put in bottles with different brand name and label simular to your opposition and sell cheap.

 

[Thefatdoghead]

Transfered wort from braumeister to ss kettle and fogot to turn off element. Element still has black wort stuck to it after 3 cleans sodium perk.

 

[spog]

Did it again for the second time.

Used a 1 metre long s/s ruler to clear a blockage in the mill hopper while in use.
Ahh well it's now perfectly handy for measuring the length of snake next summer as it slithers across the yard.

 

[Rocker1986]

Transfered wort from braumeister to ss kettle and fogot to turn off element. Element still has black wort stuck to it after 3 cleans sodium perk.

Try mixing some citric acid and water in it and boil it for a few minutes.

 

[mattjm]

Had my biggest F up today. Doughed in and went to pickup some dextrose I wanted to add to the boil. Got home with 10 minutes to spare on my mash step only to realise i had flicked my grainfather control switch to boil and my mash had been creeping up slowly and was sitting at 88c instead of the low mash of 62 I was hoping for, after some thoughts of salvaging it, using it as a starter medium and trying to keep going with an experimental ferment, I finally scrapped the lot and started from scratch.

 

[Fents]

Started with 10 litres too much water on sat night. 5 hour brew night turned into a 7 hour brew night, didnt hit bed till 1am :huh:.

 

[dannymars]

So many....

Carrying fermenter to other room, knocked the tap on a door frame and the thread popped and beer started squirting out everywhere... had to tip the whole thing on it's side, wrap some plumbing tape on the thread and re-insert. Then clean the kitchen floor.

I have a ****** plastic valve on the end of my hose, so I don't have to keep running out and turning the tap on and off. Unfortunately if you leave the main tap on the pressure sometimes gets a bit much for the crappy plastic fitting and the hose just pops right off. I've flooded my entire brew garage on several occasions via this exact method. Last time it happened hours after the brew day was actually over. Then I could hear running water outside... Went out to find 5-10cms of water over the whole garage floor, some grain bags were on the floor too :-/


I've had the outlet hose of my chiller get a kink in it and pop off spraying 80+degree water all over my bare legs and feet. OUCH


The old 'forgot to clean the pump trick', now this can be ******* gross... I'm pretty sure I've grown mushrooms inside there before.

Borrowed the STC1000 from a ferment fridge on brewday to use on my HLT figuring the temp should remain stable for a few hours as the whether was about the same temp.... After the brew day was done I put the STC back, but forgot to re-programme the temperature. A few days later I was out checking on my brews and one fridge was displaying 38c on the STC.... !!!!!! what! I couldn't believe it, then the penny dropped.... ah, it was still set to my HTL sparge temp of 76c

Brew wasn't toally ruined (it was a sour beer that was mostly finished),,, but still.

When using brewing salts I like to mix them up with some warm water in a mason jar and give them a good shake to disolve before adding them to my mash etc... Did this last weekend and then proceeded to throw the jar on the floor spilling chalky mess everywhere... (That was the last of my CaCO3 too, had to run to a mate's place and get more before I could start)

Using zinc plated bolts to weight down a dry hop bag thinking they were stainless steal, thus stripping the whole coating and disolving it into the beer... mmmmm zinc.


So many more little ones, leaving taps open etc etc... But those ones are by far the worst.

 

[Siborg]

I was listening to a BN/Jamil podcast a while back,and the advice was given about the willingingness to tip a bad batch is apparently a vital part of being a brewer.

It certainly would not serve you well if you dip your toe into commercial brewing, and you're too precious with your beer to tip a bad batch.
Sending a batch of bad beer for packaging/sales would sour your brewery's reputation, especially in the early days, so it would be cheaper in the long run to run it to the drain and re-brew.

Absolutely. I've tipped a few batches in my time brewing. And it's always painful.

It's like the 5 stages of grief:
1. Denial - It doesn't taste that bad. I mean, its drinkable....right? :mellow:
2. Anger - F&($NG Thing!!! WHY DID I HAVE TO FOLLOW THE INSTRUCTIONS ON THE CAN AND FERMENT AT 27 DEGREES!!!! :angry2:
3. Bargaining - Please, God.... make that off flavour mellow out with conditioning :unsure:
4. Depression - I'm the worst brewer ever. I'm never brewing again.
5. Acceptance - All right. I'll tip it and try again.

 

[wide eyed and legless]

Did it again for the second time.

image.jpg
Used a 1 metre long s/s ruler to clear a blockage in the mill hopper while in use.
Ahh well it's now perfectly handy for measuring the length of snake next summer as it slithers across the yard.

Reminds me of our tech school turning teacher, we were supposed to clear the swarf with a rule, Mr Woods did show us how not to do it with ones finger, kept the end of his finger in a matchbox for ages. :lol:

 

[Thefatdoghead]

Try mixing some citric acid and water in it and boil it for a few minutes.

How strong you think?

 

[spog]

Reminds me of our tech school turning teacher, we were supposed to clear the swarf with a rule, Mr Woods did show us how not to do it with ones finger, kept the end of his finger in a matchbox for ages. :lol:

Ha, when I grabbed the ruler to clear the blockage I thought I should use the previously mangled ruler but decided nah it'll be alright I'll use the nice straight one.
Wrong ! The mill grabbed it and stuffed it. I thought you Cnut !
I killed the power to the mill and turned the pulley backwards by hand to get the ruler out which then pushed the hopper up and let grain flow out all over the shop.
Then I realised I was the dumb Cnut .
Must buy a new ruler so I'm prepared for next time.

 

[Rocker1986]

How strong you think?

I usually just use probably a couple of tablespoons worth in 4 or 5 litres of water. Never really measured it, I just tip it in from the bag until it looks "about enough" then dissolve and boil it. Even if it doesn't completely remove it, it should loosen it up enough that it can be scrubbed off once it cools down.

 

[droid]

wow, so many reminders of other stuff-ups i'd forgotten about, here's one that must be up there on the dickheadometer:

keggle taken off the gas, and put on a stand to whirlpool...so that's a hot steel keg onto plastic? uh huh. truly a wonder how some people get through life, luckily i smelled the melting plastic

 

[technobabble66]

... And brewing in thongs at the time, droid?

Nice melt on the crate!

 

[droid]

thanks good job ay?

the thongs have been a more recent happening, tho i brewed in wellies the other day so who can know

 

[Benn]

This afternoon I planned a simple evening of kegging one batch and getting another batch out of the cube and into the fermenter. Ordinarily this wouldn't be a problem, however I still haven't organised my garage since recently moving so everything brew related happens in the kitchen for now.
Things took a turn for the worse when I began force carbing via the "liquid out" post (pin locks). I couldn't find any clamps so I just pushed the beer line on to the barbs, cranked the reg up to 30psi and began shaking the keg on the kitchen floor. About 5 seconds in to it the hose blew off the reg and being that it was still connected to the liquid out post at 30psi, started whipping around spraying beer all over the kitchen. I quickly disconnected it and took a minute to survey the damage, there was beer all over the place. Ok, could have been worse.
Then, for some unknown reason I reconnected it! Off it went again spraying beer all over the clean dishes, the bench tops, me, all over the flyscreen on the kitchen window.
I quickly disconnected it again. Now there was beer ******* everywhere. I knew I was in for a long night so I took off my wet socks and got back to work. While all this was going on, the cube of DSGA I was aerating in the corner had been bubbling so vigorously that it was slowly spewing foamy beer out of the opening, running down the sides and forming a decent puddle at the base of the pantry.
I was getting pretty over it by this stage, all it would have taken was for Mum to ring up about something and I would have lost it. Meanwhile the wife and kids happily watched their movie. I pulled the other Co2 bottle out of the beer fridge and finished force carbing, cleaned out the fermenter and poured in the DSGA & yeast. I couldn't find the mop so I grabbed some chux wipes and began hand mopping. Just as I start cleaning up the kids come walking through it to get a drink, then the cat starts licking the beer puddle in the corner then it's attacking the chux wipes while I'm trying to mop up with them.
Faaaark, what a bastard. I finished cleaning about an hour ago, all the more reason to get the garage organised so **** like this doesn't keep happening.

 

[Danscraftbeer]

That is farken hilarious. :lol: