What are some of the mistakes you made...where your beer still turned out great! - Page 3

Kungpaodog · 01-09-2009, 05:48 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Borisbbadd

Wife went to answer her cell phone, hit my arm, her phone flew out of her hand, did a couple back flips and a perfect 10 into the open fermenter..........batch turned out great, but the phone died.

I knew there was a reason I got the water-proof phone.

Well, I've boiled over and lost a bunch of wort, I've spilled half an active starter because aerating it seemed like a good idea before pitching (foamy starter everywhere), I've scorched LME by not stirring it at first, I've added a gallon and a half too much top-off water... and they were all pretty damn good beers!

**Revvy** · 01-09-2009, 01:54 PM

Come on you people...I know you're out there...If you don't start posting your stories I'll start doing a thread search myself(and YOU KNOW I ROCK AT USING THE SEARCH FEATURE!!!)...I'm sure I could find some dirty little brewing secrets....especially from our distinguished moderators...

This is to show the noobs that we're not perfect, and yet the gods of fermentation still shine upon us.

bmorris1 · 01-09-2009, 02:00 PM

Last month, lost five gallons of Celebration Clone to my carpet....

THEN I was shown Revvy's Bottling tip thread... Will certainly be used on my latest batch, dip tube already made, and shortened up the bottling tubing.

jmulligan · 01-09-2009, 02:08 PM

I had a wheat beer where I forgot the hops in my apartment freezer (I brew at my parents' house an hour away). I ran through the brew like usual, and then just made a hop tea later that I dumped into the secondary. This might not work for a beer that needs more hop presence/complexity, but for a wheat beer with a single bittering addition, it turned out great.

flyangler18 · 01-09-2009, 02:09 PM

My very first AG was an oatmeal stout that I rushed to brew a little to late in the day. Despite my best intentions to nail my mash temp, I overheated my strike water and wound up mashing at 160° compared to my intended 154. Of course, I panicked- whipped open the lid, stirred like mad, threw in some ice to cool down the mash. Overexcited stirring threw globs of hot grain and spilled some liquor. Eventually stabilized at 154°. Went to drain my runnings- and it was horribly stuck due to all the oats. Backflushed the cooler with a puff of air. Still stuck. Terrible efficiency (only collected about 6 gallons compared to 7), overboiled and only wound up with 4 gallons in the fermenter after dealing with a leaky IC spritzing water into the boil kettle. I saw that water dripping into the kettle and into my wort- and I immediately thought infection, already fearing dumping the batch.

I persevered. Pitched the yeast, saw it through- and I'm still here typing.

No infection, no horribly stomach-turning taste (perhaps a bit thin) but it was a hit with my rugby mates!

I still have a bottle of that (brewed 4+ months ago); might need to crack it and see how it is now.

**AZ_IPA** · 01-09-2009, 03:00 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TwoHeadsBrewing

(make sure to throw the braid into the street and yell loud obscenities at this point).

that's THE best advice I've seen on this site ever!

**shecky** · 01-09-2009, 03:09 PM

I have never made a mistake. And I'll save you the 'you have to brew more than once a year to make a mistake' jokes.

No, really, my second batch, an IPA, almost became a disaster. I couldn't keep the siphon going when transferring to the bottling bucket. I got extremely pissed after probably 15 tries to keep it going. Said screw it and left behind about a gallon of beer. My mood was not helped by having literally just finished painting my kitchen.

Whole transfer process took probably 90 minutes with me aerating the crap out of the beer. It turned out pretty well, in retrospect.

I believe it was that day I discovered this place and was also the day I ordered an auto siphon, so I guess the disaster had its benefits.

**Laughing_Gnome_Invisible** · 01-09-2009, 03:13 PM

Dangling my penis in the boiling wort was a mistake. But the beer still turned out great!

jasper9 · 01-09-2009, 03:18 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by eschatz

This was before Chuck P.

as a noob i need to step in here. there was a time before Charlie Papazian ?!?!

**bull8042** · 01-09-2009, 03:31 PM

I had an AG batch that I totally missed my strike. It settled at 160°F, I added cold water to compensate and undershot my strike temp and ended up mashing at 150°F. I tried decocting, but couldn't seem to get the temp of the mash to rise. Then I found out that the paddle I was using to stir the mash was the same one my 2 year old had been running around the garage with and smacking the dog on the ass.
I ran short on sparge water after the first sparge and couldn't get the second sparge up past 160°F.
My burner was having an off-day and wouldn't give me a rolling boil.... more of a semi-rolling simmer. Ended up having to boil 90+ minutes to get my volume down after hopping for a 60 min boil.
Waited almost 60 hrs before signs of fermentation, then ended up with a funky kreusen that had long black "hairs" growing out of it.
That DFH 60-min IPA ended up being privately known as "The Hair of the Dog IPA" and was probably one of the best batches of IPA I have done yet.

And shecky, if you brewed more than once per year...... hehehe