Your worst home brewing mishap?

As of right now, none of my mistakes can really be construed as bad, but if I had to choose one, it would be my first all grain recipe. I adjusted the recipe to make it for a 5.5gal batch, but it didn't occur to me until after brew day that I should have adjusted the grain bill, too. Ended up with a session belgian wit. Luckily, it didn't really take away from the beer. It's a nice and refreshing 4%'er.

Tried to catch a glass carboy as it slipped from my hands while cleaning it. Sliced my left hand up in multiple spots. Needed stitches on three of the cuts. I use Better Bottles now.

My very first batch I made a 5 gallon extract batch... From a 3 gallon kit

I made slightly yellow water

I dropped the stir bar into my conical fermenter when I pitched the yeast starter. I didn't think much about it until I went to drain some yeast out of the dump valve on the bottom of the fermenter. When I went to close the ball valve it got stuck open. That's when I realized the stir bar must have wedged in the ball valve so it wouldn't close. I ran around the garage trying to figure out how to stop the inevitable flood of beer that would run out onto the floor once the yeast finished draining. Luckily, I had an extra tri-clamp ball valve, so I just attached a new valve to the valve that was stuck open. Didn't lose a drop of beer. That batch had so many other problems, it was ridiculous. I ended up calling it "Murphy's Law IPA"

pvpeacock said:

I dropped the stir bar into my conical fermenter when I pitched the yeast starter. I didn't think much about it until I went to drain some yeast out of the dump valve on the bottom of the fermenter. When I went to close the ball valve it got stuck open. That's when I realized the stir bar must have wedged in the ball valve so it wouldn't close. I ran around the garage trying to figure out how to stop the inevitable flood of beer that would run out onto the floor once the yeast finished draining. Luckily, I had an extra tri-clamp ball valve, so I just attached a new valve to the valve that was stuck open. Didn't lose a drop of beer. That batch had so many other problems, it was ridiculous. I ended up calling it "Murphy's Law IPA"

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Wow, impressive save. The yeast must have been pretty compacted luckily.

TheBigLebrewsk1 said:

I find it odd at times reading the newbie posts where they are freaking out about some abnormality, an infection, forgetting to add an ingredient or making a mistake. I get it, there is a lot of time and effort, and cost that goes into a homebrew session.

What newbies have to understand is that failure is par for the home brewing course. Everyone has screwed up homebrew,

What was your worst moment? I've had too many to list, but once my wife backed her car into my kettle as I was about 10 mins to completion. That was a mess.

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I'll start by saying that every user should use the SEARCH function before asking questions. If you can't find your answer in the search then you're probably not inputting your data correctly. Just about every possible situation has been covered in the years that this forum has existed.

Otherwise, My worst mishap was reading this post.

I've had two bad mash experiences that still produced good beer. First was a braided cooler MT that I somehow totally collapsed. Couldn't drain at all, wasn't a stuck sparge so much as the braid totally flattened and was ruined. I dumped it into my kettle and used a kitchen siv to fish all the grain out. Then a similar experience with a cheap BIAB bag. No issues other than some stress.

One time I thought it was small to cool my wort down using snow. Yeah, that was a mess.

SEndorf said:

The recipe said IRISH moss...... Not PEAT moss!!

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But I bet it had comples earthy notes.

I brewed my first all grain beer without much know how about brewing, probably just the mash temp interval and the mash time.
I used homemade malt with hell lot of roasted malt. I didn't knew it takes so little to make a ambr brown beer. It turned out a tar black beer. Not really a bad thing. For hops i used some hops sold for anti-insomia tee. No hop smell at all.
I didn't had a chiller so i chilled in the yard in a tub of cold water. It took about one hour. And i didn't had a cap for my keggle, i improvised with a chopping board from the kitchen.
After cooling i realised that i don't have a siphon, or a hose to use for this, so i transfered the wort with a big plastic cup.
For fermenting i used some yeast slurry that i kept from a extract brew made a few weeks before.
The beer had a small sourness, but not too vinegary, some friends liked it. Not me.
It passed a few months until a brewed again, having all the things for making a good beer.

I've been pretty fortunate so far, but I'm waiting out one possibility: my wife knocked the airlock off of a carboy of cream ale that had been finishing up for a good day or so. So when I opened up the brew bag to check on it, I saw the airlock on the bottom of the bag next to the carboy...and a roach crawling around the inside of the bag.

If it's drinkable, it will surely be renamed for the roach. If it's not, well, it'll be my first bulk aged sour...or a dumper.