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

Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum

Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

Revvy

Post Hoc Ergo Propter Hoc
HBT Supporter
Joined
Dec 11, 2007
Messages
41,288
Reaction score
3,773
Location
"Detroitish" Michigan
This came to me in another thread, the one about infections and bad batches....

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f39/has-anyone-ever-messed-up-batch-96644/

This is the time of year where we literally have hundreds of nervous new brewers on here. They are worried about everything...Too high temps, Infections, sanitization, being perfect brewers...not making any mistakes.

They are worried that their first creation is like a newborn baby...so weak, and needing their constant attention.

We were all like that ourselves at one time.

I think it would be intersting, and helpful, that our new brew friends see just how hardy our beer really is...how sometimes it seems nothing during the brewing to bottling process turns out right...Except the beer!

And how often that no matter how hard it seems, we try to ruin our beer....it defeats our stupidity and survives.

Sometimes even becoming the best beer we ever made.

And that's why when you start a panic thread...we tell you to relax, that everything will be fine...because we know from our mistakes...and brewing accidents...that it usually is!

So fess up you "big guns" let's show the "noobs" how utter fools we were, how many mistakes we made (and still do) and everything still turns out OK!

Me first :eek:

I have stuck my arm in the bottling bucket (unsanitized) to fix the spigot.

Stuck my hand in a hot (158 degree) mash tun, to re-attach the braid. Owie

Racked my beer into an unsantized (but still clean) secondary.

I have dropped a lighter I was using to tilt my bottling bucket (and why I came up with my dip tube) right into the bucket when I was lifting it to the table.

I have had a beer where the autosiphon wouldn't keep, and I had to literally use it like a pump to move the beer.

I have had my auto siphon and my bottling wand get so gummed up with whole hops and pumpkin goop that I couldn't use them. Then ground the spring tip of my bottling wand in the garbage disposal and had to literally bottle directly from the spigot.

Brewed when I had a cold.

And fermented a beer at so high a temp it tasted like bubble gum (the one in the "never dump your beer thread.")

And None of those beers turned out bad at all! In fact some of those ended up being some of my best batches.

Okay my friends...Fess up...Let's show these nervous new brewers just what stern stuff our beer is made of!!!

:tank:

By the way...hit the prost bar if you find this helpful!
 
I had a batch of tripel that tasted like lighter fluid, seriously.
I waited... and waited.
when it went to bottle.. it was heaven. I almost tossed it.

The initial impulse is to toss.
The smart thing to do is see what happens. It's all about the chaos.
see what happens.

taste it. accept it. Know that you are not in control.
 
I have forgot to let my yeast get to room temp before pitching and have thrown it in at fridge temp. Beer tasted fine.

I have reached in a primary bucket for the rubber seal from the lid. Good beer.

My airconditioning went out once and I fermented a Bock at 80F! :eek: Tasty beer.

This one isn't mine. My dad used to brew a beer when I was a kid. This was before Chuck P. It was an old prohibition recipe. It had a half cup of table salt in it and half a potato! We used to drink it in highschool. It wasn't that bad at all.

Bottom line is it's REALLY hard to prevent the yeastie beasties from doing their job.
 
My very first batch (also my first AG batch) I used one of those funnels with a screen at the bottom as my lauter tun... WTF did I know? and it turned out as one of my best beers. Papazians "good life pale ale" was the recipe.
 
My fermenter bucket has a drum tap on the bottom. I poured the cooled wort into the bucket, pitched the yeast, and then discovered 10 mins later that I had a trickling leak. Unfortunately I didn't have another fermenter empty, so not knowing that the nut was *too* tight, I tried spinning the tap slightly to tighten the seal. Oops. The nut popped off the threads inside and dislocated the whole assembly. So, with one hand holding the tap against the bucket and keeping the beer from pouring all over the floor, I had to put my entire unsanitized arm inside the unfermented wort to reattach the nut.

The beer, an Irish Red, fermented out with no problems and was one of the tastiest beers I've ever brewed. :D
 
My airconditioning went out once and I fermented a Bock at 80F! :eek: Tasty beer.

I did that once with an ale, it was the only undrinkable beer I've ever made.



I've gotten overly polluted on various intoxicants and completely mixed up hop additions. I don't know how many times I added the flavor hops. I followed up my error by not documenting the inebriation so I lost track of which beer in the lineup it happened to. 10 gallon batch.

I've long since kegged and drank the batch so I guess it was more in my mind than in my pot. :fro:
 
C'mon...I'm not seeing many of my buddies posting in here...and I know EDwort is online...Besides beating us up with his potent apfelwein he's brewed a beer or two (thousand I'm sure) come one..pony up with the mistakes there fella!

:D
 
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.
 
One of my first mini mashs I got everything ready but forgot 2 pounds of 2-row.

I felt that the only real problem would be the added hops to malt ratio and sure enough it was unbalanced towards hop.

Let it sit for a while as I know hops tend to diminish over time.

Drank on just tonight and it's just fine and I'll have no problems sharing it with friends.
 
Im not sure if i qualify as Revy's buddy but i have been doing this awhile and i have a regular monthly Fu*kup... My ex-girl used to call it my brewing PMS (partial monthly screwup)....Some of the more colorful ones.

july of 3 years ago: forgot to pinch yeast into a batch of apple cider made with real fresh cider. It started to ferment natrally and i remember i screwed up and went ok, i will break down, hit it with some cap tabs and everthing will be ok in a couple of days... Well i went to the LHBS which i didnt frequent much because it was alittle far away for me and i didnt want people thinking that 18 year old kid was making achohal... grabed a bottle of camp tabs and went home and pitched in the required ammount... Then a day later i added the yeast in... fermentation didnt start... didnt start... I read the bottle... they weret camp-tabs... the cap said camp tabs... the bottle said K-sorbate... whoops, i just sterilized my brew, oh sh*t... no biggy... K-sorbate breaks down at higher temps... I pasturized the juice on the stove top... it ended up cloudy but fermented out fine... moral ov the story, read the bottle, not the cap

Two years ago in may i was making a batch of mean and didnt sterilize the fermenter... at all... just chucked the meade in there right on top of the old nasty red star yeast cake... i had made a cider in it just before... Fermentaiton started but the meade turned a funny color and i realized what i did and actully it turned out just fine

Hell my first extract kit... A red ale... skortched a large ammount of the malt extract to the bottom of the pan... was alot darker then i thought it should be but tasted just fine


thats just three of them... note how i mentioned color in all of them... most colorful... get it... i know im an idiot, and im not funny... thats somthing my ex-girlfriend would tell you too... but the truth is that brews are as fragile as we might think... if i treated each brew like a baby i would never sleep... i mean im catholic but thats rediculess

Cheers
 
Recently I accidentally over-diluted a mini-mash batch (i.e. undershot my OG), so the beer tasted thin and watery. I did some calculations and basically brewed another mini-beer that I added to the fermenter to compensate for the flaw. After the second fermentation and a bit of lagering, it's delicious now!
 
forgot to add priming sugar to my last batch of Apfelwein.

Was about have way through bottling and my buddy says: "why is the sugar water still on the stove?" OOPS!!!

Oh well, I "wanted" that batch un-carbed anyway :D

and I just added the sugar water to a mead I started that day...
 
I once had a collapsed braid on my mash tun, and therefore a VERY stuck sparge. I dumped the entire contents of the MLT, grains and water into my bottling bucket to fix my braid, then dumped it all back in the MLT. 3 times I did this, but it kept getting stuck. The last time I just stuck my arm in the mash (don't do that...it's hot), and ripped the braid out (make sure to throw the braid into the street and yell loud obscenities at this point). Then I had one of my buddies open the valve while I held a muslin bag over the kettle. Everything came out, grains and wort, into the bag and I strained the wort into the kettle. I also did the same thing for the sparge, and when the bag got full I would just dump the contents back into the MLT.

This was an IPA, and it turned out fantastic. No astringency, no hot side aeration, just hoppy and dry...go figure!
 
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!:rockin:
 
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...:D

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

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

Never had that problem. There are advantages to being hung like a Great North American Field Mouse! :rockin:

At least you didn't do that AFTER pitching.... That could have led to a "yeast infection".
 
At least you didn't do that AFTER pitching.... That could have led to a "yeast infection".

UGH...

The_Pun_is_Mightier_Than_the_Sword-_Hit_em_in_the_Groan.gif
 
All I can say is:

Friends don't let friends chew sunflower seeds while pounding tripels and brewing an ESB.

You would be DAMN surprised how many shells somehow end up in your boil. ESB turned out perfect though. Ehhh... the shells were boiled and got strained out before they went into the carboy. It was fiiiiiiiiiiine. :tank:
 
My first lager was an Oktoberfest. I didn't realize at the time that you need to make a large starter for lagers, so I just pitched the White Labs vial. The yeast pooped out at around 1.035. I was opening the fermenter every day to check the gravity. I stirred yeast nutrient in, along with a lot of air. Finally I gave up and ordered new yeast. The yeast took a week to come in, then I had learned from my mistake so I made a big starter for it. It was a month later before I could pitch the yeast, meanwhile the beer sat at room temp. After pitching, the beer finally fermented fully (albeit still with a bit high FG) after 3 more weeks.

So at this point the beer had been sitting on a pretty large stressed yeast cake for almost 3 months in primary, had been aerated post-fermentation, and had been exposed to open air a dozen times before the fermentation was complete.

I racked it to secondary, and lagered for 5 months, all the time just devastated that I was spending all this time, $$, and effort (not to mention fridge space) on a beer that would most likely turn out crap.

I now have only a six pack left, as it's one of my (and my guests) favorite beers. :mug:
 
I had a few other brewers over one day and brewed a Maibock. Of course we had a few homebrews and I realized my kettle was a little short pre-boil, so I added some water (not very scientifically, I might add).

Fermentation was great considering I was sober when I took the yeast off the stir plate and pitched it. :p Long story short, I got Second Best of Show at a local comp with over 100 beers entered and got a 42/50 on the BJCP score sheet. :D

Probably helped that I had a few batches under my belt when I made it (60+ by then), but I try to cut back on consumption on brew day. :eek:
 
oh gosh. it would probably be easier and shorter to post the times i've actually brewed without any mistakes.

i've brewed lots and lots of beer. my first batch i didn't take a hydro reading for starting gravity. i was pretty convinced that no matter what, my beer would suck. it didn't.

i've left beer in the primary for what i thought was "too long" like over a month and a half, and was convinced the beer would suck. it didn't.

i've made yeast starters from yeast frozen in my freezer for over a year, and was convinced the yeast wouldn't "work" and the beer would suck. it didn't.

i've made beer in the fermentation buckets for a primary, and had the airlock not sealed quite right, not seen any bubbling activity because of it, and was convinced that fermentation was NOT happening, and my beer would suck. it didn't.

i've drank WAY too much green beer, and forgotten about a six pack that i left at a buddies house 6 months ago, and shown up at his house and been like "oh man, i forgot about this." popped one open, and swore never to drink a green beer again. PATIENCE!!!

i've dropped stuff in the boil, dropped stuff in the carboy, in the bottling bucket, forgotten the irish moss, messed up the hops schedule, you name it. it all made BEER. and sometimes, it made DAMN GOOD BEER.

number one rule imo, is keep track of your so called "mistakes" and "goof ups." if the beer is fantastic, replicate the mistakes and goof ups, such as dropped my aroma hops 5 minutes late, etc.
 
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

You know, Mike McDole (award winning homebrewer) puts a handful of dog hair in hish mash tun for each beer, that way it is his recipe and noone else can replicate it exactly. He makes some damn good beers apparentyl, so maybe there is something to this dog hair thing.

I have forgotten to pour the star san out of the carboy before filling it with wort. I had probably a quart or two of star san solution in the bottom of the carboy that I forgot to dump, I reallized after I had already siphoned a gallon or so into the carboy, so I said f-it we'll see what happens. It was a little foamy at first, and it had a HUGE krausen, but nothing bad happened, and it came out great.
 
I was so drunk when I made my third batch that I blacked out.

I literally don't remember anything past boiling the wort and adding the bittering hops. I got up the next day and the fermenter was sitting there in the guest room closet, just like it should be. I was pretty worried about sanitation or that I forgot to cool it or pitch the yeast or something.

I guess I did everything right, because it turned out great, better than the previous two. It was a Belgian Wit, AHS partial mash kit. That is my only first hand experience with a miracle.
 
I was using my circulating/chiller and one of the hoses came off - I probably pumped 1/4 gallon of the circulating water into my wort. Beer turned out great.

I've had one batch that the water from the airlock got sucked back into the wort at least 4 times (I just couldn't leave it alone:)) This batch turned out great.

I once pitched the yeast (WYeast ) straight out of the fridge - turned out great but took 3 days to start fermenting.
 
This is not a mistake with the beer itself, but I once turned on the valve to my wort chiller with the output hose pointing right at my foot and I was wearing flip flops. That sucked
 
Back
Top