Homebrew tragedy / glad I have a sense of humor

So, I had a bit of a party on Friday night. What was supposed to be a couple of friends over for chili and games, turned into about 15 people and drinking games. Anywho, I had three kegs in the chest freezer; an IPA that was just about gone, an ESB that was very good and was over half full, and a Dubbel that is still carbing/conditioning. I finished off the IPA pretty early in the night; there was only a pint or two left. Then I moved on to the ESB. Probably after my third or fourth pint, I was filling another one and I guess when I put the tap back in (haven't built my collar yet, still using picnic taps) I laid it on one of the kegs with the button sticking up in the air. So, when I closed the lid of the chest freezer, it depressed the button on the tap. Obviously, when I came back to get another pint, the keg was empty, but the chest freezer was full of about two gallons of ESB. Then, the worst part of it all, is for whatever reason, the drain on the freezer wasn't working and I had to suck it all out with a turkey baster...ugh.

Anyway, for all intents and purposes I am now out of homebrew. The Dubbel is close, probably be ready by this weekend, but it is not the type of brew you sit around and drink six pints of. Plus, it probably wont reach it's peak for at least two more weeks. I have an American ale cold conditioning right now, so it will probably be ready in two weeks, a california common needing to go to secondary, and I am going to brew this weekend, so it wont be long before I am back up and running, but it has been a LONG time since I have been out of homebrew. I didn't think I would ever run out.

However, I learned a long time ago that you cant dwell on stuff like this and with every bad thing that happens, there is usually some sort of silver lining. So, I look at it as an opportunity to clean my chest freezer that was previously getting pretty gunky. It is nice and clean now

My funny is that whenever I wash the cobra tap I leave it open...yep, you guessed it...when I placed it on a keg (taking a sample) the next time I forgot to close it...brew all over the inside of the keezer.

The temp in the garage was around 20F and I had to go on a business trip so I didn't get around to cleaning it up right away. I ended up with some mold so I washed it with bleach water and gave it a hot water rinse.

I had to take everything out and hose it down. Hosed down inside the freezer also and drained.

I'm glad I put that thing on a dolly. I just rolled it over to the drain in my garage. It was easier than expected.

A lessons learned for "clean as you go"...

homebrewer_99 said:

My funny is that whenever I wash the cobra tap I leave it open...yep, you guessed it...when I placed it on a keg (taking a sample) the next time I forgot to close it...brew all over the inside of the keezer....

Click to expand...

I did that too. So I started storing it disassembled instead of open. It has the added benefit of not keeping the membrane/gasket dealie compressed all the time.

Then, the worst part of it all, is for whatever reason, the drain on the freezer wasn't working and I had to suck it all out with a turkey baster...ugh.

Click to expand...

Call me crazy, but I probably would have used a pint glass!

That isnt crazy... that is called respect!

Khirsah17 said:

Call me crazy, but I probably would have used a pint glass!

Click to expand...

You haven't seen the bottom of my chest freezer.

I definitely did consider it though.

This is why whenever i have people over and everybody is getting drunk i usually un tap the homebrew and leave the commercial beer i have on tap for the party. I am not being greedy or anything, but the last thing i want is to drink a bunch of my great homebrew in a tasteless drunk phase (or waste it in a moment of drunken stupidity)

When I first read your post I thought you meant you were giving up homebrewing, not that you were simply out of homebrew. I'm glad that is not the case!

I've had a few occasions where friends and timing interrupts the supply of goodness. It definitely makes you appreciate it more when you have a good supply on hand!

RockfordWhite said:

This is why whenever i have people over and everybody is getting drunk i usually un tap the homebrew and leave the commercial beer i have on tap for the party. I am not being greedy or anything, but the last thing i want is to drink a bunch of my great homebrew in a tasteless drunk phase (or waste it in a moment of drunken stupidity)

Click to expand...

Well, my friends don't like homebrew for the most part. Living in St Louis it is pretty rare that my friends drink anything that is not Budweiser. However, one of my friends did finally try a Blue Moon and he actually liked it!! But, I offer my homebrew to anyone. I don't think it is greedy that you don't, but I dunno, it is part of the fun for me. And in all honestly I wasnt that drunk. Granted after roughly 6 pints I sure wasn't sober, but it was just pure stupidity, the drunk part had nothing to do with it.

explosivebeer said:

When I first read your post I thought you meant you were giving up homebrewing, not that you were simply out of homebrew. I'm glad that is not the case!

I've had a few occasions where friends and timing interrupts the supply of goodness. It definitely makes you appreciate it more when you have a good supply on hand!

Click to expand...

No, definitely not getting out of homebrewing just out of homebrew. For some, like you mentioned, it is probably a normal occurrence, but I seriously never thought that I would run out. I pretty much time everything so that there is always something. Even with this "tragedy", I will still have a Dubbel to drink on this weekend :rockin:

cubbies said:

No, definitely not getting out of homebrewing just out of homebrew. For some, like you mentioned, it is probably a normal occurrence, but I seriously never thought that I would run out. I pretty much time everything so that there is always something. Even with this "tragedy", I will still have a Dubbel to drink on this weekend :rockin:

Click to expand...

Apparently I need to read more carefully, or have more coffee. Regardless, enjoy your Dubbel this weekend!

RockfordWhite said:

This is why whenever i have people over and everybody is getting drunk i usually un tap the homebrew and leave the commercial beer i have on tap for the party. I am not being greedy or anything, but the last thing i want is to drink a bunch of my great homebrew in a tasteless drunk phase (or waste it in a moment of drunken stupidity)

Click to expand...

You and I have a very different attitude about brewing. I brew so that my friends and family and I can enjoy it, not so that I can horde it for myself and server commercial crap to them. On top of that, why would I want to spend money on commercial beer when I have a couple kegs of my own stuff that is already cold and ready to drink?