Bone headed moves

I got to thinking about this when I was reading on another post about leaving the valve open on bottling bucket.

What boneheaded moves have you guys made while making beer? Probably my smoothest one was boiling my corn sugar for priming and pouring it in the bucket, then about five minutes later looking into my bucket and wondering why I had left some sanitizing solution in there and pouring it out! I ended up having to use regular table sugar. It didn't have those nice tight bubbles, but it was still pretty good. Didn't have that cidery taste I hear about.

Come on, guys, fess up!

I poured my boiling wort straight into a 6.5Gal carboy. The whole think spider webbed but did not break. I carefully siphoned it out into a bucket.....wheeeww. That one was close. The wife would not have been too pleased with 5 gal of wort in the kitchen

I was blowing into the drain tube from my MLT trying to get a sparge unstuck, but it was full to the brim and bubbled over like a volcano landing in my hair. Nothing like hot, sticky wort in your hair. At least there weren't any yellowjackets around.

let me start by saying I was without shirt on a hot summer's eve. I was making a starter with some DME and stupidly put the DME in while the water was cold. Started the boil, it clumped and some stuck to the side of the pot. Used a big spoon to try and get it off the pot wall and too much pressure applied; got boiling wort on my bare belly along with some nice blisters. Hence Burnt Monkey Gut Brown in the signature. What's worse is the beer was not that good.

desertBrew said:

. Hence Burnt Monkey Gut Brown in the signature. What's worse is the beer was not that good.

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It because of all that monkey gut in it.

I have not had any mishaps yet, partially due to the stories supplied by you guys.

I left the valve open on my bottling bucket once - ONCE!

I used to put the bottle filler on AFTER it was full. Now I do it BEFORE I syphon into it.

was bottling and forgot to put my gyle for priming in the bucket. realized it as i filled the last bottle. oops.

I put my immersion wort chiller in the boiling wort to sanitize, with the hoses hanging at the front of the stove. A couple minutes later, boiling hot water that was still in the chiller was ejected on the tops of my bare feet.

By best friend started a siphon into his bottling bucket, then went outside for a smoke. He came back in and the hose had fallen out of the bucket and was siphoning onto the floor.

I had the hose blow off my immersion chiller in the kitchen. The hose was run through the window and I was outside controlling the hose. Too much pressure and water sprayed everywhere. And of course I've done the open spigot on the bottling bucket thing...

When I first went to AG, I tried to brew without a spigot on my bew pot. I had to siphon the cooled wort out of the keg and into the fermentor. The problem was thar gravity was against me and I couldnt get the siphon going no matter what I tried. So I ended up pouring the wort out of the keg into a funnel and into the fermenter. The wort went everywhere....dripped down the outsides of the keg and into the fermenter. I was sure that I would get an infection. On top of that, my yeast was dead (I know...should've made a starter). After repitching some dry yeast....it turned out to be my best batch yet. Now how the heck am I going to replicate that?

BeeGee said:

I was blowing into the drain tube from my MLT trying to get a sparge unstuck, but it was full to the brim and bubbled over like a volcano landing in my hair. Nothing like hot, sticky wort in your hair. At least there weren't any yellowjackets around.

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Is that simular to a beer shampoo?

I was siphoning from full 10 gal primary into 2 five gallon secondaries, one at a time. Can you see where I'm going with this? I swear I only looked a way for a minute but the Three gallons of wort on the floor said otherwise....

Ok, this one time, at band camp.............

I'd been brewing all grain for a year or so and had things down pretty well. I began running my wort off from the mash tun to the kettle and went inside for some reason. After about 20 minutes, I came back out only to find that I'd left the valve on the kettle open. The result was about 2 gallons of wasted first runnings which are the backbone of the whole batch. I muddled through but I don't think that batch ever recovered. Check lists are a good thing.....

Prosit!

Okay, well my best yet was just about 2 weeks ago.....I had one of those 15 gallon tubs that you get at home depot full of water and C-brite........I had next to that a 6.5 gallon carboy full of water and oxyclean......I was trying to pick the carboy up to empty it out, and what do you know I am now swimming in the 15 gallon tub of C-brite......my feet had gone right out from under me and I am head first in the tub......I had some nice bruises from head to toe as if I had been beaten with an ugly stick.........

I have to admit, I am crying from laughing so hard at all these bonehead moves!!!!!!

While picking up the ingredients for my stout, I figured I would pick up some extra grains and DME to have on hand as extra supplies down the road. Well, started my brew-I normally put all the ingredients for the brew I am doing in a milk crate and keep them together. Well, I forgot about the "extras" when I started adding the extract and grains, and cooked up the whole lot! I had the nastiest boilover-thank god for sealed burners on the stove (this was before I moved outside) It was like a volcano. After straightening that out, the brew still had ~180% of the original recipe call for extract and grains in it. It's gotta age so long it may as well have a 1/2 life! I am hoping it might be drinkable by 3/17 but I am not holding my breath.

oh.. i had complete boneheaded night a few months ago.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=2872

The post a little way down the second page has a summary of brew-day problems. It didn't stop there, though... there were issues all the way up through bottling.

It was only a couple batches before that one that I left the spigot open on the bucket.

-walker

Dumping an IPA on the cake from a Mild and not using a blowoff tube or even setting it in the sink. 30 minutes to geyserville.

anthrobe said:

I poured my boiling wort straight into a 6.5Gal carboy. The whole think spider webbed but did not break. I carefully siphoned it out into a bucket.....wheeeww. That one was close. The wife would not have been too pleased with 5 gal of wort in the kitchen

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...let alone 5 gallons of very hot, almost boiling wort. That wouldn't be much fun to mop up.

It's minor, but consistent. Every time I brew or bottle I leave the faucet set to "shower" and acidentally hose myself down. I'm in a rush sanitizing or doing clean up, go to rinse out a carboy or bucket or something in the bath, turn the water on. Icy water hosing me down, usually full clothed.
It happens Every Time, twice today since I was brewing and bottling.

I think I can add one more to my list. I have my imperial stout in the secondary in the closet right now, because it's too cold elsewhere, and I noticed this evening that the air lock got knocked off! It's probably fine, the alcohol is somewhere around 8.5% so there shouldn't be much worry from bacteria getting a foothold.

My dumbest move was using a metal spoon in the boiling wort and leaving it in the pot while I walked away for a minute. Came back and grabbed the spoon...

Mine happened today. Not beer - but I bottled some apple wine. No problems, all went to plan. After cleaning up i decided to shake the excess water rapidly out of a syphon hose in a kind of whipping action. This beautifully executed move resulted in the hose ends nicely slapping me in my right b*llock!

Mrs. C found it highly amusing......

I boil'd over my wort and burn'd a buch of the Hops. Beer still came out GREAT!!!! I was amazed.

autoferret said:

I boil'd over my wort and burn'd a buch of the Hops. Beer still came out GREAT!!!! I was amazed.

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Hey, maybe you're on to something here. Toasted hops... hmm....

What? Am I the only one that burned his house down as well as 600 surrounding acres?

Genghis77 said:

What? Am I the only one that burned his house down as well as 600 surrounding acres?

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Did the beer survive?!

Genghis, I pray you're kidding us.

Another dumb one was one of my very first batches. My first with DME, no less. Was doing a no boil kit, adding three pounds of DME to the carboy. I dumped it all in my funnel, and was trying to get it through.

I figured "screw this" and poured the boiling water onto the 3 lbs of DME in the funnel, figuring it would wash the DME right down.

I spent an hour clearing that funnel...

Yeah, kidding on that one. But did manage to ruin a couple cabinet wood veneer doors. Steam from the wort warped them. Put a better hood and vent fan over the range to prevent that from repeating.

Nothing as good as what I've heard here, but one bonehead move tonight. I was removing the blowoff tube from my Irish Red and putting on the airlock. Simple, right? Not if you're an idiot. I had the wrong size rubber stopper. It was for a five gallon carboy, and was bigger than the ones for the 6.5 gallon carboy. So I had to rush around and find the right stopper. Then I put it on, and viola! It just comes right up and out. What the *#!? So I force it down really good, and it goes all the way down. Trying to get it out I break the airlock and have to get a screwdriver to wedge the stopper out. Luckily I have another airlock, which I stuff back in, carefully, and it slimes back up and almost falls out again. I don't know what the deal is, but just minutes ago I got it to stay. It's bubbling fine, and it doesn't seem to be ready to jump out again.

In a huge rush, I failed to realize that the HBS didn't crush my grains. I didn't realize this until after I'd mashed in. I went ahead with it, and it actually fermented a little. It tasted like hell, though. I tried, but it got dumped.

That was the first attempt at the IPA that's in my sig now.

I have another one to add from brew day yesturday. The whole brew was going great. The immersion chiller was in and the boil time was done. I turned on the kitchen faucet and was cooling the beer good with the outlet hose draining into the sink. I had the outlet hose held down in the sink with a cup or something which seemed to be holding fine. I turned my back once and the hose came out of the sink and I am spraying water all over the kitchen. I was not thinking so I am there trying to get ahold of the flopping hose. I should have just turned off the water. By the time it was all done, I had dumped about 2 gallons of water all over the kitchen. Good thing the wife just left

rewster451 said:

Trying to get it out I break the airlock and have to get a screwdriver to wedge the stopper out.

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Next time use a bent coat hanger (hooked like a "j" or shaped like an "L") through the hole to lift out the bung.

anthrobe said:

I had the outlet hose held down in the sink with a cup or something which seemed to be holding fine. I turned my back once and the hose came out of the sink and I am spraying water all over the kitchen.

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Yeah, had that happen. Usually I get sprayed with water.

I have a double blaster bottle washer witht he quick release attchment at the tap. So I bout a 3/8 hose that has the same fits the same quick release for washing things etc. About 3 feet long. You don't know how many times I've turned the water on without holding the end first! Got hosed down once with scalding hot water from head to toe. Ouch!

Add one more to my growing list. I just ran out of propane in the middle of the brew.

My biggest bonehead moment....picking my brew kettle up by grabbing the bottom, right after I finished boiling

I had blisters for a long time!

brewsmith said:

Add one more to my growing list. I just ran out of propane in the middle of the brew.

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That's boneheaded? I've stolen propane off of my neighbor's deck ninja-style twice in the last 3 months. (and replaced it)

BeeGee said:

That's boneheaded? I've stolen propane off of my neighbor's deck ninja-style twice in the last 3 months. (and replaced it)

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That is just too good.....

My most recent bone head move was to slip while carrying 6 gallons of just-finished-boiling wort up the stairs. It splashed and scalded the ****e out of my arm. I had blisters, etc. for about 2.5 weeks.

On my very first batch to keg, I siphoned the beer into the keg, put the CO2 to it and, after a couple of days, tried to get beer out. All I could get was foam - it didn't make any difference what I tried, all I got was foam. I finally convinced myself that there was something bad in the beer and I poured all five gallons out on the lawn. A month later I found out that the used Corny keg I had did not have an o'ring under the tube on the pickup! Put an o'ring in and never had any more problems.

I got my first ingred kit before I had equipment (it was a gift). Until I got the equipment, I left the ingredients in my parents' garage for about a year. Think: cold-hot-cold hops and liquid yeast. That was my only batch to hit the drain...

This is a fun thread! I do bonehead things every day I brew... actually... every day I get out of bed... I'm glad to be in good company.

Mostly it's common things like spraying, dumping, or siphoning hot/cold water, wort, beer all over myself, my kitchen, my significant other.

One memorable day, even more newbie than I am now, I was kegging and extraextra strong company bitter. On someone's advice, I had gone "extra strong" in stages: letting it ferment, adding some DME in a litre of water, and so on. I had started with enough liquid to fill one keg, but the reality of the accumulative math involved didn't really strike home until I was siphoning to my keg and about to overflow, with no spare bottles for the extra beer. Thinking quickly (?!) (not wanting to loose the siphon, not having a "pincher" on my line...) I continued to siphon with one hand while I opened the fridge and grabbed a cold pint glass... and another... and another... and then drained the remaining beer from the secondary by sitting on the floor with the siphon in my mouth. I hate to let good things go to waste, see. Now I have a number of pints of almost flat (but truthfully fairly pleasant) beer sitting in glasses... well... waste not want not...

Anyway, my girlfriend phoned me a little later in the evening (okay... it was about 4pm)(I think I was laying on the couch singing sweetly to myself and watching the world - nay, the room - turn) and asked if she should pick me up to go workout. Obviously, I lied. "Wellll.....you knowwww.... I think.... I think... I'll just stay here and do some homework tonight..."