whats the worst brewing accident you have witnessed or been a part of?

CornyKegs 728
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I was once with a guy who lost an arm brewing, very scary stuff. Nah, but for real, could you imagine? Nothing serious here, always very careful, no glass carboys, and never drink too much until AFTER the wort finds the better bottle.
 
I was not there, but have a friend that ended up with 3rd degree burns. Brewed a 10 gal batch, was near the end (and in shorts due to the summer time). I don't remember how, but the pot tipped over during the boil and ended up all over his legs. Didn't brew again for almost a year. I can understand why.
 
I burned my leg on my burner once, leaving a trapezoid shaped scar. I didn't have a valve on my kettle at the time and was lifting the kettle full of either my strike water or sparge water to dump into my mash tun and backed right into it. That was a surprise. Otherwise, I've been pretty lucky so far and not had any serious accidents (knocks on wood).
 
First time I used my wort chiller I ran water through it to leak check the hoses, then put it in the boiling wort for the last 5 minutes. When I ran more water through it to chill the wort it pushed out leftover water, which was at boiling temperature, and the outlet hose sprayed me right across the face. I was in the process of picking up the hose to keep the water away from the kettle when it suddenly gushed out. I wear glasses so my eyes were fine but it shot a line right across my forehead. Burned me pretty thoroughly, though fortunately just first degree.
 
brewtus_ said:
A week ago after brewing, I slipped on an ice sheet created in my driveway from my plate chiller. On my way to the ground, my hand hit the front license plate of my car and gashed my little finger. Broke the finger and had 8 stitches and had to see an ortho specialist. After the hospital, x-rays, stitches, doctor, tetanus shot, antibiotics and the orthopedic hand specialist (plus follow-up visit with him today), this will be my most expensive beer in more than 24 years brewing!
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But is the beer OK? :)
 
A few months before I started brewing, but I was sitting in with a buddy of mine who had been brewing for some time at that point, he brewed his first two lagers. He swore by blow off tubes at the time, and used a bleach solution in his blow-off bucket. Well, fermentation went just fine, so we racked both beers (an Oktoberfest and, if I recall, a Pilsner) to secondary and tossed them back into the lagering freezer with their blow-offs still set up (I don't think he even owned a traditional airlock at the time). He ramped the freezer down to lagering temp over a couple days but, as most will have guessed by now, set up a vacuum in both fermenters and sucked back the bleach solution into each fermenter. We had to dump both of them. Sad, sad day that was.
 
stratslinger said:
A few months before I started brewing, but I was sitting in with a buddy of mine who had been brewing for some time at that point, he brewed his first two lagers. He swore by blow off tubes at the time, and used a bleach solution in his blow-off bucket. Well, fermentation went just fine, so we racked both beers (an Oktoberfest and, if I recall, a Pilsner) to secondary and tossed them back into the lagering freezer with their blow-offs still set up (I don't think he even owned a traditional airlock at the time). He ramped the freezer down to lagering temp over a couple days but, as most will have guessed by now, set up a vacuum in both fermenters and sucked back the bleach solution into each fermenter. We had to dump both of them. Sad, sad day that was.
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Why the hell would you use bleach solution???????
 
One of the toughest things I have found about brewing in the winter is what to do with the water running out of the wort chiller. I brew in the garage, and in the warmer weather i fill up a few buckets with the warm runoff to help with cleaning, but most of the water runs down the driveway. A few weeks ago it was in the teens and I was worried about turning my driveway into a sheet of ice. My co-brewer, John, came up with a great solution - he routed the runoff hose into a flowerbed next to my house.
We had a relatively good brewing day (with the exception of a stuck sparge on the second batch). Wait, did I mention that I was brewing two batches to enter into the NHC? A Quad and an American Amber. We had company during the second batch in the form of John's cousin Ricky. The three of us had a grand time mashing and boiling and adding hops and cooling wort down and pitching yeast. Lots of laughs and we got to learn a thing or two from each other. I would have called it one of my best days yet. After I pitched the yeast on the second batch, it was time to show Ricky my basement bar. I built it last year, and I'm still stoked to show it off when I get the chance. That's when the **** hit the fan.
We walked into my finished basement (17x30) carpeted basement and found an inch of water over 80% of it. Each step you took sounded like you were sloshing through a pond. I nearly cried. We spent the next 7 hours pulling up carpet, throwing away padding, vacuuming water, buying fans, etc. On top of that, the Mrs. was bitching about how stupid John and I were for running water next to the house. "Every idiot knows not to put water against the foundation" I heard 1000 times.
Lucky for me, John is a carpet guy and he hooked me up with new padding and he put the carpet back in place the following Saturday and and that freed us up to brew a 10g batch of a very tasty milk stout.
The second brew day was so smooth that it was almost boring, and I ran the hose down the driveway instead!

But wait. . .
I tell the Mrs that I am much smarter now and that the water won't be a problem this time. You see, I put the water down the driveway this time. Even an idiot like me can learn from his mistakes!

Then. . .
John goes down to the basement to pull us a pitcher to enjoy during clean up.
AND . . .
Well, all I can tell you is that there is significantly less water produced when you make one batch instead of two. For the second week in a row my basement flooded from brewing. It turns out the that frost free valve in my garage wasn't so frost free and it burst inside my basement ceiling. Every time I opened the valve to chill my wort, it was spraying all over my basement.

The silver lining - My wife issued a public, facebook apology to us because it was a burst pipe rather than our idiocy that caused the floods. The 15 hours spent cleaning the mess might be worth that alone. :mug:
 
First time trying to use the carboy that came with the brew kit that got me started 2 years ago. Had 5 gallons of finished IIPA. Went to pick up said full carboy (one hand on the neck, one hand supporting the bottom.) Heard this loud pop that glass should never make, and the bottom of the carboy dropped out in almost a perfect circle, along with 5 gallons of IIPA, into my bedroom floor. Not thinking anything other than "save the beer, save the beer", I think I tried to catch the bottom, and instead razored my finger nicely on the edge. Luckily I had two buddies over who grabbed every towel my house to stem the flood while I drove myself to get stitched up. I never even got to taste so much as a drop of the finished product, but am extremely lucky to still be in possession of 10 functioning digits. I would imagine I wasn't the first person this happened to, as when I called the company that sold it they sent me a brand new carboy, and a new ingredient kit for a replacement batch. The new carboy said "Italy" on it, and was substantially heavier than the original. It is still collecting dust in my attic.

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After just a couple of months reading the homebrew forums I am scared to death of glass carboys! I get nervous just looking at them on the shelves when I visit the LHBS!
 
andvari7 said:
This past January, I was siphoning to bottles, from a plastic bucket. About two-thirds of the way into it, the 2-gallon bucket, which was perched rather precariously on the bathroom sink counter, tipped over. I was covered, and I lost the rest of the batch. Just as well; the beer was plastic-y and undrinkable.

I'm not taking any chances next time: I'm siphoning on an inverted five-gallon bucket, and keeping the bottles in a Rubbermaid bin whilst bottling.
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I have another contender for the worst brewing accident:

This past brew day (3/1), I was preparing my morning for a 6:30 start time. I went outside to get the propane tank, and the burner. The tank, which was connected to the grill, came away clean, no problems. The burner was buried under a drift of snow, which came away fine. The hose, however, was partially encased in ice. It peeled away without trouble, until I got to the hook-up valve. It was, unbeknownst to me, completely encased in ice, and then buried under five inches of snow. When I went to free it, I sheared it from the rest of the hose. It is beyond repair, and in addition to no longer being able to brew out-of-doors, I can no longer stir-fry, nor can I deep-fry turkeys.

I'm essentially forced to use an electric stove until I buy a new turkey fryer. I'll let you know how my two brews in primary turn out.
 
I once scalded my, uh, male gender bits while chilling a batch.

In our old apartment building where I stove-topped, I pre-heated my IC with hot sink water. Usually I disconnected the 'in' line from the IC so when the water inside it started to boil it'd have two adequate vents (the 'out' and the 'in', both of which would be in the sink). This day I neglected to unscrew the line from the faucet and put the IC in the kettle, 15 minutes before flame-out. As I stood there making hop additions the water in the IC boiled and shot out the only path it could...the 'out' line, which was not held into the sink drain by anything. The hose jumped the sink with one spurt and the second spurt aimed itself directly at a very un-burnable area of my anatomy. I yelped something about it being hot, and later the neighbors brought up some burn ointment. Other than the embarrassment no lasting harm was done- and I now secure all lines and step away from the kettle as soon as the IC is in.
You can decide for yourselves why clothes didn't soak up the heat before the water hit skin. ;) Kyle
 
Cobra tap wasn't fully assembled from the LHBS when I attached it. Pretty tame. Typical spills etc, but nothing even remotely as bad as my previous hobby... 2007 Honda 919.

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Tupperwolf said:
After just a couple of months reading the homebrew forums I am scared to death of glass carboys! I get nervous just looking at them on the shelves when I visit the LHBS!
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I totally skip that aisle altogether for that reason.... The guys at Midwest must think I'm insane...
 
I had the worst boil over of my life using an extract kit. Super sticky wort was all over my brand new oven/range, and down the sides...along the back. It was everywhere. When it was happening, I didn't simply grab the pot with the gloves I had on. Nope. I started throwing paper towels at the base of the pot in hopes that it would soak up the wort faster than it was boiling over. I now have wort/paper towels that are permanently stuck to the cook top. I've tried for 9 months to clean it (at least once a week). Range cook top still works well.
 
Brewcrew02 said:
Cobra tap wasn't fully assembled from the LHBS when I attached it. Pretty tame. Typical spills etc, but nothing even remotely as bad as my previous hobby... 2007 Honda 919.
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What, only three pieces? You didn't do that right ;)

I shattered one into so many pieces the ortho surgeon said it looked like a bag of marbles in there. Still have the steel strap and 6 screws. Fun ride :rockin:

Cheers!
 
Worst thing I've ever done was absent mindedly grabbed a turkey fryer after removing the HLT which had been warming up on it for the past 30 minutes. I don't think I've ever been so mad at myself.
 
other than rootbeer bottle bombs the only other decent accident was when a hose from my HERMS system slipped out of place and spilled wort all over the kitchen for about 30 seconds. I guess I have been pretty lucky.

seriously considering getting rid of my glass carboys now though.
 
My brother thought it would be cute to take a dump in my fermenter.... i did not think it was cute. needless to say i bottled it and gave it away as gifts..SIKE... i am lucky i never had a bad brewing accident (knock on wood) only got burnt a few times very minor
 
andvari7 said:
This past January, I was siphoning to bottles, from a plastic bucket. About two-thirds of the way into it, the 2-gallon bucket, which was perched rather precariously on the bathroom sink counter, tipped over. I was covered, and I lost the rest of the batch. Just as well; the beer was plastic-y and undrinkable.

I'm not taking any chances next time: I'm siphoning on an inverted five-gallon bucket, and keeping the bottles in a Rubbermaid bin whilst bottling.
Click to expand...

No, I'm not - I'm using the same toilet I've been using since day one, and that's that.

Seriously, though - I racked to secondary, which I now know is not usually necessary, nor wise, and everything went well. Except for the towel that was covering the drain for a runoff pipe on the A/C. Yeah, that towel was completely soaked, and it added another load of laundry, but it's clean and fresh; ready to soak up the exploded bottles from overcarbonation, which is scheduled for Friday.

The key to my avoiding these kinds of problems? Standing very far away from the molten sugar water.
 
Spilled 5+ gallons of 200+ degree wort down my right leg. Third degree burns on my thigh, knee, and foot, plus a helluva mess to clean up. Not the high point in my brewing career.
 
I dropped 6gal carboy of oatmeal chocolate stout that I had aging for 6 months, in the basement! I actually cried, it smelled awesome in the basement for 3 days and then, not so much! I ended up having to cut the bottom off about 30 feet of wall that it ran behind to clean it up!
 
Worst thing I've done was decide at the the last minute to put one more cup of sugar in the wort. The bag of salt was right next too it........guess what happened.

Lesson: Do not over indulge in beer while making beer.

That was 12+ years ago. I know not to use cane sugar now too.
 
Davedrass said:
One of the toughest things I have found about brewing in the winter is what to do with the water running out of the wort chiller. I brew in the garage, and in the warmer weather i fill up a few buckets with the warm runoff to help with cleaning, but most of the water runs down the driveway. A few weeks ago it was in the teens and I was worried about turning my driveway into a sheet of ice. My co-brewer, John, came up with a great solution - he routed the runoff hose into a flowerbed next to my house.
We had a relatively good brewing day (with the exception of a stuck sparge on the second batch). Wait, did I mention that I was brewing two batches to enter into the NHC? A Quad and an American Amber. We had company during the second batch in the form of John's cousin Ricky. The three of us had a grand time mashing and boiling and adding hops and cooling wort down and pitching yeast. Lots of laughs and we got to learn a thing or two from each other. I would have called it one of my best days yet. After I pitched the yeast on the second batch, it was time to show Ricky my basement bar. I built it last year, and I'm still stoked to show it off when I get the chance. That's when the **** hit the fan.
We walked into my finished basement (17x30) carpeted basement and found an inch of water over 80% of it. Each step you took sounded like you were sloshing through a pond. I nearly cried. We spent the next 7 hours pulling up carpet, throwing away padding, vacuuming water, buying fans, etc. On top of that, the Mrs. was bitching about how stupid John and I were for running water next to the house. "Every idiot knows not to put water against the foundation" I heard 1000 times.
Lucky for me, John is a carpet guy and he hooked me up with new padding and he put the carpet back in place the following Saturday and and that freed us up to brew a 10g batch of a very tasty milk stout.
The second brew day was so smooth that it was almost boring, and I ran the hose down the driveway instead!

But wait. . .
I tell the Mrs that I am much smarter now and that the water won't be a problem this time. You see, I put the water down the driveway this time. Even an idiot like me can learn from his mistakes!

Then. . .
John goes down to the basement to pull us a pitcher to enjoy during clean up.
AND . . .
Well, all I can tell you is that there is significantly less water produced when you make one batch instead of two. For the second week in a row my basement flooded from brewing. It turns out the that frost free valve in my garage wasn't so frost free and it burst inside my basement ceiling. Every time I opened the valve to chill my wort, it was spraying all over my basement.

The silver lining - My wife issued a public, facebook apology to us because it was a burst pipe rather than our idiocy that caused the floods. The 15 hours spent cleaning the mess might be worth that alone. :mug:
Click to expand...

I'm going to guess that you left your hose attached to the spigot and that's why it didn't drain from the garage back to the valve in the "frost free" valve. You need to disconnect your hose and allow the water to drain from the valve during the cold months.;)
 
Miller bought the naming rights to the stadium of my beloved Brewers thereby ensuring a decent beer can never be consumed within.

Top that.

Regards,
Brobeman
 
Mojzis said:
I've been doing this for over a year without any issues at all. While you shouldn't.... You certainly can.
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I just did this tonight...I would rather do it by mouth than fill up the cane with unsanitized water lol Maybe, I am just old school. I did make sure that the part that touched my mouth was thrown into some starsan foam at the bottom of the keg though ;)
 
kombat said:
You shouldn't? Why not? I mean, I don't, but I've read in several places that plain old table sugar can be used to goose ABV without changing the flavour - did I miss an important caveat?
Click to expand...

I suppose you could use it. I mean, it will ferment. I've always gotten an undesirable twang flavor when using cane sugar. I stopped using cane sugar and started using corn sugar instead. The twang flavor I mentioned never returned.
 
Chadwick said:
I suppose you could use it. I mean, it will ferment. I've always gotten an undesirable twang flavor when using cane sugar. I stopped using cane sugar and started using corn sugar instead. The twang flavor I mentioned never returned.
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Hmm, interesting, I'd never heard that.

Back when I brewed with extract kits, I used dextrose (corn sugar), and I still had that "extract twang." I was led to believe it was due to either old LME or scorching it during the boil. At any rate, that "twang" was why I switched to all-grain, and I haven't tasted it since.

An interesting experiment would be to brew the same beer in two batches, one fortified with cane sugar, the other with dextrose, all else being held equal, and see what taste differences manifest.
 
brobeman said:
Miller bought the naming rights to the stadium of my beloved Brewers thereby ensuring a decent beer can never be consumed within.

Top that.

Regards,
Brobeman
Click to expand...

There is a mixed blessing with that one: Would you rather watch the Brewers lose, while drinking an [Harry Caray] ice-cold Budweiser [/Harry Caray]? I can't imagine what life is like in St. Louis. At least they have a team that can win a World Series to take their minds off of their refrigerated Clydesdale urine.
 
About a month ago I was moving 6 gallons of a really good looking American wheat from my primary fermentation chamber to the freezer I use for cold crashing. After getting the bucket about 6 " off the bottom of the freezer something gave. 4 weeks and a hernia repair surgery later that beer is still cold crashing.
 
My bad experience isn't nearly as bad as most I've read on here (I only have five brews under my belt) but I do recall once, my hop bag slipped out of my hands back into the brew pot, right after I turned the flame out. They all spilled out and essentially made the bag useless, but no big deal except for the fact that the hop particles plugged up my plate chiller, which lead to a lot of loud swearing.:drunk: . I had never even heard of whirlpooling at the time, otherwise I might have given that a shot. On the positive side, the brew turned out to be the best one I've made to this day!:ban:
 
Not quite brewing, but in preparation for it so I think it counts. While assembling my immersion chiller, I decided to put in the short-radius bends by hand. Wound up hyperextending my thumb badly enough to need a splint for a few weeks, and it took a good 2-3 months before it was entirely back to normal.

But I saved $10 by not buying a tubing bender! And it only cost me $150 for an urgent care visit and X-ray! Totally worth it.
 

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