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

Moonshae said:

I was using a hair brush in the bathroom underneath my carboy to tilt it as I racked it into the bottling bucket...forgot to move the bucket away first, and when I picked up the carboy, the brush fell right in. No infection, but wouldn't recommend as standard practice.

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I missed this one Moonshae, this is exactly how my bottling bucket diptube got invented.....Only it wasn't a hairbrush it was one of those big BBQ lighters that I was using, until it fell in.

The biggest mistake I ever made was fatal for the beer. In fact, I had to dump it. I fermented an english ale yeast without temp control and the fermenter got to 82F or something. Tasted like paint thinner; just terrible.

I once mistakenly used S-04 instead of US-05, and the beer turned out fine.

I once mistakenly forgot to sanitize my bottling bucket, and the beer turned out fine.

Every time I brew I rehydrate my dry yeast in straight tap water (no boiling to sanitize first) and the beer always turns out fine. I don't call this a mistake, but I thought I would mention it anyway.

I once brewed a recipe that called for a half pound each of Amber, Crystal 60, and Munich. I didn't pay attention to the amount of grain that came in the little bags and mistakenly used 1 whole pound of each. Beer turned out great.

On my second all grain batch I way overshot my mash temp and mashed at 160F instead of 152F. It stopped fermenting at 62% attenuation, and so had a lot more body/sweetness than I wanted. It was OK, not great.

I often commit little sanitation sins on brew day, like putting my long kettle spoon down on the dirty sink, then using it later to stir cool wort; or not sanitizing my thermometer or air lock at all. Beer always turns out fine.

I recently bottled a Marzen and instead of boiling the bottling sugar and water together I only heated up the water so the sugar was dissolved. Hopefully this doesn't create funk in the bottles.

mattyg said:

I recently bottled a Marzen and instead of boiling the bottling sugar and water together I only heated up the water so the sugar was dissolved. Hopefully this doesn't create funk in the bottles.

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I have NEVER boiled ANYTHING for priming. I have always just dumped the sugar in and racked onto it.

GilaMinumBeer said:

I have NEVER boiled ANYTHING for priming. I have always just dumped the sugar in and racked onto it.

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Well that makes me feel better. Every book I've looked at has you boil the sugar and water together, then cool it down before adding it to your beer.

mattyg said:

Well that makes me feel better. Every book I've looked at has you boil the sugar and water together, then cool it down before adding it to your beer.

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Yeah.

"When I read about the evils of drinking beer, I gave up reading" - Henny Youngman

I neglected to use a blow off tube on a 91 point strong ale and the lid blew off my fermenter. It spent about half the day uncovered, wort everywhere, and it turned out just fine.

On my first two AGs I bought a plastic braid for my mash tun instead of SS and for the life of me couldnt understand why I kept having stuck sparges. Got very drnuk both times and both beers turned out fine. Got so drnuk one brew day that I didnt remember pitching the yeast or cleaning up anything and was very surprised the next morning when I found everything put up and the airlock bubbling away. This was one of my best beers so far!


SD

Way back in my early brewing days, I would regularly cool wort, put it in a carboy overnight, then rack off the settled trub and pitch yeast. Never had a problem, and made some okay beers that way. Lots of homebrewers were working that way in the early 90's.

When I started brewing again after a long hiatus, I began brewing outdoors with a burner, and neglected to account for boiloff. My 1.060 IPA became a 1.078 IPA with no hops adjustment. I direct-pitched a vial of WL liquid yeast, racked too soon, and still ended up with a tasty, but filling, ale.

When I started kegging, I didn't have a fridge, so I stored kegs in my basement and carbonated at 35-40 PSI. The beer came out just fine, but I went through a lot of CO2 blowing down kegs for serving.

My first AG brewday was a little crazy, because I was impatient, overshot my mash-in, over corrected, and ended up having to direct-heat the whole mash to temperature before throwing it back in the mash tun. The beer turned out great.

kryolla said:

were you drnuk when you wrote this lol

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Why yes i was a little on the tipsy side



SD

I tried to ferment an ale at 50 degrees. Thanks again to Revvy and the other experienced members for reminding me to RDWHAHB. It's bubbling away now, should be ready in Feb.

FireBrewer said:

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. 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.

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.

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Not me, brew day is hammertime!!!, My best work comes not from my infantile brain but my abused, neglected and often underestimated liver!

Revvy called me out as a bit of a coward for never posting in this thread, but to be honest, I never noticed it until he posted the link the other day. So, hey, I'll bite, Revvy.

Let's see...

I added non-dissolved (granulated) sugar to a still-fermenting IIPA the other week. Because there was still co2 in solution from the fermentation, and all the new nucleation sites from the sugar granules, I had me a science-experiment-worthy eruption out of the carboy. Lost probably 4 quarts of a beer that had 18.5oz of hops in a 5 gallon batch. Not cheap. But the beer, it's really great anyway.

Awhile back, I was doing a hefe, and my starter had begun to blow off. So I divided it up into another container and put both of them in the utility sink in case they blew off again. One jug had a screw-on lid with a bung and airlock securely shoved in. The other just had a stopper loosely in the mouth of the jug with the airlock in it. So, we have this problem where the p-trap going into the waste stack near the util sink is very slow...and since the washing machine is on the same drain line as the util sink, when the washer discharges its dirty water, it backs up like 6 or 8 inches into the util sink. So, the wife, not paying any attention, does a load of laundry...and I walk in to see my starters laying sideways, floating in drty laundry water. Ugh. Luckily, the one with the screw-on top was still intact and didn't look breached. The other one was a goner, but I sprayed the good one down with starsan and took my chances. And it was an awesome hefe.

I have more...when I think of them, I'll post em.

One where I screwed up and it DIDN'T turn out great: I was still a n00b, and was making Papazian's Goat Scrotum Porter. The beer had turned out great so far, up to bottling. At bottling, he said you could add 1oz of spruce extract. I got some spruce extract and the bottle said "add 2oz (the whole bottle) per 5 gallons of beer". I thought, you know, I'm just gonna take it easy and only add 1oz like PapaZ says.

This was over 2 years ago. They've been in bottles ever since, and I keep trying one here and there, thinking the spruce will have subsided a little. Nah. Still really piney, almost ben-gay-ey. Whew. I think Papazian must've been using a weaker extract. And god forbid if I had added the whole bottle like it said on the instructions!

Last night I broke the most cardinal rule and got impatient. I tried a three week in bottle dark strong Belgian ale. Oh my god was it terrible! Tasted exactly like a mixed drink consisting of 1-1-1 Soy sauce, flat coke, and rubbing alcohol.

Still qualifies for this thread because I know it will be good in another 4 months to a year.

Evan! said:

I added non-dissolved (granulated) sugar to a still-fermenting IIPA the other week. Because there was still co2 in solution from the fermentation, and all the new nucleation sites from the sugar granules, I had me a science-experiment-worthy eruption out of the carboy. Lost probably 4 quarts of a beer that had 18.5oz of hops in a 5 gallon batch. Not cheap. But the beer, it's really great anyway.

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Thanks bro!! I hope the exam went well..

See one of the great things about this site is we learn something new everyday...When Evan! posted this mistake last week, he really saved me from doing the same thing...I'm beefing up a Belgian Strong...and my plan for (today actually) was just to dump a pound of sugar into it...but he saved me from it..so today I did an invert sugar boil with a pint of water, pound of sugar and some cream of tarter..and added that to the carboy instead.


No muss, no fuss, and it is already rekrausening!!

Revvy said:

Thanks bro!! I hope the exam went well..

See one of the great things about this site is we learn something new everyday...When Evan! posted this mistake last week, he really saved me from doing the same thing...I'm beefing up a Belgian Strong...and my plan for (today actually) was just to dump a pound of sugar into it...but he saved me from it..so today I did an invert sugar boil with a pint of water, pound of sugar and some cream of tarter..and added that to the carboy instead.


No muss, no fuss, and it is already rekrausening!!

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Question Rev... whats the Tarter for???

I got one for you... I started to brew my first AG in nearly 3 years (useing the genius procedure worked out by DeathBrewer) and didnt realize that when a pot is called a 3 gallon pot it only holds about 2.5 gallons... werid... the lager looks great as it chills outside and it should be ready to go into the fermenter soon... I hope that i can say in two months that it was amazing... unlike that carmel stout which isnt working out so well... well that brewing for you

Cheers

BrewinJack said:

Question Rev... whats the Tarter for???

I got one for you... I started to brew my first AG in nearly 3 years (useing the genius procedure worked out by DeathBrewer) and didnt realize that when a pot is called a 3 gallon pot it only holds about 2.5 gallons... werid... the lager looks great as it chills outside and it should be ready to go into the fermenter soon... I hope that i can say in two months that it was amazing... unlike that carmel stout which isnt working out so well... well that brewing for you

Cheers

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The cream of tartar is works just like using lemon juice or citric acid.

Inverted sugar syrup is a sucrose-based syrup produced with the glycoside hydrolase enzyme invertase or an acid, which splits each sucrose disaccharide molecule into its component glucose and fructose monomer molecules; one of each. In practical terms measured on equivalent dissolved weights, invert syrups are sweeter than sucrose solutions. However invert sugar is 85% the sweetness of an equivalent concentration of sucrose solution; inverting a disaccharide effectively doubles the concentration of sugar molecules...

Inverted sugar syrup can be easily made by adding roughly one gram of citric acid or ascorbic acid, per kilogram of sugar. Cream of tartar (one gram per kilogram) or fresh lemon juice (10 milliliters per kilogram) may also be used (1 tsp lemon juice per 1 pound sugar).

The mixture is boiled for 20 minutes, and will convert enough of the sucrose to effectively prevent crystallization, without giving a noticeably sour taste. Invert sugar syrup may also be produced without the use of acids or enzymes by thermal means alone: two parts granulated sucrose and one part water simmered for five to seven minutes will convert a modest portion to invert sugar.

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I learned the hard way that some vessels call them selves a certain amount of gallons, but in reality that is only if you poured up to near overflowing...My "5 gallon" pot is more like 4.25 gallons comfortably...and my 7.5 gallon turkey fryer pot is more like 6.75 safely.

Of course fermcap drops work well for allowing you the ability to boil really close to the top of the pot without fear of boilivers.

I've boiled over everything that I've made in the past two weeks. That includes three beers brewed with my burner outside when it was less than ten degrees outside and I kept getting to lazy to go outside in the cold and check if the beer had started its boil yet. (btw it had ) It also includes three starters that I made on the stove and started typing on here until I heard them boil over. I'm noobing it up over here!

eschatz said:

I've boiled over everything that I've made in the past two weeks. That includes three beers brewed with my burner outside when it was less than ten degrees outside and I kept getting to lazy to go outside in the cold and check if the beer had started its boil yet. (btw it had ) It also includes three starters that I made on the stove and started typing on here until I heard them boil over. I'm noobing it up over here!

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Dood....get it together!!!!

Or at least get some fermcap s foam control drops...I've nearly maxed out my 5 gallon stove top pot at full boil and gone and taken a nap between hop additions, and never worried.

Yeah, I never have a boilover after the boil has broken but as soon as it starts to break it gets out of control till I calm it down! I know, I need to get my **** together.

eschatz said:

Yeah, I never have a boilover after the boil has broken but as soon as it starts to break it gets out of control till I calm it down! I know, I need to get my **** together.

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Defoamer, dude, defoamer (aka fermcap)! Or, a fan! You point a fan at the boil surface, no boilovers. Easy as that. Hell, if I have my big airmover fan on medium and point it at the surface, I actually have a hard time keeping a rolling boil. Trust me...defoamer and/or a fan work wonders...and you can up your efficiency a little bit because you get to use more water in the sparge because your evap rate gets increase by the fan.

Evan! said:

Defoamer, dude, defoamer (aka fermcap)! Or, a fan! You point a fan at the boil surface, no boilovers. Easy as that. Hell, if I have my big airmover fan on medium and point it at the surface, I actually have a hard time keeping a rolling boil. Trust me...defoamer and/or a fan work wonders...and you can up your efficiency a little bit because you get to use more water in the sparge because your evap rate gets increase by the fan.

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Sweet! I brew outside of an aparartment so I don't have an outlet for a fan but I do need to get some of those fermcaps. Yeah, I know.

Had an awful brewday after a series of good ones. I tried to use a better bottle without a funnel and without filtering the whole hops. I tried all different ways of getting the beer in that bottle! In my rush, I was pretty lax on the sanitation. Oh well it will still be beer and at worst I will have a sour IPA or something entirely drinkable in 4 months or so.

nowise said:

I tried to use a better bottle without a funnel

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Why?!? How? Were you just aiming the pour from the kettle?

Haha, almost. I tried a autosiphon first, which kept getting clogged. Then I tried my bottling bucket which also got clogged. Finally, I just used a lemonade pitcher and poured the wort in by hand. Never again will I make such a mistake!

nowise said:

I just used a lemonade pitcher and poured the wort in by hand.

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This is how I do it from the kettle into the SS mesh strainer that is sitting in the funnel. I do it from a foot or so above to get the best aeration I can on the way in. After a couple gallons I can pour from the kettle direct into the strainer and I have a nice filter bed in the strainer.

I modded a stout kit by adding roast and flaked barley, northern brewer hops and coffee. Turned out I squished the hop bag which was a nono and when the beer was finished fermenting it tasted like gasoline because it was so hot. I was going to throw it out but a year and 4 months later it is my second favorite beer I have made. It pays to let a hot or bad beer mellow out and to give it a chance to age.

Intended to leave an ESB in the primary for 3 weeks and.... Kid got sick and delayed me a week. Then the wife got sick and delayed me a week. Then I got sick and delayed my bottling another week. Sure I understand that many leave their home brews on the yeast cake that long or even longer but it wasn't part of the original plan for that brew. It turned out to be the best beer up to that point.

On my first brew using a non-prehopped extract kit (Classic English Pale Ale) I let the grains steep in water that reached 179F (maybe more) and then I foolishly squeezed the grain bag before I was done with it. Turned out to be a damn fine beer. In fact, everyone who has tried it likes it more than any other beer I've brewed. Well....they haven't had my latest one yet.

When I was new I didn't have a clean fermenting bucket on hand so I stuffed it with a garbage bag. Garbage bags are sanitized in manufacture right? Almost Every Grolsch bottle blew up. I tasted one and it was disgusting.

I tried cooling a glass carboy full of hot wort in a cold water bath in the sink. That lasted about 10 seconds. Luckily no one got hurt.

Jolly McStanson said:

When I was new I didn't have a clean fermenting bucket on hand so I stuffed it with a garbage bag. Garbage bags are sanitized in manufacture right? Almost Every Grolsch bottle blew up. I tasted one and it was disgusting.

I tried cooling a glass carboy full of hot wort in a cold water bath in the sink. That lasted about 10 seconds. Luckily no one got hurt.

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Uh, this thread is titled "What are some of the mistakes you made...where your beer still turned out great!

Funny stories, though.

My CO2 hose has never been cleaned or sanitized.

Yesterday after carbonating the keg by shaking it at 30psi, I noticed beer had worked its way past the keg valve and up into the disgusting hose. When i was done shaking it, the beer started working its way back into the keg.

Come to find out this has been happening to all my beers since I got the cruddy keg system from a buddy's cellar. All my beers have tuned out fine.

Somtimes the valves dont seal completely on soda kegs. Especially when shaking them to carbonate the beer.

Cant stop laughing about garbage bags for the primary, thats awesome, maybe we should rename the thread "prison brewing techniques".

Good stuff.

Oh and I stuck my hand in the fermenter to get out a salt shaker my girlfriend knocked in, no problems good beer.

The guy who spilt his liquid yeast all over the counter and then scrapped it into his fermentor with a butter knife definetly gets my props. That is proof of "RDWHAHB" is the answer to just about any homebrewing related problem out there.

I put my unsanitized paddle back into the BK after flame out today. No worries, RDWHAHB.

I have done many small minor mistakes..nothing too major.

One bone headed thing was adding beer to secondary with about 1/2 gallon of star san in it..turned out fine.

Post brewing wost bone head thing was after cleaning out keezer the thermometer somehow got flipped over back of chest freezer..well u know the rest of the story 5 frozen kegs of beer( I was gone all weekend)..3 days later defrosted and re tapped all was good..lucky for me the kegs didn't have a fresh full 5 gallons.

J

IMMERSION CHILLER SPRAYED HOSE WATER IN MY WORT!

A classic chiller malfunction - I had my garden hose laying in the garden with no sprayer on the end, and when I connected the hose to my immersion chiller input connection, medium-sized pieces of mulch entered the tube. Once I turned on the water flow, they all clumped up at the copper entry to the coil, which made the plastic tube swell out like a balloon. After a few seconds the worm clamp holding the expanding tube onto the copper let loose and the moldy house hose water sprayed right into my cooling wort kettle.

I turned on the heat and boiled it for another 15 minutes while I cut the chiller hose and reattached it to the copper coil. It screwed up my Aroma hops since they boiled for an extra 15 mins, but the beer tasted pretty good and proved in my mind that a major catastrophe can be resolved with a little more cooking time!

Mike

One time i was rushing it all, was boiling the wort and had a spaghetti sauce going (with ground beef of course) on the other burner, i had put a large plate in between so i could rest both my wort stirring metal spoon and the other metal spoon i was using for the sauce...

phone rang, was in a hurry to get all of this done cause me and wife were expected at a friend's place for dinner, guess what happened?

I used the sauce spoon in the wort... hummm!! yummy ground beef spaghetti beer!

Turned out just fine, never noticed any off flavor on that one.

Beer has a very strong Kung Fu...

Dropped thermometer in beer
Dogs ball bounced in wort covered in slobber and grass
AC went out in summer fermented high
spilled a batch of hefe weizen

I am sure there are many more blunders

Used an airlock instead of a blow-off tube on 5g of 95 pt ale. Thought a 6.5g carboy would be big enough. It wasn't. Great beer, though.

Left carboys soaking with Oxyclean on my patio last summer. The sun shining through the lens-link water set my woodpile on fire.

Forgot to flush my tap lines with water after cleaning them with Oxyclean. Drank half a glass of OxyIPA before I realized what happened.

Realized how good a heat conductor 1/2" copper water pipe makes after resting my arm on a pipe I'd just sweated with a torch.

Boiled a half pound of ginger pulp with my wort and clogged my drain line. Took me an hour to unclog by dumping the beer through a sieve before returning to the pot and running through my chiller. Yet another great beer.

Ha! I brew like I cook. If it comes out decent, I meant to do it that way.

First batch, which I just opened tonight:

I'm pretty sure there was a certain amount of scorching, since I don't have a decent stockpot.

The initial fermentation went great. My house smelled like baking bread.

And then...bottling scared me. Or rather, washing THAT MANY bottles scared me.

I think I made the batch in early fall. It started out as a Brewer's Best pilsner kit, but our water is very, very hard. And then our fermentation temps were pretty warm.

And then the bucket moved from our bathroom (relatively undisturbed location) to the basement...and there it stayed.

From probably October to last week.

Hard water, super-long, too-warm fermentation, and I wasn't even sure if it would carbonate.

I'm proud to announce that the beer is good now and I expect it to be even better in a couple weeks.:rockin: