I fail so hard

[biggsexxyy]

So I'm pretty sure I ruined 65 bucks worth of honey. Tried heating it up, oven warming water over a low flame, and I melted the container. First attempt at mead but I've had a few mediocre beer attempts. Seems like all goes to hell in some way or another for me. In the words of Eric Cartmsn, " I rack the disciprine." I mixed the honey/water and pitched my yeast anyway. Should I even bother to wait and see or should I throw it out?

 

[GeorgiaMead]

U tried to heat up ur honey/water in a plastic bucket over an open flame!?!?!?!? Only way to tell how messed up the mead may or not be is to try it... Prob gonna taste like plastic... I think I put a hole in the cement from how hard my jaw dropped after reading this...

 

[TNTgill]

wow...wft? Plastic melts when it gets hot. I would toss it. Or you drink it and if you grow a third arm from the carcinogens then you know its no good. Bummer.

 

[Polboy]

i wouldn't facking drink it (and i like to drink)

 

[bluelimbo]

Depends... looking forward to children sometime in the future?
No : Go for it. See how it goes.
Yes : Well, dump it.

 

[LittleBroBrews]

Chuck the lot including the bucket there's no point waiting for melted plastic mead.

For your future attempts I suggest you plan properly take your time and think about what your doing. With correct planning and the slower approach the better the end results.

Oh and note to yourself plastic melts with heat remember to cool things prior to placing into plastic tubs.

All the best with your future brews.

 

[Shakybones]

For future reference, you can make mead without directly heating the honey. There are different methods, but I usually just boil the desired volume of water and add it to a sanitized bucket containing the pre-measured amount of (room temp) honey for the batch. Then I simply stir with a sanitized spoon, add adjuncts (spices, fruit, etc.), and cool it to pitching temps before adding the yeast.

Never heat a plastic bucket. No way. No how.

Oh, and I spend about $135 for 60lbs of very good quality light clover honey and use less than 15 lbs. per 5 gal batch (usually ~12lbs, since I like it fairly dry). If you're spending $65 for a batch, consider buying in bulk.

 

[cluckk]

If your gonna fail, make it a spectacular fail. One idea for the future: if you need to heat the honey to get it out of the container, heat some of your water in a kettle and pour it into the container. Let it sit for a bit, then stir and pour. Add hot water to plastic container...good; heat plastic container with fire...bad.

 

[JonM]

Jeez - hows the stove look? Is it a mix of burned sticky honey and burned melted plastic?

 

[socencounter]

So I'm pretty sure I ruined 65 bucks worth of honey. Tried heating it up, oven warming water over a low flame, and I melted the container. First attempt at mead but I've had a few mediocre beer attempts. Seems like all goes to hell in some way or another for me. In the words of Eric Cartmsn, " I rack the disciprine." I mixed the honey/water and pitched my yeast anyway. Should I even bother to wait and see or should I throw it out?

First of all, this is gross dude. Not much to say about plastic. Should you decide to repeat this with a GLASS carboy the glass would crack unless you use borosilicate glass based carboy! I just saved you a new thread

Coming to the honey, it should never be boiled or heated. Ever wondered how honey is spoiled or never has an expiry date. It's because of its attractive chemical makeup which prevents bacteria from thriving! By heating honey you just killed the chemicals and made it vulnerable!

 

[Tomcat0304]

Hah, maybe my reading comprehension is really awful today... I read it as he was heating a pot of water with the bucket of honey in it, not directly heating the plastic bucket. Then again, maybe I'm just giving him too much credit! ;-)

I still wouldn't continue with the mead though.

 

[biggsexxyy]

Not over an open flame. Put the tub of honey, submerged in water in a tall spaghetti pot, lowest heat, never intending to bring to a full boil. Intention was to warm it up gradually, just enough to loosen it out of the container. Still, it was a stupid idea and it was my mistake, I realize that. I expected some kuntiness from folks and I guess I get what I deserve. I can tell its going to be a long, healthy relationship with you guys here at HBT.

 

[fatbloke]

Not over an open flame. Put the tub of honey, submerged in water in a tall spaghetti pot, lowest heat, never intending to bring to a full boil. Intention was to warm it up gradually, just enough to loosen it out of the container. Still, it was a stupid idea and it was my mistake, I realize that. I expected some kuntiness from folks and I guess I get what I deserve. I can tell its going to be a long, healthy relationship with you guys here at HBT.

Well I understood the error straight away and thought you brave, or at least thick skinned to post it......

Good on yer for being big enough to put your hand up to such a dramatic error......

 

[biggsexxyy]

Thick skinned, yes. Gotta be in these days of the Internet. Dramatic error, yes again. I'm glad you're on my side though.

I do like the tip about using the kettle though, that's a handy trick to use for the next time to loosen the honey out of the bucket.

 

[biggsexxyy]

As for the batch, I just want to see of she ferments, note time/temperatures/gravities/etc -- learning experience. I won't drink it, but I am intrigued by the idea of running it through a reflux still a few times and using it as a fuel. No, not consuming it because that would be illegal, carcinogen laced, etc. But since I have a TTB Alcohol Fuel Plant permit anyway, might as well practice with and learn from it. Why let a fermentable sugar source go to waste?

 

[Shakybones]

Good idea, hate to waste anything. FYI, though - talk of distillation is verboten on HBT.

 

[biggsexxyy]

Ah, yeah I can understand why. Sorry about that. New to the hobby and just excited to get started,
I tend to lose track of my common sense sometimes. Anyway, the ice has been broken and I am looking forward to learning the process of making great beer/wine/mead.

 

[argyle]

Sorry for the loss. We've all made mistakes. I've left the valve open on my keggle as I was draining wort from the mash tun to the keggle. Left and came back to all of my wort running down the driveway. So we all make mistakes. Very Entertaining though!

Not sure if this will work to help you loosen the honey, but in the future, you could put the honey in your car and park your car in a very sunny location. I think after about five hours, your honey should be loose. You could even put the honey bucket on the sunny sidewalk on a hot day for a few hours.

 

[banks412]

Since we're sharing in our misfortunes, everyone may as well have a laugh at mine too....

Made my second ever batch of IPA in the house on the stove. All went well. I was chilling the wort in the sink and went to change the water bath for the third time, as I set it down on the sink top, apparently it wasn't squarely placed - it slipped and sloshed over 2 1/2 gallons of 85 degree wort all over my counter, my floor, my dishwasher, the cabinets....etc. Needless to say, I've been banned to the garage for life unless making 1 gal batches, and even then I get the stink eye from SWMBO...

 

[ChefRex]

Since we're sharing in our misfortunes, everyone may as well have a laugh at mine too....

Made my second ever batch of IPA in the house on the stove. All went well. I was chilling the wort in the sink and went to change the water bath for the third time, as I set it down on the sink top, apparently it wasn't squarely placed - it slipped and sloshed over 2 1/2 gallons of 85 degree wort all over my counter, my floor, my dishwasher, the cabinets....etc. Needless to say, I've been banned to the garage for life unless making 1 gal batches, and even then I get the stink eye from SWMBO...

And you don't like the SWMBO giving up the stink eye?

 

[FermentusMaximus]

I failed pretty bad today too. For some reason my digital thermometer got stuck on 151 for about a half hour while steeping and then jumped to 175. So I steeped 3 lbs of grain and 2cans of pumpkin at 175 for about half an hour. Then I tried a new wort chiller and apparently didn't clamp the hoses on well enough because it dripped water at first (thankfully that was right when I took the pot off the stove). Then I overshot my OG by quite a bit so I had to dilute my wort with spring water. Then while I was pitching my yeast a piece of the yeast packet fell in my wort. Luckily I dunked them in starsan before along with the scissors. I'm crossing my fingers with this one.

 

[Ravenshead]

Wow, that's a go big or go home fail story and I offer my condolences.

For future information, you don't need to heat the honey when making mead. Just dilute your honey with bottled spring water, add yeast nutrients and pitch. That's pretty much it, no heat, no mess no fuss.

 

[socencounter]

I failed pretty bad today too. For some reason my digital thermometer got stuck on 151 for about a half hour while steeping and then jumped to 175. So I steeped 3 lbs of grain and 2cans of pumpkin at 175 for about half an hour. Then I tried a new wort chiller and apparently didn't clamp the hoses on well enough because it dripped water at first (thankfully that was right when I took the pot off the stove). Then I overshot my OG by quite a bit so I had to dilute my wort with spring water. Then while I was pitching my yeast a piece of the yeast packet fell in my wort. Luckily I dunked them in starsan before along with the scissors. I'm crossing my fingers with this one.

Good luck with the brew! Fermentation produces alcohol which hopefully should kill the bacteria if any

 

[CreamyGoodness]

To be totally honest, a warm water bath for the bucket wouldnt have sounded like a terrible idea until I saw this. Thanks for failing so that we others may succeed.

 

[cluckk]

I expected some kuntiness from folks and I guess I get what I deserve. I can tell its going to be a long, healthy relationship with you guys here at HBT.

What are friends for? When I screw up it is my closest friends who are the biggest pricks.

 

[biggsexxyy]

Haha, much appreciated! Anyway I appreciate the support and I can relate to the other fail stories. Maybe it's not a bad idea to have a fail thread, to teach the children and everything. In the words of Forrest Gump, "**** happens." Looking forward to the next batch at least, now I just have to find a bulk honey source.

 

[Devo9]

Spectacular fail! Main rule is don’t make the same mistake twice (or three time if you like to taste as you brew). Read over the comments and you’ll see a few good ideas of how to approach this problem in the future. Personally, if I have crystalized honey for my brew, I usually heat up some water and pour it into the honey (but never too hot to touch). This is after I scoop out most of it with a spoon.



Keep in mind, those here with the most advice are usually the ones with the most experience. And by experience I mean they are the ones who have “f”ed up repeatedly and learned from their own mistakes. We all have our stories, so wear them like badges and others hide them with all their might.

I personally have had a few spectacular fails. First was an exploding cider (my very first brewing attempt). I thought it was done fermenting, but I was wrong. Good thing I had it corked instead of capped. Bad thing is I had them stored in my parent’s basement because I was using their corker. I think their basement still smells of apples. Oh and I gave my aunt a bottle and she packed it into her suitcase... I’m still apologizing to her 3 years later.
I lost about 2 gallons from that incident (it was a sad sad day!).


Second mess up was when I racked my strawberry mead onto a mesh bag full of rhubarb. It turns out that volume of my mead plus the volume of my rhubarb was greater than the capacity of my carboy... to make it worse, SWMBO called me away in the middle of racking. I didn’t think it would hurt to step away for a few minutes... well I had a long clean up that night! I lost about 5 bottles of mead that day (may they rest in peace).

Good luck in the future and sorry about your loss!