Most embarrassing homebrewing mistakes

[ListerH]

I'm sure we’ve all done some silly things when we look back... but it’s all about learning from the experience right?

Curious to hear some of the stories!

I’m torn between a couple from my early brew days...
putting my corny keg posts on the wrong way round and emptying a full canister of CO2 by leakage was definitely one...
And not leaving headspace in a fermenter and pitching super aggressive S-33... wow what a mess that made!

 

[timcook]

I once brewed a pale ale that called for 2.4# of Munich Malt. My LHBS was out, so I purchased 2.4# of Caramunich (which is similar to C120) The beer was terrible. I called it my Cascade Crystal Bomb. I discovered what homebrew judges describe as cloying.

 

[RPh_Guy]

Forgetting the bag when brewing in a bag.

 

[SanPancho]

Melting the bag in biab.

 

[MaxStout]

Bottling a 5 gal batch of beer, looking over and noticing the beaker with priming sugar water sitting on the counter.

 

[passedpawn]

Breaking the full glass carboy in the pool was pretty bad. Not the most embarrassing though.

 

[Still Brewn]

Bottling a 5 gal batch of beer, looking over and noticing the beaker with priming sugar water sitting on the counter.

That is something I would do..... forgot to put in final hop addition, i think it was my 3rd brew. I discovered it when I had the wort cooled down to 120°. I ended up heating it back up to 150 and dumped the hops in. This was before I knew anything about dry hopping or much of anything for that matter.

 

[BigJoeBrew]

Forgetting the bag when brewing in a bag.

I feel your pain! I’ve done this twice!

 

[Still Brewn]

On a recent brew I was getting so tired toward the end of my brew day I was having trouble concentrating. This of course leads to mistakes. While filling my fermenter I failed to notice that the spigot was open just a hair. The flow of wort filled the seat of the dining room chair I had brought to my brew area. Still I didn't notice. The wort then started filling the throw rug the chair was sitting on. Still I didn't hear or see anything while I was boiling some water to top off my wort. I then cooled my water in the kitchen sink. Another 20 minutes goes by and still I didn't see a thing. My water is finally cool enough and when I remove the lid of the fermenter and realise that I have nowhere near enough water, right when I figure out what is going on I step into the puddle of wort with my socks. I lost a gallon of wort. But stupid didn't leave me there. About 5 or so days later I'm moving the beer to a secondary. I failed to double check the fitting for the spigot. This time I don't discover it for 2 days. Same chair but now in my dining room on an area rug..... Same results same wet sock discovery same loss of a gallon. This time however I can't pick up the rug and throw it in the washer, my washing machine just won't hold a 15x18 area rug.

 

[JONNYROTTEN]

Sitting on an upside down airlock left on the coffee table

 

[shoengine]

Definitely this.

Assembled my ball lock pin backwards. The resulting beer shower was funny, in retrospect. First, and only, time my wife offered to help me bottle.

 

[Hoppy2bmerry]

Melting the bag in biab.

I melted a pretty good size hole on the side igniting the gas to do step mash.

Bottling a 5 gal batch of beer, looking over and noticing the beaker with priming sugar water sitting on the counter.

Yep, I did this once too, and can’t even blame it on having a drink.

 

[AZCoolerBrewer]

My very first beer, I attempted to pour it from my brew kettle into my one gallon carboy. About 1/2 went down the drain, so I topped it up with tap water.

 

[shoengine]

My very first beer, I attempted to pour it from my brew kettle into my one gallon carboy. About 1/2 went down the drain, so I topped it up with tap water.

Now it's sessionable!

 

[bobeer]

I left 10 gallons of beer in a house I sold one time. I was moving for 15 straight hours and by the time I was done with the old house it was after 4 am and I was exhausted. I totally forgot to grab my beer that was fermenting in the basement. I realized it the next day but since the people who bought our house were such jerks through the whole process I just wrote it off as a loss. No idea if they knew what it was or not but I assume they threw it out. Major bummer.

 

[ListerH]

I once brewed a pale ale that called for 2.4# of Munich Malt. My LHBS was out, so I purchased 2.4# of Caramunich (which is similar to C120) The beer was terrible. I called it my Cascade Crystal Bomb. I discovered what homebrew judges describe as cloying.

One of my very first brews, I did also make the mistake of thinking that because my LHBS was out of light extract, I could just sub dark extract into the recipe to make a porter... dark steeping grain + dark extract = one horrendous beer... to this day the only brew that I have dumped!

 

[Smellyglove]

Dunno if they are embarrassing, but they're funny:

Once unscrewed the post for the beer-out while the keg was still connected to gas-in. Great fountain!

And a few years back I did two hefes with like five or six days apart. I kegged the wrong one. I took the one which was on it's height on sulfur production. I thought something was "off", but just drank of the keg for the next few days.

Man, those farts for the next few days were rancid. Both me and my GF went out to have some beers the first day, and we both farted like we tried to fill up a hot air balloon. Just two wandering gas-leaks of the deadly kind.

And this is the funny part. This was before we moved in together. We were laying in bed at night and she actually packed up her stuff and WENT HOME because of me farting like a beast.

 

[Jayjay1976]

Messing around in a water calc trying to add this and that to get all the numbers close to target, zero idea what I was doing, and when it all looked right I ended up putting 7 grams of epsom salt in my kettle. The weizenbock ended up with a weird tart flavor that won't fade and I just can't get used to. Not to mention the slight laxative effect. Can't decide whether to dump it or soak my feet in it.

 

[AF1HomeBrew]

The first time I brewed a Hefeweizen - 10 years ago. I kegged it, and was let it carbonate for a few days. Went out to try and it was very tasty, but was under carbed. So I turned up the PSI on the CO2 tank and left the keg in the fridge. Came back an hour later to try another sample. As I was walking out to the fridge in the garage, I notice the floor was wet. I open the door to the fridge and there is beer everywhere, and of course leaking on the garage floor. The picnic tapper end wasn't screwed on tight enough and with the increased CO2 must have started to flow out after I had left it when I took the first sample.

 

[FleEsq]

putting boiling hot wort into a glass carboy, and having the brilliant idea of cooling it by spraying cold water on the Car boy.

 

[AF1HomeBrew]

Breaking the full glass carboy in the pool was pretty bad. Not the most embarrassing though.

How long did that take to clean up?

 

[passedpawn]

How long did that take to clean up?

Wasn't too bad. Carboy broke into 3 large chunks, and surprisingly there weren't any small pieces. I did look though. I had to wait until my wife went to bed though, because if she knew I'd be a dead man now. So picture me in my pajama shorts and tennis shoes, on a cold January night, wading around in the dark pool with a flashlight.

 

[kingmatt]

When I first made the switch from doing partial boil extract batches to full boil (in a tall 7 gal pot) I neglected to upgrade my spoon accordingly. My first batch on the new rig I get my water to a boil and add in a jar of LME which sinks to the bottom of the kettle. Without thinking twice, I grab my way to short handled spoon and jam my arm, up to the elbow, in boiling water to try and stir the LME at the bottom of the pot before it scorched...something scorched that day and it wasn't the LME!

 

[Soulshine2]

To this day ,SO FAR, the most embarrassing/stupid thing I've done on brew day and I think Ive already posted it but since this is a brewers confessional post ,here goes again.

I was finishing up for the day , wort was already chilled and transferring to the carboy. I had been watching it when I decided to start cleaning up. I had left the valve spigot on the kettle open and walked away for enough time to carry a few things from the polebarn( My brew space) back to the basement , roughly 50 ft away. Somehow the hose/tubing jumped out of the carboy and I had lost a 1/2 gallon of wort on the concrete floor. Never again will I leave an open valve unattended.

 

[Konadog]

So picture me in my pajama shorts and tennis shoes, on a cold January night, wading around in the dark pool with a flashlight.

I'd rather not

The worst I've done so far is to leave a valve open when filling a kettle.

 

[verboten]

I may have recently forgottten a VERY full keg of sanitizer in the garage.

 

[NewJersey]

I may have recently forgottten a VERY full keg of sanitizer in the garage.

View attachment 609853

you win, dude

 

[Still Brewn]

I second that.

I may have recently forgottten a VERY full keg of sanitizer in the garage.

View attachment 609853

And finally a picture!​

 

[balrog]

Putting quick-disconnect-perlick-tap on keg, forgot to close tap first.
Beer all over pants.
Quickly slap tap handle shut, which now pressurizes the unsecured screw top of the quick disconnect
Beer all over face and ceiling.

Best part? I was at someone else's house.

 

[Still Brewn]

Definitely this.
View attachment 609810

Assembled my ball lock pin backwards. The resulting beer shower was funny, in retrospect. First, and only, time my wife offered to help me bottle.

Although this is a close second, but I took off points for lack of physical damage to anything.

 

[Still Brewn]

Putting quick-disconnect-perlick-tap on keg, forgot to close tap first.
Beer all over pants.
Quickly slap tap handle shut, which now pressurizes the unsecured screw top of the quick disconnect
Beer all over face and ceiling.

Best part? I was at someone else's house.

It is always better to mess up at someone else's place. At least for us, because it's funny!

 

[str1p3s]

I had a mash resting on one end of a small picnic table and the burner and cinder blocks on the other end. Decided to pull the cinder blocks off and sent the table see-sawing and the mash tun rolling across the floor. That beer was named Table Flipper.

 

[pshankstar]

This is nothing compared to others who have posted.

I had an issue with a SS Intertap Faucet where some hop particles made it into faucet. I disconnected the keg from the tap line and started to take apart the faucet to clean it out. Well I started taking the tap apart and received a shower of beer. Yeah, I picked the wrong tap and it was connected to another keg.

 

[Still Brewn]

Ahhh yes the old picnic table flip. Reminds me of my younger days .... family picnic. Large guy at one end, large cooler at the other. We had just finished filling a dozen plastic cups with red coolaid. Wife asked me to move the cooler.

 

[balrog]

Ahhh yes the old picnic table flip. Reminds me of my younger days .... family picnic. Large guy at one end, large cooler at the other. We had just finished filling a dozen plastic cups with red coolaid. Wife asked me to move the cooler.

Sorry. Disqualified. Not beer.

 

[passedpawn]

Ah, you want pictures. I've got some of those. Here's my how-to video that I made for my brother, who was considering learning. How many f-ups can you count? The final one, at the very end, was a real mess later.

• airlock on top of starter; check
• lift with your back, don't bother with a sissy spigot: check
• mispronounce very brewing term: check
• floating boil kettle in pool with noodle-ducttape: check
• nearly capsizing the kettle to retrieve after it's floated to middle of pool: check
• Marlee the wonderdog licks any potential infection from neck of carboy: check
• zero headroom in carboy: check
• etc

 

[AF1HomeBrew]

Ah, you want pictures. I've got some of those. Here's my how-to video that I made for my brother, who was considering learning. How many f-ups can you count? The final one, at the very end, was a real mess later.

• airlock on top of starter; check
• lift with your back, don't bother with a sissy spigot: check
• mispronounce very brewing term: check
• floating boil kettle in pool with noodle-ducttape: check
• nearly capsizing the kettle to retrieve after it's floated to middle of pool: check
• Marlee the wonderdog licks any potential infection from neck of carboy: check
• zero headroom in carboy: check
• etc

You should consider doing a KickStarter campaign for your noodle-ducttapte "Beer Bouy" contraption. Have it kick off on 4/01

 

[Still Brewn]

I'm wondering if that is a glass carboy?
On brick.... check
no pants... check
No shoes.... check
No lid on the kettle that's cooling in the pool .... check
Just an all around disaster waiting to happen. And a trip to the hospital.
So did the brother decide that brewing was not for him?
How did the beer turn out, that is the important thing?

 

[Still Brewn]

I was drinking beer, does that count?

 

[passedpawn]

I'm wondering if that is a glass carboy?
On brick.... check
no pants... check
No shoes.... check
No lid on the kettle that's cooling in the pool .... check
Just an all around disaster waiting to happen. And a trip to the hospital.
So did the brother decide that brewing was not for him?
How did the beer turn out, that is the important thing?

Brother is an avid brewer now, 30g Morebeer system. Glycol-cooled conical, etc. He's also a member here.

Beer was an issue.
It was a lager. Pitched the yeast at 80F and fermented in the garage or somewhere similar. I don't think I would have won any awards with it. Can't remember, actually. From my notes:
"There is a slight off taste that might be DMS. Probably need to boil longer next time." Probably wasn't the length of the boil haha.