Post your "whoops" moments- messes, etc

[d_rock]

So we've all had those days. Spills during brewing, violent fermentations, etc. Just had my Kolsch blowoff overflowing into (and out of) my fermenter and I thought it would make a funny thread.

What you can't see in this picture is the huge puddle of foamy, yeasty sanitizer/beer solution covering the laundry room floor...

 

[kh54s10]

You probably had too much sanitizer in the jug. You only need enough to keep the end of the tube submerged.

Other that boil overs, my worst was when I was chilling in the kitchen sink. I went into the basement with the water still running. I remembered when water started dripping from a beam in the basement. Fortunately it found a way down that did not wet the acoustical tiles.......

 

[d_rock]

You probably had too much sanitizer in the jug. You only need enough to keep the end of the tube submerged.

Jug was about half full, the rest filled up from krausen overflow! Now I use a wide mouth pitcher with even less sanitizer.

 

[brhenrio]

Boil over on a glass top stove. Still getting yelled at for that one and it was a couple months ago. That or dropping my starsan filled carboy in the garage and getting everything doused with it.

 

[jmill]

Second brew in a row this happened....Finished up a long brew day and go to pitch my yeast and hear the "thunk" of the stir bar dropping to the bottom of my fresh 5 gal batch.

 

[Devon]

I sprung a leak on my immersion chiller a couple batches back. I figure the heat from the wort caused the tubing to loosen a bit, which led to a small stream of water to shoot under the lid of my boil kettle (of course it did) and dilute my batch by about a gallon before I saw what was happening. I dumped some DME into it and boiled for another 15 minutes. The beer turned out OK.

 

[murphyslaw]

I dumped 2-4 cups of oxiclean into the kettle when making a dortmunder a couple montha ago.

I had cleaned a bucket with oxiclean and dumped it but there was a lot of undissolved residue at the bottom. I added some water to rinse it out, but instead of tossinf it aside i had a brain fart and dumped it in the kettle for no reason.

 

[brewpool]

Second brew in a row this happened....Finished up a long brew day and go to pitch my yeast and hear the "thunk" of the stir bar dropping to the bottom of my fresh 5 gal batch.

I did this by accident an while back. Use a magnet along the outside of the bucket to fish the stir bar up along the inside of the bucket and out.

 

[blackschnauzer]

i was so excited for my first all grain batch ever. after capping the last bottle, i started cleaning up only to realize that i never added in my corn sugar solution! i tried to add some and re-cap it again, but it never worked. nevertheless, i had to enjoy some flat beer! also, i have had multiple carboys with a note taped on it that said STIR BAR INSIDE to remind me not to throw them out!

 

[mongoose33]

I keep forgetting to close the ball valve on the kettle or mash tun, or the spigot on the fermetor.

I suppose my worst "oops" moment turned out to be my best one: I forgot to add Epsom Salts to the sparge water as per my spreadsheet. That beer ended up being one I'd pay money for in a bar. If I had a brewery, this beer would be on tap.

So now, when I brew it, I keep "forgetting" the addition.

 

[Jwin]

Dropped a few drops of fermcap in the 14g of wort in the 15g kettle.
The steam coming off the kettle made the bottle a little wet and when I recapped it, dropped the whole bottle right in the boil
Took a couple minutes to fish it out with the mash paddle. Luckily, didn't burst
Oh, and it was a RIS, so it would have been pretty expensive to toss due to glass shards.

 

[Chiror0b]

I ukeep forgetting to close the ball valve on the kettle or mash tun, or the spigot on the fermetor.

I suppose my worst "oops" moment turned out to be my best one: I forgot to add Epsom Salts to the sparge water as per my spreadsheet. That beer ended up being one I'd pay money for in a bar. If I had a brewery, this beer would be on tap.

So now, when I brew it, I keep "forgetting" the addition.

Now you gotta post the recipe!

 

[flanken]

I was all set up, music playing and sun shining on a beautiful brew day outside. Water was heated and sitting in my 10 gallon cooler, nice and warm, ready to dough in on my RIS...

Opened the bag of grain to begin pouring it in, and dropped about 4.5 lbs of my 24 lb grain bill all over my driveway.

Goddamnit.

 

[jerbrew]

Glass Carboy explosion was the worst. Boil over off my 3rd story balcony the scariest. I am now much more conscientious about what going on in the fermentor and brew in a large open space called a back yard where boiling wort will only fall on my feet and not someones head.

 

[GrogNerd]

my very first brew ever, I used every pot in my dad's kitchen & nearly destroyed his garbage disposal. DON'T put your spent specialty grains down the disposal, kids!

and, when I started bottling that batch, I went to start the siphon and, (I pause here to note at that point in my life, my only prior experience with siphoning was getting gas out of... oh, let's say it was MY car, into a can so I could use it in... let's say it was my lawnmower and you suck on the hose and if you happen to get some in your mouth, well... you don't want to SWALLOW it), so yes, my first reaction when I got some warm, flat beer in my mouth was to spit it out, right into my bottling bucket containing my priming solution.

wasn't about to dump my very first batch, Charlie P told me not to worry

turned out to be a dang tasty batch and here I am, 22 years later. I have conquered my spit reflex and even bought an auto-siphon

 

[Murphys_Law]

Got a late start and was finishing my boil in darkness. Got the trusty flashlight out to try and check volume and...PLUNK! You could see the light under the water.

Fished it out and it still works! Beer was OK, too.

 

[pepindavid]

Only 7 brew under my belt, but my first big mistake was on my last batch (my first attempt at Kölsch): forgot to remove the Starsan from my fermenter before pouring in the wort... So, about 1/2 gallon of diluted Star San in my beer... It fermented very well (that was last Thursday), and it's too early to tell how it will really taste like, but yesterday's sample wasn't bad at all. It may have been my imagination, but I thought I could feel an "acidic" taste, a bit like soda. Time will tell..!

 

[flanken]

What a great thread

 

[WrQth]

I let me significant other assist me brewing...like an unwatched boil will boilover an unwatched assistant will knock over a DIY counterflow chiller that I forgot to clamp down because I'd knocked it over plenty of times. Half gallon of 1.102 wort spreads a long way on a garage floor.

 

[ArkotRamathorn]

Wish I had a gopro for my brew day last weekend of a BIPA.

First problem, spigot(kettle) clogged with the metric ton of hop pellets, so I couldn't transfer the usual way. So had to grab and dump the old fashioned way.

Forgot that my spigot(fermenter) was left open so this will be some Black Carpet IPA with the .25 gallon that shot out everywhere. Due to my haste I quickly put the kettle back on my counter to close the spigot on the fermenter. Then continued to pour the kettle into the fermenter.

Because of the sloshing I ended up with far more of the hop material and trub in the fermenter (in the bottom of a 6 gallon SS bucket, there was approximately 8" of hop/trub).

 

[karch]

Dumbest mistake: Tried making 2 gallons of peach cider in a two gallon fermentation bucket. I should've known it was gonna be an issue when added the peaches to the sugar/nutrient/water in the bucket and splashed a bunch of it out. Totally blanked on that one.

Messiest mistake: First all grain batch and first time using a yeast starter, I forgot to use a blow-off tube. About 48 hours later the plug and airlock blew off spewing krausen and wort all over a good portion of my basement.

 

[seatazzz]

I always leave my spigots open on the fermenters & bottling bucket after cleaning....so yes there have been some sticky messes on the floor, four times now in 5 months. Last AG batch (which was only my second) I did BIAB - everything went swimmingly until I was trying to drain the super heavy bag, and got the bright idea that my colander would sit on the top of the kettle and I could just gently press down on it. Standing on a chair, of course, and the colander slips down into the kettle and splatters VERY hot wort all over me, the chair, the floor, the stove, the dog, and I think a cat but he ran away too fast. This was a cream ale I'm trying to do for a friend's wedding (this was the test batch) - just started drinking it and it's pretty darn good.

 

[jerbrew]

Messiest mistake: First all grain batch and first time using a yeast starter, I forgot to use a blow-off tube. About 48 hours later the plug and airlock blew off spewing krausen and wort all over a good portion of my basement.

you got lucky. that's why my carboy exploded

 

[brewerdoc]

• That time I forgot to add sugar when bottling and I already bottled the whole 10 gallon batch.
• Finding out that my brother drilled a hole through my chest freezer to let the temp sensor in. Hit one of the coils and it was ruined
• Sending my school committee a picture of the kegarator that I bought and built with the scholarship money they provided to me for writing an essay in a competition. They took it well, but looking back was probably not the best and most professional decision.

 

[Murphys_Law]

• That time I forgot to add sugar when bottling and I already bottled the whole 10 gallon batch.
  
• Finding out that my brother drilled a hole through my chest freezer to let the temp sensor in. Hit one of the coils and it was ruined
  
• Sending my school committee a picture of the kegarator that I bought and built with the scholarship money they provided to me for writing an essay in a competition. They took it well, but looking back was probably not the best and most professional decision.
  

That reminds me...

Bought a new mini fridge for a ferm chamber. Decided to carefully bend the freezer tray down to make room for the air lock. For some reason, the little devil on my shoulder talked me into bending it back to the original position. Why I did this...?!

Ssssssssssssssss! That is he sound of escaping freon. Cost me $15 to dispose of that fridge and $150 to buy another!

Momma sure didn't raise a smart kid! .

 

[dsniegocki]

For the life of me couldn't figure out where I had misplaced my infrared thermometer... used to use it to check the outflow temp out of my old plate chiller.

Was thrilled to finally find it... at the bottom of my SS brew bucket (ie NOT see-through) fermenter, after carefully racking a yummy ale to a keg. The batteries didn't corrode and leak... much.

Dry-hopped with laser beams... mmmm....

 

[Michigan_Wolfman]

This happened to me back in January of 2014 on a 5 gallon batch of Kolsch using White Labs 029. Wasn't expecting this vigorous of a fermentation, and figured I had enough headspace in my carboy, so I didn't think I needed to attach a blow off hose. The next morning I hear a loud WHUMPH coming from the utility room, and open the door to find a geyser of foam coming out of the airlock. Thankfully, I had the carboy sitting in a tote which I was going to use as a swamp cooler, so the mess was contained.

 

[brewde]

Guess blowoffs are a common lesson. I had a dogfish 120 clone that I was fermenting in a pretty large bucket when the airlock jammed. For some reason, instead of blowing the airlock out, it blew the top off of the almost 10 gallon bucket and left a nice blast radius of krausen around the bucket, and down some walls, a bookshelf, and my bed. Lots of lessons learned when it exploded that morning.

 

[joyceman]

I do a cheap light brew (around $10 a batch) every summer that has corn and rice. In keeping with the "cheap brew" plan, I use dollar store instant rice and cracked feed corn which I can get for under 50c an lb. You have to boil the corn before mashing, which is usually not a problem.

Last week I got into a time crunch and had to boil the corn while I was getting prepared to mash, so it was still pretty hot when I went to mash. I figured it would jump my temp up 1-2 degrees and adjusted my strike water tempt down accordingly. I dump everything in, mix and my thermometer reads 170 when I was shooting for 150. Now I figure the corn has really screwed my mash temp and I gotta scramble to drop it into the 150s.

I figure I can throw in some ice to drop temp and proceed over 15-20 minutes to slowly dump the entire contents of my ice maker into the mash while stirring the **** out of it. The temp on my thermometer barely drops. I cant figure whats the hell is going on until I put my finger in the mash. The mash is lukewarm at best & it hits me, my digital thermometer is bad.

I get an old analog meat thermometer which is my only backup, and see Im at around 85 degrees. Now I gotta pull around 2 gallons and bring that to a boil to get back to my mash temp.

The whole process took almost 2 hours and by the time I was done it was too late to boil. I sparged, brought it to a boil, covered it and left it for the next day.

 

[brewpool]

Brewed an American Wheat and an IPA last night. At least, I think I did...

I had plenty of two row in buckets at home along with about 5-6 lbs maris otter. When I went to the home brew shop I just needed my specialty grain. I brought an empty bucket with and added my wheat, munich, and acid malt (about 5-6 lbs) for the wheat beer to crush back at home. I added my IPA specialty malt to a brown bag.

Brew day arrives. I figure I'll polish off the Maris otter for the IPA then make up the difference with two row. We crush the Maris otter, then two row, and are about to crush the specialty malt from the brown bag. That's when I look and think "where is the grain for the wheat beer"? We crushed it thinking it was the 5-6 lbs Maris otter, not paying any attention to what was in the bucket! Now there was about 10 lbs of crushed two row sitting on top of it.

We proceeded to scoop the top layer of two row out of the bucket in an attempt to separate the grain. I'm pretty sure we got most of it but certainly made for an interesting brew day. Lesson lesrned...slow down! Definitely won't be able to reproduce these beers.

 

[mongoose33]

Bought a Jaded Hydra immersion chiller and used it for the first time yesterday. I had the "out" hose secured in the sink.

Well. Not so secured as I thought. Turned on the water full blast (as per directions) and that hose became ALIVE. Had a minute or two of excitement and a very wet floor.

 

[GHBWNY]

Started racking beer from bucket #1 on countertop to bucket #2 on low stool (for bottling). As I was watching beer level in bucket #1 start to go down, I heard splashing. Looking down, I decided it might be a good idea to CLOSE THE SPIGOT in bucket #2!

 

[VagueSkunk]

Bought 1 oz each of Simcoe, Amarillo and Mosaic at the store yesterday. Bagged 'em up and on the drive home realized that I forgot to write the name of the hop on each bag. Oops.

 

[jonny24]

Bought 1 oz each of Simcoe, Amarillo and Mosaic at the store yesterday. Bagged 'em up and on the drive home realized that I forgot to write the name of the hop on each bag. Oops.

I've done that with yeast. My LHBS buys bulk dry yeast and sell it in clear plastic baggies. Normally they're labelled but they were out of the labelled ones and I just grabbed blank ones out of the fridge. Had to call them up and ask which was the darker of the two.

I've also had to call up and ask for the AA on some unlabelled hops.

 

[Vandulus]

Wow, I've had so many brain fart moments it's hard to know where to begin
- Not checking if the valves were closed
- Not inserting the dip tube in the fermenter
- Having a wee to much to drink and forgetting to add the DME in until I was chilling the wort
- Fermenting a 5 gallon batch in a 5 gallon fermenter - blew the airlock straight out and krausen splattered everywhere

The worst though? It was my 4th batch back in the late 90s and I was cooling the wort in a glass carboy sitting in an ice bath. I really shouldn't have been surprised when I lifted the carboy and the bottom fell out! Luckily the bucket for the ice bath was still underneath to contain most of the wort and there were no injuries.

 

[Cavpilot2000]

The first time I pitched onto an ale yeast cake (brown ale followed by a big stout), I didn't use a blowoff tube, and instead used a regular airlock on a brewbucket. I oxygenated the hell out of it, and in the middle of the night (about 5-6 hours post-pitching) I was awakened by a BOOM and the sound of a bucket lid falling onto the floor.

It actually blew the lid clean off, ripping the rubber gasket out of it in the process, and sprayed fermenting kreusen all over my kitchen cabinets and ceiling.

Try removing dark beer foam from a white popcorn ceiling...not fun.

 

[mmiddleton]

I added the stabilizer to a batch of wine without checking the alcohol level first. It wasn't NEARLY done fermenting *LOL*

 

[mashinary]

I've been keeping sparkling water on tap. Well through a series of events, I had a nice fully carbonated glass of StarSan.

If it weren't for a high gravity reading, I would have racked an IPA in to a keg that was "sanitized" with tap water.

 

[Honda88]

Wow, I've had so many brain fart moments it's hard to know where to begin
- Not checking if the valves were closed
- Not inserting the dip tube in the fermenter
- Having a wee to much to drink and forgetting to add the DME in until I was chilling the wort
- Fermenting a 5 gallon batch in a 5 gallon fermenter - blew the airlock straight out and krausen splattered everywhere

The worst though? It was my 4th batch back in the late 90s and I was cooling the wort in a glass carboy sitting in an ice bath. I really shouldn't have been surprised when I lifted the carboy and the bottom fell out! Luckily the bucket for the ice bath was still underneath to contain most of the wort and there were no injuries.

lol that's funny. I'm guessing you added the hot wort directly from the boil kettle then?

 

[raysmithtx]

I BIAB and use a Bayou Classic turkey fryer kettle. After the mash I was hoisting the inside pot with the grain bag in it (20 pounds of grain, so the weight was a lot more than the turkey fryer was designed for ). As the pot got about halfway above the kettle, the metal handle flexed too far and one end came out of the hoisted pot.

The pot feel directly back into the kettle causing a tidal wave of hot sticky wort to come up out of the kettle like a geyser. It soaked me, my shop and everything in site with hot, sticky 165 degree wort. That was months ago and I'm still finding things covered in dried sticky wort to this day.

I did throw away the bent metal handle and replace it with a stainless steel chain. On the positive side if I had the pot above the kettle when the handle broke I could have ended up with about 8 gallons or that stuff everywhere.

My glass is always half full... of beer.