Tales of Fermentation - Mishaps Galore!

[zgreenside]

Lots of serious inquires on the page here, and inspired by a couple of comments I saw today, I thought I might start this off and see what other interesting stories we might get! Apologies if this against the forum rules.

You haven't lived life until you come around the corner at 5am starting to get ready for work, only to see the lid of your fermenter LITERALLY blow off and hit the ceiling, leaving a trail of krausen/wort all up the wall and down the floor. I can't even make that **** up, it was perfect (or I guess not? lol) timing...I let out an audible "W T F?!", my wife said she heard me and closed her eyes real tight and prayed I didn't wake her to ask for help hahahaha.

My beer was the first of my own concoction, and was to be named after myself (or my nickname rather) "Jack's Double Ale" - I felt it was only fitting that it be renamed "Angry Jack's Double Ale" after its little outburst that morning. Beer turned out fine, despite my worries that it was toast after that upheaval, and ended up being quite tasty!

So fellow HBTer's, what stories do you have?

 

[SnakeRidge]

I remember one night, a few hours after I had brewed my first big, huge, way too big Russian Imperial stout. I had the fermenter in my closet (you know, with ALL my clothes). I was laying in bed, trying to get to sleep, and I heard this hollow PONG! kind of noise. Wondering what it was, I open my closet to see syrupy black goo running down the inside of the door and the fermenter oozing out like an undersea volcano. And my clothes were dripping with RIS.

I had plenty of time that night as I did all my laundry to think about what I had done. Two lessons; Temp Control and don't pitch on a full yeast cake. Luckily, this was in my younger days and I didn't ruin a wife/girlfriend's clothes. My room mates thought it was hilarious and called it the Closet Bomb.

 

[jkeys]

My wife's uncle brewed a lot in his younger days and told me about 6 months ago wait until you have a blowoff. Needless to say on my next batch, I woke up at 5 am for work to find my wee heavy all over the walls and ceiling.

My wife just rolled her eyes and said enjoy your morning, and clean up your yeast infection!! Bahaha

 

[Onkel_Udo]

Yes, plastering the ceiling with Krausen from a launched stopper when the 1/2 OD tubing in my blow-off clogged...then priming and painting the krausen 8 years later as if it were texture.

But the best in the first lager (doppelbock) I made that I tasted at 6 weeks and deemed undrinkable but instead of dumping it got drunk. Forgot it in the crawl space until October (maybe 8 months later including an Oklahoma summer) when my brewing buddy and I ran out of beer...best beer I ever made. Served to my restaurant co-workers at a Thursday night party. We all had hard-core sulfur farts at work until about 10 PM the following evening including waiting on a 50 person rehearsal dinner.

 

[zgreenside]

Yes, plastering the ceiling with Krausen from a launched stopper when the 1/2 OD tubing in my blow-off clogged...then priming and painting the krausen 8 years later as if it were texture.

But the best in the first lager (doppelbock) I made that I tasted at 6 weeks and deemed undrinkable but instead of dumping it got drunk. Forgot it in the crawl space until October (maybe 8 months later including an Oklahoma summer) when my brewing buddy and I ran out of beer...best beer I ever made. Served to my restaurant co-workers at a Thursday night party. We all had hard-core sulfur farts at work until about 10 PM the following evening including waiting on a 50 person rehearsal dinner.

That's the worst, almost impossible to recreate after being so good D:

Also sounds like something I would do, just paint over it haha!