Worst Bottling Day EVER!

So I had a 12 pack of empty Sierra Nevada bottles that I had filled with an "Apfel Ale" that I brewed. I lifted the whole 12 pack without supporting the bottom (you know where this is going ), all the bottles spill out onto the kitchen floor spilling 12x12oz. worth my precious beer all over the floor and shattering my hydrometer on the way down. Fortunately none of the bottles broke, but I still had to pull out every appliance in the kitchen to clean up the beer, then to top it off a bunch of beer pooled into one corner and started dripping down into my basement! I had beer everywhere, across the whole floor, under the fridge, stove, microwave cart and countertops, in my basement and splashes all the way up to the ceiling. Moral of the story....START KEGGING (or support the bottom the case when you lift, if you must bottle)!

It sucks too, since it was a small batch to begin with, roughly 3.5 gallons, all told I only ended up with one 12 pack and 6 bombers.

Just thought you all might get some amusement out of my misfortunate, and hopefully some newbies will learn from my newbish mistake.

I don't think this is a newbie or newbish thing - I've been brewing 18 years, and still manage the occasional hum-dinger. I doubt that kegging would solve it (my brew partner kegs, and I don't; we have roughly equivalent screw-up rates). Sympathies on your loss.

Where should I send the flowers?

This happened to me about a week ago, well not as bad. Lifted a 6er of empties and one fell through and shattered. But it was a Hoegarden bottle! Those are awesome bottles!!

No way would I, and I hope anyone else laugh at the loss of alcohol we made. I'll sit Shiva for it instead.



Here, if you haven't look through some of the tips and ideas in my (and my friend's) bottling thread maybe adapt bottling to a way that's more comfortable for you, where there is less chance of spillage and frustration.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f35/revvys-tips-bottler-first-time-otherwise-94812/

Thanks for the condolences! I had to ***** to somebody and SWMBO is at work.

I don't mind small mistakes....its the huge messy ones that tick me off! Oh well, at least the beer tastes good and came out with an FG of 1.008 so it's not overly dry, which was my goal. I'm also pretty happy that it came in at 8.5% ABV according to Beersmith, but it doesn't have any fusel alcohol flavors (unlike some of my previous bigger beers) now that I have a fermentation fridge and can ferment at a precise temp. I have a feeling I'm gonna wish I had the whole batch once it's ready though. :cross: