My first REAL brewing disaster

So a couple of weeks ago, thanks to this forum, I find out that Austin Homebrew Supply has their Pliny the Elder clone kit on sale. As PTE is one of my favorite brews, I call up AHS and order it right away. I made my yeast starter a couple of days ago using some harvested WLP001 from a recent brew. Today, I finally manage to take a day off work and dedicate it to brewing! I'm off to a fairly slow start, with preparations inturruped by having to make a run to the hardware store and show my FSBO house to a couple of interested parties. I'm also brewing solo this time around, as my ususal brewing buddy had to work. No matter, by lunchtime I'm finally getting into it. Mashing is going OK, but I'm a bit over-temp since I'm using my new 10 gal MLT for the first time and over-estimated the water temp required to mash. Within 10-15 minutes though, I'm right on target at 150 degrees. After mashing for an hour, I have a MAJOR stuck sparge due to a lot of grain getting under my false bottom, which requires some real effort to correct (have to get a better bottom for my new MLT in the future). I buckle down and press on. The boil goes well - adding plenty of hops at the instructed time (or maybe slightly later, since I spent a good minute or two sniffing each packet I opened up before adding to the boil). At the end of the 90 minute boil, I chill the wort using my immersion chiller, and pour into my plastic bucket.

Here's where it starts to take a turn for the worse.

By now it's dinner time, and as mentioned before I'm brewing solo today, so I call the wife down to the garage to give me a hand. My intent is to transfer the wort between the bucket and a carboy a few times to aerate it. I need the wife to hold the large funnel steady in the carboy, since it isn't very stable in the small carboy neck. She does as instructed, and the wort splashes nicely into the carboy. I remove the funnel, pick up the carboy to pour back into the bucket.........at which time the carboy slips out of my grip and smashes on my garage floor!!!!! I'm in a total daze for a good 5 minutes, not believeing what just happened. Thankfully my kegerator is a mere 10 feet away, so I can grab a homebrew and reflect......nope, still sucks. Many hours of work are slowly draining under my stored lawn furnature, lawnmower, gas cans, etc and out into the driveway drain. What was once a pristine and glimmering carboy is now a pile of broken shards. In my mind, it looks a bit like the World Trade Center at around noon on 9/11.

Sigh. I'm trying to RDWHAHB, but it ain't easy. On the upside I have one remaining keg which was only tapped last week, so at least I'll have a supply for the near future.

 

That really is depressing dude, Im sorry to hear about your loss.

 

my condolences

 

Thank you gents, Pivot, your avitar has helped to brighten my spirits...

 

My condolences as well.

 

Sorry for your loss!!! After wort is in my carboy they don't leave the milk crates, so no real chance of breaking, .JMO

 

Sucks dude. I broke a carboy full of new wort, too. No more glass for me.

Did the wife kill you or laugh?

 

That sucks pretty bad. Just be glad you didn't slice yourself open, glass carboys can be dangerous!

I only bought 2, 3 gallon, glass carboys before I started thinking about how easily things could go wrong with one of them. I bought a couple painters buckets and cut a hole out of the lid so now if I am doing something silly and something breaks at least the razor shards and the liquid are contained in the plastic bucket.

 

Sorry to hear that...On the lighter side you only paid half price so buy another and you wont have lost anything from the original price...

 

And stories like this is exactly why yesterday I ordered 4 better bottles using the HBT code from BMW! And why I bottle about half my brew in plastic bottles! I am a klutz sometimes.

I am sorry for your loss, even at $25 off that's not a cheap recipe, not to mention they don't exactly give away carboys.

 

That sucks. On the bright side, at least your weren't brewing in your kitchen. My wife dumped a 2 gallon fish tank on the floor and it covered the better part of a 10x12 foot room. A 5 gallon carboy inside would have been a disaster.

I brew in my kitchen and ferment in the basement. Everytime I carry the beer down the stairs I picture this kind of disaster.

Also, I know you didn't mean any harm but the 9/11 coment is out of line.

 

Ouch, very sad story. I'd replace that glass carboy with a better bottle, I once lost my grip and dropped a full BB about 2 feet and it didnt break.

 

Thanks again everyone. Yeah, I had the carboy in one of those Brew Hauler slings made of webbing, which normally makes it a bit easer to handle. Not this time. I have one glass carboy remaining, which lives in a milk crate. I have 3 fermentation buckets as well, which I SHOULD have been using for this operation, then only AFTER aeration should I have transfered to the carboy (sitting safely on the ground) if that's what I wanted to ferment in. Lesson learned.

I'm not too upset at the loss of the carboy (it was free), I'm slightly more upset about the loss of the Pliny, but what really upsets me is the loss of 6-7 hours of effort and a day off work with nothing to show for it (except a lesson, I guess).

Passedpawn, the wife didn't do either. She said "sorry" then got the hell out of the garage. I don't think she wanted to be around when I finally came out of my daze and came to grips with what had just happened!

 

Wow... Man that sucks, sorry to hear about that... hope that things pick up for you. I've never had a Carboy misshap and I'm hoping I won't... Someday I'll switch to conicals and then everything will be okay

 

We're not doing this. Stay on topic.

 

Sorry for your loss. We had a few mishaps over the years but not that bad.

 

Man, oh man, I feel for you.

I've come perilously close to the same thing happening before -- I bounced a glass carboy about 6" onto the ground. It was onto carpet and it survived, but I still remember watching that thing falling in slow motion and how my heart was racing afterward.

 

****ty man... march on. know that this ain't the first time it's happened nor the last. getting that next brew in will cure you!

 

That sucks man.
When my carboy broke it was thankfully empty. I ferment in sanke kegs now so no worries.

 

Sorry for your loss.
Trying to find the good in this.................

Think of how good the garage will smell for the next 6 months. It will be a bit bittersweet, but what a great way to start the day.

Glad there was no blood.

Jason