1st brew - I'm an idiot.

[simat]

Today I started brewing. I used an extract kit, so nothing hardcore, but it was fun nevertheless. It's fermenting away as I type (hopefully). Anyway, during this process I discovered I'm an idiot.

Having never used a hydrometer before, I assumed it worked similar to a thermometer. So i sat there holding the hydrometer dipped in my wort for 5 minutes and started to get worried that the black viscus liquid at the bottom wasn't rising (like the mecury in a thermometer). After this amount of time, I realised that it floated, so thought "Wow, thats handy, now I don't need to hold it!". So I let it float and checked it every now and again to see if the liquid had risen yet, but no luck

It wasn't til about 10 minutes later that I discovered that you just have to read the level that it's floating at :cross:


Anyone else got any stories about when they've done something stupid during brewing?

 

[Grinder12000]

Double idiot actually

The first was your hydrometer technique.

The second was admitting to the world your brain cramp LOL.

Seriously - welcome to MY world.

My first brew I was told by the Local Home Brew guy to put a lid on the bottom of my boil pot so the extract would not burn. So I didas told.

Funny how the lib pretty much keeps all the hops glued to the bottom of the pot. Talk about a mammoth pile of black crap on the bottom of the pot!!!!

Beer was pretty much ruined even after bottle aging for a LONG time. !

 

[tbone]

Congratulations for getting started in this great hobby. And its great that you can laugh at your mistakes. There will be pleny of them. I know.

 

[Engelramm]

In my notes for a batch I brewed a few months ago, I have a notation that says, 'I'm an idiot'.
I was bottling and something cool came on TV so I stopped watching the bottling wand and started watching TV. After a bit, I thought, "hmm, it sounds like it's raining...why is my foot wet...Oh.
The bottling wand will just keep on filling if you don't take it out of the bottle. I lost about 3 beers worth all over the floor.

3 beers won't fit in a 12 oz bottle.

Welcome to brewing!

 

[BigKahuna]

about 5 batches ago I filled about 12 bottles without dumping the StarSan out of them.

Retard!

 

[GregR]

my first batch came with about 3 cups of bottling sugar. and i used every grain of that 3 cups. I lost about 1/4 of the bottles to them popping their tops and the other ones were so carbonation that when I opened them they fizzed up like diet coke and mentos! but what was left in the bottles after the eruption was very drinkable. HAH! I had NO idea what went wrong. then I talked to the guys at my LHBM and they just laughed at me and told me the CORRECT amount of sugar to use.

each batch I've made (I'm only up to #5) has had some little hiccup or I did some boneheaded move. but each batch I've been more than happy with.

welcome to home brewing!

 

[philhead1]

Your not alone man, on my last batch when sanitizing my bottling bucket I drained the solution through the spiget. After starting siphoning to the bottling bucket I started getting the bottles ready. A few minutes later my wife comes into the kitchen and screams I turn around and see wort flowing freely out of the open nozzle of my bucket that I forgot to close, there goes a good gallon of honey wheat, guess that one goes to the beer gods. Yes I'm an idiot ..... it happens.

 

[Joker]

That's classic.

There are two ways to learn "do it" and then there is "do it and then read to see if you did it right".

There is a post a mile long of people doing similar things you're not alone.

 

[neilb]

I once left the spigot open when pouring the wort in