5 gallons down the...

[b33risGOOD]

Sorry for your loss, maybe this will make you feel better.

This June, after transfering 20gallons of great tasting beer into the secondaries. Came back a few days later only two find a freakish galaxy like looking infections over top all of my beers!

After forcing myself to taste it, and nearly vomiting because of a taste/smell that resembled bleach/seman hahahaha

Needless to say I poured all 20 gals down the basement sink. And have had to pay for expensive commerical beer since then.

 

[wendelgee2]

Second the milk crates - all my carboys are in one!

I'm sure milk crates work fine and dandy, but I'm a huge fan of my "brew hauler"

http://www.midwestsupplies.com/the-brew-hauler.html

It's one of those "why hell didn't I get this sooner" types of things.

 

[chapa]

I'm sure milk crates work fine and dandy, but I'm a huge fan of my "brew hauler"

http://www.midwestsupplies.com/the-brew-hauler.html

It's one of those "why hell didn't I get this sooner" types of things.

I've been looking at getting one of these for a while....this thread REALLY makes me want to quit LOOKING and start ORDERING!!

They say you shouldn't cry over spilled milk...but I think I'd STILL be crying over 5g of spilled beer!! I guess the only thing you can do now...is brew more!!

 

[specialkaye]

Picked up a dozen milk crates. And, I'm slowly filling them with glass carboys.

 

[nobody]

better bottles man. that is all i have to say.

 

[slantedbolt]

...basement steps.
I was carrying my carboy of newly produced esb wort into the house. I went to set it down to open the basement door, it slipped out of my hand, broke on the tile and went all over the place. Tile, basement steps, carpet, cold air returns...everywhere. It was awful.
Thank God i had some new neighbors over. They not only helped me clean up, but their presence may have saved me from the wrath of swmbo. She remained very calm throughout. I can only assume she was trying to put on a good face for the neighbors.

The wrath of swmbo can be quick and deadly. Like a ninja, swmbo can get the pebble from the palm of your hand and then jam it up your tail pipe and yell at you for getting her hands dirty.

 

[dfc]

Never broken a carboy, but I have melted a better bottle...

Haha, I'd love to hear/read that story.

 

[dfc]

Sorry for your loss, maybe this will make you feel better.

This June, after transfering 20gallons of great tasting beer into the secondaries. Came back a few days later only two find a freakish galaxy like looking infections over top all of my beers!

After forcing myself to taste it, and nearly vomiting because of a taste/smell that resembled bleach/seman hahahaha

Needless to say I poured all 20 gals down the basement sink. And have had to pay for expensive commerical beer since then.

I don't want to know how you know what semen tastes like.

 

[smizak]

I just recently bought a milk crate, which is a nice safe way to move a carboy.

I've "bought" myself about a dozen of those over the last couple years.

Another nice thing about milk crates it their ability to hold exactly 25 standard 12 oz. beer bottles, 5x5, snug as a bug. Makes for a much neater brewery.

 

[bernerbrau]

Haha, I'd love to hear/read that story.

It was the final stroke of a simple extract brew gone horribly, horribly wrong.

I started around 3 in the afternoon, expecting to be done within a few hours. First, I decided that I wasn't going to "waste" propane, so I tried to do a full boil on the stove. After about 4 hours, I finally decided my stove couldn't get the wort past 194F. So I split the batch into two pots. Turns out that even though I had pretty even volume, one of my pots is terrible at heat transfer and still wouldn't boil. So I keep transferring wort out of that pot into the one that IS boiling until that one boils.

So I get to my late extract addition at the 15 minute mark, and the thing will not return to a boil. So I just set the timer anyway because I'm ready to be done.

Now it's 9:30 at night, freezing out, and I really don't want to go outside and hook up the IC to cool the wort for another hour, so I decide I'm gonna be a no-chill pioneer and put it in the freezer overnight and pitch in the morning. But what's this? I can't find the lid to the brew kettle. Well, what are my other options? I've got buckets, a carboy, and a better bottle. Well, I don't have a sanitized bucket and I don't want to shatter the carboy, so into the better bottle it goes.

So I get a couple gallons in there and it's already starting to look deformed. I figure deformed plastic, no big deal, it'll still hold wort. I move out to the garage and put the BB in the freezer and dump the rest in (at least, the maximum the BB will now hold) and put the carboy cap on.

But the BB is not done melting. Oh no, it is not done melting. I check on it 15 minutes later and wort is leaking out the top of the carboy cap, due to the BB gradually losing volume by the second. So I grab some old towels and lay them down in the bottom of the freezer. I check again an hour later. Still leaking. I declare it a lost cause and turn in for the night.

By morning I have maybe 4 gallons of wort left and sopping wet towels in the bottom of the freezer. So, I hook up the blowoff tube and pitch. And of course, it has to be the most violent fermentation I've ever experienced, and I lose another half gallon of beer to blowoff.

Which is what I get for trying to do a "quick" beer.

 

[Homercidal]

Nice one!

 

[malc]

I'll ask the question...Did this spill deter you away from carboys? Im sure I'd be pissed enough to make the switch to BB's after this.

I am shopping better bottles as we speak. Also going to buy a brew hauler. Looking for overkill at this point.

 

[Montanaandy]

I am shopping better bottles as we speak. Also going to buy a brew hauler. Looking for overkill at this point.

I use a Brew Hauler to carry my BB's down the stairs after brewing. I don't consider it overkill - I consider it logical. Montanaandy

 

[Montanaandy]

After about 4 hours, I finally decided my stove couldn't get the wort past 194F.

Um, you do know that BB's are only rated to 140' don't you?

This is really the only potential drawback that I have found to using them but this would be with respect to cleaning them with very hot water, not placing boiling wort in them. Montanaandy

 

[specialkaye]

Another nice thing about milk crates it their ability to hold exactly 25 standard 12 oz. beer bottles, 5x5, snug as a bug. Makes for a much neater brewery.

And regular wine bottles, 4x4. Yup, a very neat brewery indeed. After delabeling and rinsing, I store the bottles upside down in the plastic crates. They dry and stay bug/dust free plus stack nicely.