Homebrew facepalms

[CRAFTBEERKING]

Interesting. I've been bottling in growlers on and off through my whole homebrewing career. I've only ever had one blow on me, and it was more the bottom let go about an inch and a half up. Ended up with a half-gallon of hefeweizen all over my kitchen floor. (I was in a small apartment and the cabinet under the sink doubled as my cellar.)

Yup, there was nothing larger than a quarter left of the growler. Beer was pretty good though, based on the ones that survived. My first thought was over-carbonation, but it didn't seem so when I opened them.

 

[ubnserved]

Sealed a keg lid at about 35 psi (first batch ever i believe). Reset to serving pressure then later hooked up gas connect to the liquid post by mistake. Beer backed up into the gas lines. Fortunately it didn't make it to the regulator body, but i did have to remove the lines for cleaning.

Been there. Now I have them marked so I can see it. If I remember correctly the posts were opposite of what it said on top.

 

[ubnserved]

Not good for white dress shirts though or the ceiling... or the floor

Good for the body also..... in the body, not on!

 

[MaddBaggins]

After 17 years of brewing, I forgot to fill the airlock on yesterdays brew. Caught it this morning. 15hrs. At least it's in a small enclosed temp controlled space.

 

[ram5ey]

Was out of town for a week after brewing an amber ale that was just sitting in my ferm chamber. Analog temp controller failed and the freezer turned on full. My roommate came home to this...and ants as it popped out the drain plug...

 

[ubnserved]

I don't know man, that sounds a lot like the start of a homebrewer themed porno.

One very recent only a couple weeks ago, I was doing quick honey wheat extract kit my dad purchased at home (live in an apartment so its not feasible for me to use my propane burner at home) on an electric stove. While I was in the middle of the boil I was doing dishes as my way of bribing SWMBO to let me brew at home instead of having to go over to her parents (because I "always" break something or make a mess...). I had set one of the dishes to the side since it was too big to go in the dish drying rack, on a cork trivet (one of those things you set hot pans on to not melt your counters) so, wet dish on a cork trivet.

Fast forward to near end of boil and I have put most of the dishes away to make room on the counter, take boiling pot of wort off electric burner and place it on the wet cork trivet on the counter (cause I'm smart and wasn't going to melt the counter top). Add the rest of the LME to the pot, stir like crazy. Put the pot back on the stove, turn back around to do a few more dishes while the last couple minutes of the boil tick down. "Ah I'll dry off that trivet and put it away since I'm super smart and will make the kitchen look cleaner than when I started". No trivet... Why is the kitchen so smokey? There's no way the pot boiled over in only the course of 40 seconds...

Learned a lovely attribute of cork when it's wet it will stick to things, particularly when you pick the pot up and put it on the stove and the cork doesn't start on fire, it just smolders and fills your house with smoke. I'm sure if anyone was looking when I opened the door to our patio a huge plume of smoke came out and it looked like we had Cheech and Chong over for dinner. (wrote in my log book since the beer was very delicious, burn cork during boil)

I was laughing so hard the kitty SWMBO got to keep me company while I am laid up just freaked out and started meowing at me and I have tears in my eyes! Now the kitty is sitting on my chest and won't leave.

On another note ..... "smoky notes" do not come from smoking the wort, especially using cork. :

Then again. .... has anyone tried smoking a brew?

 

[yyvjpv]

Was brewing a winter spice ale that called for black treacle. Looked all aver the city and finally found a British shop that sold it. Considering the effort I put into finding it (and the fact that it was sitting on the counter as I started brewing that day) you'd think I'd remember to put it in along with the extract as per the instruction. I didn't notice until like 5 minutes till the end of the boil after I added the Whirlfloc tablet. Oops. That one was a recent mistake so I'm still not sure how the extra long boil I ended up doing to accommodate adding the treacle so late is going to impact me. I tried one last night and let's say I wasn't thrilled at the results, hoping time will help undo some of my dumbassness.

 

[ubnserved]

I did this only on my mash tun. 160°+ water sprayed all over my bits and pieces. I never stripped off a pair of jeans so fast! And of course this happened in my driveway. Natch.

-ben

The kitty is eye balling me again. Just glad no body is here to see the tears in my eyes.

After reading this entire thread I am not going to be able to do a Damm thing cousin the shoulder hurts too much from laughing.

 

[podz]

Interesting. I've been bottling in growlers on and off through my whole homebrewing career.

German pubs regularly send customers home with unfiltered bier in growlers (krug in German). Beer that continues to carb while it's in the krug... Never had one explode on me.

 

[mikeprooo]

German pubs regularly send customers home with unfiltered bier in growlers (krug in German). Beer that continues to carb while it's in the krug... Never had one explode on me.

Same here...Ive done a few growlers myself and no issues. Ive heard to fill to the 64oz mark thats lower down because it leaves more headspace and room for carb.

Mike

 

[Brettomomyces]

Third brew on the new electric rig...I lost about 1.5g due to blow off. I was trying to boil a little harder to shave 15 mins off...just made a mess in the end. Hop pellets stuck to my plate chiller, wort in the thermometer, hop pellets basically everywhere. And we were running off to a movie so I had to wait till this morning to clean up. Thank you PBW recipe from HBT. I had saved 6qt of the last runnings, and was able to throw that in at least. Things I have learned...never go above 70% on my PID duty cycle. I actually hold a solid boil at 63, but anything above 70 went nuts.

 

[Ilan34]

Just realized now, laying in bed, that I pitched my stir bar two days ago. Just popped into my brain out of the blue.

 

[Zepth]

Had a close call about an hour ago. Put IC into kettle with 5 mins left to sanitize. Then hook it up since I'm there. Then forgot to put in irish moss and other 5 minute additions. Then turn the tap on.

Caught it at 85C ~185F. Good thing I turned around and saw the measured container of 5 minute stuff. Few minutes lost and the batch rescued from certain disaster. Safe to say that it could have been worse.

 

[Rjppunk]

Back in college I didn't have a proper wort chiller so I icebathed it in my sink, was waiting for the temp to drop when I fell asleep for like 10 hours (it was a real late night brew) woke up to some cold wort in my kitchen

 

[brandonman]

Left the ball valve open on a kettle while filling it in the kitchen.

My biggest brewing fear is to bump the valve and open it up right after finishing a beer.

 

[Zepth]

My biggest brewing fear is to bump the valve and open it up right after finishing a beer.

This bad boy has a little sliding lock collar that needs to be lifted before the valve can be opened. A safety interlock I actually agree with.

 

[brewfun]

Homebrewing taught me that there are three times in the process to watch for boil overs.
1) At the start of the boil, for hot break
2) When adding large amounts of hops
3) Every time I think it's safe to look away

 

[Zekk]

Homebrewing taught me that there are three times in the process to watch for boil overs.
1) At the start of the boil, for hot break
2) When adding large amounts of hops
3) Every time I think it's safe to look away

A watched pot never boils, an unwatched pot ALWAYS boils over.

Ran out of propane 20 minutes into my boil

 

[TallahasseeBrew]

Ran out of propane 20 minutes into my boil

Did that last weekend. worst thing is, I have 2 tanks just so I don't run out.

 

[Skeptidelphian]

Didn't know I needed to clean out my ball valves.

I had 3 gusher infections before I realized I needed to replace my bottling and racking equipment.

Buying a keg before I had a minifridge.

Going all grain before making a fermentation chamber.

 

[Zepth]

A watched pot never boils...

In my younger and more vulnerable years, wait no. That was the Great Gatsby. When I was younger, I once said "Whoever accused a watched pot of never boiling clearly didn't try to pre-heat an oven!"

Buying a keg before I had a minifridge.

Going all grain before making a fermentation chamber.

Guilty on both. I don't see either as being a facepalm moment. I don't mind room temperature beer much to the confusion of some around me. I prefer cellar temperature but on occasion can't transport a cellar with me. It was the moment of discovery about PSI needed and line length to balance that caught me by surprise.

As far as the chamber goes I don't really have room for another appliance. I barely even squeezed in the keezer. Fortunately keezer temp is great for the main ferment of a lager without yielding a sulfur laden brew. Actual lagering around 4C might end up being problematic. Or skipped. A friend of mine has had luck with cellar temp lagering.

Going AG also reduces batch cost which one can hopefully at least break even after paying off equipment. Problem is that we always want the newer faster shinier and buy it - but this is a topic for a different day. It also opens up more possibilities and options to control certain aspects of the brew day. I once thought that extract was synonymous with canned kits, so I went from cans to AG. Looking back that viewpoint may have been worthy of a facepalm.

 

[Subdivisions]

On my first brew I dropped my hydrometer into my bucket. It was very foamy since I had shook it to aerate and mix my top off water. I couldn't see where it went so I spayed my arm down with starsan and dug into the bottom of the fermenter to find it. After about 10 seconds I realized that the damn thing floats. The beer turned out pretty well

EDIT: I looked all throughout this forum afterward for confirmation that I didn't eff up my beer. I found a post, I think it was Revvy, that said he had stuck his whole arm in the wort. I had one up on him since I had sanitized and he didn't. THis is the beauty of this forum.

 

[NickTheGreat]

Did that last weekend. worst thing is, I have 2 tanks just so I don't run out.

I do too, but between frying, brewing and my grill, sometimes my spare tank is empty!

 

[j1n]

Went to the LHBS through northern VA traffic just to get there and find out its closed. Even had to deal with a nice accident that blocked all the traffic and had to be routed through a side street. Guess i should have checked to see if they were open. i just assumed being a home brew store you would be open on weekends since that's when everyone brews.

 

[bigmick91]

In a moment of madness, idiocy or just plain complacency. I put 6 pints of not even nearly finished lager into glass milk bottles (the kind uht milk comes in) and crown capped them. I put them in the cupboard at the top of the stairs and forgot about them for a few days. Lets just say at about 4am my wife and I remembered them when loud bangs started kicking up a ruccus and all of our towels got covered in yeasty half finished lager and glass! Im still apologizing for that one!

 

[pricelessbrewing]

Well today was a painful mess of a brew day.

Heated to strike temp and more, ended up having to wait for it to drop 3 degrees before doughining in. Mash volume ended up within .2" of the top of the pot, despite doing 2.5G of sparging post mash. Not sure if grain volume is actually more than .08 gal/lb or if my pot is actually 7.25 gal and not 7.5


Mash temp ended up being 5 degrees to low after dough in. Took 20 minutes to get it to correct temp, had to do slowly since I could barely stir the mash.

Rest of it was fine. Boil was fine. Sparging and collecting second runnings from sparging bucket (biab) was a huge pain and a lot of work. Looking forward to not doing that again.

Boil ended up being .5 gallon too high. Maybe need to lower my grain absorption or do another test boil for my boil off rate Since the heat sticks get me to proper temps so much faster.
Put lid on to do no chill once the wort boiled down a half gallon, all 60 minute additions o no worries on hops.

Had to meet swmbo for lunch/dinner. Put lid on, but apparently forgot to turn stove off. Come back in an hour, another .6 gallons boiled off all over the stovetop. Cleaned that up some, topped off with boiled water, added chiller and turned it on. Out connection blew off, spraying me with boiling water. (Currently typing this with a cold compress across my stomach)

I wonder how this slightly caramelized semi imperial American stout is going to end up, and how long it's going to take to clean up the kitchen.

 

[phug]

Ouch, rough day


Sent from my iPhone using Home Brew

 

[KramE]

Woof. I'm not complaining about my days anymore.

 

[brewguyver]

Well today was a painful mess of a brew day.

Heated to strike temp and more, ended up having to wait for it to drop 3 degrees before doughining in. Mash volume ended up within .2" of the top of the pot, despite doing 2.5G of sparging post mash. Not sure if grain volume is actually more than .08 gal/lb or if my pot is actually 7.25 gal and not 7.5


Mash temp ended up being 5 degrees to low after dough in. Took 20 minutes to get it to correct temp, had to do slowly since I could barely stir the mash.

Rest of it was fine. Boil was fine. Sparging and collecting second runnings from sparging bucket (biab) was a huge pain and a lot of work. Looking forward to not doing that again.

Boil ended up being .5 gallon too high. Maybe need to lower my grain absorption or do another test boil for my boil off rate Since the heat sticks get me to proper temps so much faster.
Put lid on to do no chill once the wort boiled down a half gallon, all 60 minute additions o no worries on hops.

Had to meet swmbo for lunch/dinner. Put lid on, but apparently forgot to turn stove off. Come back in an hour, another .6 gallons boiled off all over the stovetop. Cleaned that up some, topped off with boiled water, added chiller and turned it on. Out connection blew off, spraying me with boiling water. (Currently typing this with a cold compress across my stomach)

I wonder how this slightly caramelized semi imperial American stout is going to end up, and how long it's going to take to clean up the kitchen.

Ouch - been there. At least it's a stout - that may leave you with some epic goodness

 

[Matteo57]

Yesterday, I was trying to brew a "quick" extract batch, so I went to mill the specialy grains I was using (about 3 pounds). Well, I just got a monster mill, and I did one batch with it without much issues, but this time some of the parts were a bit loose, so some grain got in between certain areas and it pretty much stopped the mill. So I had to try and get the grains out of the make shift hopper and about a pound spilled all over doing that. I clean that up, refill with a guess on what mixture of grains spilled out, then connected my old corona mill to a board and balanced it ontop of a table for support. I thought it was balanced but didn't know that my drill was the thing balancing it. So I filled the hopper again, took the drill and... Boom... half of it all over the floor of my garage... At this point I'm so pissed that I wanna just say screw it, but put another guess mixture of specialty grains and gind what I need. It's a top off flander's red for my barrel, so i'm sure it will be fine, but nonetheless really annoying!