I'm an idiot!!

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tbel

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So, today after three weeks in the primary, I transfer my Surly Bitter clone to secondary in my glass carboy. Measured the gravity and tasted it. It was quite good! Carry the carboy down to the basement and set it on some boxes full of bottles to keep it off the floor. Figure I'll finish cleaning up and then come down and rearrange things.
Finish cleaning up and sit down on HBT for a little while. Heard a crash that sounded like it came from the laundry room but when I go in there... nothing.
I figure while I'm up I'll bring the rest of the equipment down stairs. I get down there and look over to my carboy........ it's not there! :eek: What I thought was two full boxes it turns out was one full box and one empty box. The carboy crashed to the floor and all my beautiful beer went either down floor drain or into the sump well. :mad:
I'll be ordering another Bitter kit here soon, suppose I need to throw and fermenter on there also. Better make it a Better Bottle. :rolleyes:
 
I'm wondering why you wanted to keep it off the floor...and better yet why you put it on top of bottles (even inside boxes they move a lot). I wouldn't say that glass is the problem...

That does suck though.
 
I'm wondering why you wanted to keep it off the floor...and better yet why you put it on top of bottles (even inside boxes they move a lot). I wouldn't say that glass is the problem...

That does suck though.

Well I think the title of the thread says it all!
Actually the floor is quite cold and if I place the carboy on it the beer would only be in the high 50's maybe 60.
 
Actually the floor is quite cold and if I place the carboy on it the beer would only be in the high 50's maybe 60.

That seems good to me, especially since fermenting was over and it you had it secondary to clear. Most people would love those temps!

I don't use a secondary, but when I put my beer in the basement, I often use something on the floor under the bucket to help insulate it. I happen to have a piece of foam insulation (like the kind on a wall) that is great to set fermenters on.

It's too bad you lost such a good beer. I love Surly brews, and want to do a bitter myself one of these days.
 
Ouch. At least you had the drain and well though. Hope you've got other brew to help the grieving process.
 
This is only my third beer, but first time using a secondary. The directions specifically say to secondary to dry hop. I figured with the recipe and directions being done in cooperation with Surly I'd get the best results that way.
Certainly in hind-site those temps would have been just fine.:drunk:
As I said I will be giving it a second go, but I've got to get my Speckled Heifer going first.
 
Like others, I have a glass carboy and refuse to use it. SWMBO got me a Better Bottle with racking arm a few years back and I love it. Otherwise I still use buckets to ferment in.
 
Sorry for your lose, glad that you did not get cut. After all of the stories that I have heard I am very careful with glass.

My glass carboys sit in the corner for years at a time, they work best for aging sours. Other than that I like buckets also.
 
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