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seatazzz

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So it's time for another Seatazzz Silly Post of the Week, or When I Get Around To It. I will start, although this one makes me cringe.

I have a four-tap kegerator, that I recently upgraded to duotight fittings and evabarrier line. Taps are old, and I religiously run cleaner through the lines every other keg change, or if a line has stood idle for a while. Today I received an order from Amazon of those cool little brush-type tap caps; I'd been using the black rubber ones for years (yes I cleaned them regularly). A few times in the last few weeks I'll be sipping on a homebrew, and suddenly a burst of flavor in my mouth of nasty mold. Nothing visible in the glass; cleaned the lines again, but it happened again a few pints later. Fast forward to today; installed the little brushes and admired how nice they look. Until I went to pull a pint; took the brush out and IT WAS BLACK with gunk. I've been drinking that. Scrubbed the hell out of each tap, much better now. Holy crap I'm ashamed of that.
 
My first batch of brew, i was really stressing the hop schedule, didn't complement understand it. It came time to add ½ the packet of hops and blitzed and dumped the whole pack, i was scrambling trying to get the hop pellets (that were swelling and breaking apart) out as quick as i could. I must have gotten enough out, I'm drinking one now and it's a little on the hoppy side of what i like but it's good.
 
So it's time for another Seatazzz Silly Post of the Week, or When I Get Around To It. I will start, although this one makes me cringe.

I have a four-tap kegerator, that I recently upgraded to duotight fittings and evabarrier line. Taps are old, and I religiously run cleaner through the lines every other keg change, or if a line has stood idle for a while. Today I received an order from Amazon of those cool little brush-type tap caps; I'd been using the black rubber ones for years (yes I cleaned them regularly). A few times in the last few weeks I'll be sipping on a homebrew, and suddenly a burst of flavor in my mouth of nasty mold. Nothing visible in the glass; cleaned the lines again, but it happened again a few pints later. Fast forward to today; installed the little brushes and admired how nice they look. Until I went to pull a pint; took the brush out and IT WAS BLACK with gunk. I've been drinking that. Scrubbed the hell out of each tap, much better now. Holy crap I'm ashamed of that.
:barf: You can be glad you didn't discover it when you had friends over for a pint!😝
 
My first batch of brew, i was really stressing the hop schedule, didn't complement understand it. It came time to add ½ the packet of hops and blitzed and dumped the whole pack, i was scrambling trying to get the hop pellets (that were swelling and breaking apart) out as quick as i could. I must have gotten enough out, I'm drinking one now and it's a little on the hoppy side of what i like but it's good.
On a couple occasionss I've gone and dumped the 60 minute hop addition at the start of the boil…. On 90 minute boils…. I know they say bitterness pretty much maxes out after 60, but it still makes me feel stupid when I do it! I've also found I am far more likely to miss steps when I have a brewing assistant, I am far more slow paced and methodical when brewing on my own…
 
No need to cool the wort first, right?
CB5FB61D-DB83-4636-A11A-0007EC34C1D1.jpeg
 
Just read the first post, sitting at work now, soon as I get home I'll be brushing out my faucets, I run cleaner through my lines on a regular as well. I switched to eva barrier and duotite a little while ago and also forward sealing faucets, 4 tap keezer as well. Almost like this thread was a sign... or a tap on the shoulder "hey man, when was the last time you cleaned the faucets?" ... hmmm
 
I've shared a couple of things on here already..but the two that stay in mind because..well...learn from your mistakes? Or mine..

1. Don't clamp the triclamp down too hard on your Riptide pump..cuzz then it won't work. And then..you'll cuss up a storm thinking your damn pump that you just bought is freekin broke...and lift up your entire batch of beer in 10.5 Foundry up on the freezer so you can do a gravity transfer to your fermenter all while hoping that the damn handles don't break...

2. Squeeze the bag in same Foundry (different brew day)..while it is suspended on the damn ring, which you've never done before but you decided this one time it would be a good idea....and then it collapses..and spills...right onto your damn feet...which happen to only be shod in flip flops...another first time hair brained idea that you thought would be ok.
 
Just read the first post, sitting at work now, soon as I get home I'll be brushing out my faucets, I run cleaner through my lines on a regular as well. I switched to eva barrier and duotite a little while ago and also forward sealing faucets, 4 tap keezer as well. Almost like this thread was a sign... or a tap on the shoulder "hey man, when was the last time you cleaned the faucets?" ... hmmm

I've been brewing for almost 6 years now; sometimes I sit here and think how much I've advanced, then I do something like this that makes me realize I need to pay more attention to the small things. That taste is just absolutely gross. Another embarrassing post; I just sent four entries to a fairly big competition, BEFORE I found the nasty black gunk in the taps. Have to think some got in the competition bottles. Kicking myself vigorously in the kiester for that.
 
I brewed a stout on Sunday and threw my grain bag full of spent grain into a bucket with every intention of taking it my my sister in laws chickens...

As you can probably guess today the smell emanating from the brewery reminded me to take them out and dump them on my compost pile.
 
i cant find it, but somewhere in the bowels of this forum is another one where somebody related the experience of brewing in the garage, knocking out and starting to clean up, only to turn around and see their dogs just lapping fresh wort right out of the kettle....
 
I have a hinged false bottom and my measurement for filling the mash tun with strike water is to use my mash paddle with markings on. I measure from the bottom of the kettle with the paddle. Once measured I flip down the hinged part of the false bottom and add the grain. The last brew I totally for got to flip it down and preceded to dump 30+ pounds of grain into the tun before I realized what I did. That will set you back about a half hour scooping out the grain and water. Transfer to kettle, clean mash tun, and repeat transfer back to mash tun. No harm done to the beer as it still turned out as expected but a knuckle head move for sure.
 
i cant find it, but somewhere in the bowels of this forum is another one where somebody related the experience of brewing in the garage, knocking out and starting to clean up, only to turn around and see their dogs just lapping fresh wort right out of the kettle....

Hops: Very, very bad for dogs!
 
One of mine had a more serious repercusion. I was recirculating near-boiling caustic (190F) in my system, and the hose shot out from the kettle, and sprayed my left shin. I was wearing socks, so the heat stayed there until I could get the cold water hose onto it.

3rd degree burn, about the size of a fist. Fortunately, no other issues. Took about a year and you can't even see the burn mark.
 
I used to ferment in a sanke keg.
One time I was draining the kettle into the sanke and before I put the stopper on/in the keg I looked in and thought, hmm that's a bit fuller than usual, but WTF. I went ahead and pitched the yeast and put it into the fermentation chamber. When it was done, I was filling two kegs and there was a bunch left over, at least a gallon or more, I transferred it into a smaller keg and put the smaller keg on tap. When I started drinking it, I thought, this has an odd kinda metallic taste, at which point I realized that the reason I had extra, was I didn't pout out the starsan that I had poured into the keg prior to adding the wort.
Seems to me I drank it anyway, it's been a long time and I don't recall.:bigmug:

Another time after filling the fermenter, I came up with this "brilliant idea", there was still wort left in the CFC and the air compressor was just right there, I turned on the air compressor and let it come up to the cut off point,(60 psi is where I keep it) and got a blow nozzle and proceeded to "clear the line" and chiller. Well all went fine until the end and the line became lighter, at which point, it came out of the top of the fermenter and sprayed the last bit of wort on the inside of the overhead door, the walls, ceiling and floor of the garage. Never realized how much of a mess a little bit could make. Some of it was still on the ceiling and door when I sold that house.
:ghostly:

Early on, I always primed kegs, because it was easy and I always had more beer than room in the kegerator, so why not prime them and let them naturally carbonate? I had been in an Asian grocery and found pure corn syrup, (Karo syrup has vanilla and salt added) and I thought, what a great way to add the priming sugar. Well it being thick and prone to stick to the sides of a measuring cup, I got to where I would just pour some in using the old eyeball guesstimate method, hmm that looks about right. I had the "on deck" kegs stored in a walk-in closet in my office. I also had a spunding valve that I used for a pressure tester/gauge and would periodically check the kegs to make sure that they were somewhere around 30psi. It had been a while since i had done it and one day I was checking kegs and got to one keg and was like this is a whole lot harder to push the QD onto the keg (ball lock kegs), but sometimes it's just that way with ball lock kegs. The beer in question was a chocolate rye stout. Well I pushed a bit harder and "put my weight" into it and it went click and locked on, the needle on the gauge shot to 90, beer started spraying out of the relief ports on the adjustable PRV and I was fighting to keep my hand around the PRV to try to contain the mess and try to get the QD loose from the keg. What a mess. Over the next few weeks, I would periodically go in there and pull the ring to vent pressure and stop when foam started coming out of the PRV, then when it got down to around 50 or so, I reattached the spunding valve and each day or two, I would go in there and turn it down a pound or two to let it slowly come down and keep doing that until it got down to 30psi. I never did repaint that closet. :thumbsup:

I'm sure that I'll recall many more bonehead moves and fill this thread. Over the years, I've had many "brilliant ideas", some worked out better than others.;)
 
If you watch that video carefully, there are many dumb things going on (e.g., airlock on my yeast starter flask). Rest assured, I've changed my processes 100%.
I once bought some used stuff and the flask had a stopper and airlock on it. Was that you, haha ?
 
I broke a glass carboy by filling it with hot wort and setting in a cold in-ground swimming pool. It's easy to convince yourself that these things will work, but in the end you find yourself in the wee hours of a cold January night, standing in a pool wearing pajama shorts and tennis shoes and flashlight, wading around looking for shards of glass and praying your wife doesn't catch you.
 
Recently had to bottle some of my Lemon Lime Gatorade Gose for a competition (where I would also be pouring it out of a jockey box).
I had decided to use one of my kegs that has a floating diptube, thinking that it would help me pour clearer beer after having to drive 45 minutes with the keg.
As I was trying to fill bottles it was all foam, so I figured the pickup end wasn't submerged. I decided my best option was to de-pressurize the keg and pull the old diptube out and put back in a standard diptube.

In my rush to do this I accidentally removed the gas post instead of the liquid, put a liquid diptube in its place (losing some beer once it was fully in place and I had to re-attach the post).

Hook it back up to CO2 and kegerator so I could bottle and immediately hear gas bubbling through the beer.

Mad rush again to pull it out, depressurize, and pull the diptube off the gas side. Of course this time there was much more beer coming out of the diptube as I loose the post and pull it out. Had to sit with my finger over the diptube as I waited for my girlfriend to come downstairs and help me (mainly handing things to me as I was ready).

Probably lost about 0.5 gallon total, but the beer was still a success at the brewfest and people enjoyed it.
 
So it's time for another Seatazzz Silly Post of the Week, or When I Get Around To It. I will start, although this one makes me cringe.

I have a four-tap kegerator, that I recently upgraded to duotight fittings and evabarrier line. Taps are old, and I religiously run cleaner through the lines every other keg change, or if a line has stood idle for a while. Today I received an order from Amazon of those cool little brush-type tap caps; I'd been using the black rubber ones for years (yes I cleaned them regularly). A few times in the last few weeks I'll be sipping on a homebrew, and suddenly a burst of flavor in my mouth of nasty mold. Nothing visible in the glass; cleaned the lines again, but it happened again a few pints later. Fast forward to today; installed the little brushes and admired how nice they look. Until I went to pull a pint; took the brush out and IT WAS BLACK with gunk. I've been drinking that. Scrubbed the hell out of each tap, much better now. Holy crap I'm ashamed of that.
The only “kegerator” I have is a wheeled trash can that I put a 3 tap tower on the lid for outdoor (and once an indoor) party ice keeps the kegs cold, and I have no need for tap cap thingies. I’m thinking the brush plugs might let in fruit flies, but should not promote mold growth. Now when I go out I’ll take notice of which one they use. Could happen to anyone, and it is a pain to take the faucets off for a deep clean.
 
Oh, a few, last one was Sunday afternoon. Went out to mill my grain. I had 2-1 pound bags of flaked barley I was putting in without milling. Set them off to the side. They were still where I left them yesterday, 2 hours after I finished brewing the stout they belonged in. No wonder I'm a bit low on OG....
 
When you sanitize a glass carbide under your hose outside and it is slippery and you sort of stumble on the paver sidewalk as you are making your way back inside and the carbide slips out of your hands like a hot potato, let me tell you that glass carbide makes a hell of racket when it lands on those pavers and explodes in a thousand glass shards that even the NCIS would be hard pressed to reconstruct the crime scene- very fortunate no one was nearby and the carbide was not full of beer...my glass carbide has handles now so that can't happen again
 
I broke a glass carboy by filling it with hot wort and setting in a cold in-ground swimming pool. It's easy to convince yourself that these things will work, but in the end you find yourself in the wee hours of a cold January night, standing in a pool wearing pajama shorts and tennis shoes and flashlight, wading around looking for shards of glass and praying your wife doesn't catch you.
I had a similar glass carbide mishap below. Those things can be challenging. Most of my brew friends have moved away from them entirely and that is why I have inherited their unused ones which is fortunate since I lost the one I had
 
So it's time for another Seatazzz Silly Post of the Week, or When I Get Around To It. I will start, although this one makes me cringe.

I have a four-tap kegerator, that I recently upgraded to duotight fittings and evabarrier line. Taps are old, and I religiously run cleaner through the lines every other keg change, or if a line has stood idle for a while. Today I received an order from Amazon of those cool little brush-type tap caps; I'd been using the black rubber ones for years (yes I cleaned them regularly). A few times in the last few weeks I'll be sipping on a homebrew, and suddenly a burst of flavor in my mouth of nasty mold. Nothing visible in the glass; cleaned the lines again, but it happened again a few pints later. Fast forward to today; installed the little brushes and admired how nice they look. Until I went to pull a pint; took the brush out and IT WAS BLACK with gunk. I've been drinking that. Scrubbed the hell out of each tap, much better now. Holy crap I'm ashamed of that.
vomit-jim-carrey.gif


As for me, I learnt the hard way not to microwave fine Czech glassware with gold foil on the rims and in the design. Had a beautiful Budvar glass in which I decided to warm up some sake...

About 7 seconds into the heat, I heard a pop and some tinkle, and wound up having to wipe out the microwave to mop up spilt sake. The metal in the glass heated, expanded, and broke it into a couple of large pieces.
 
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Another embarrassing post; I just sent four entries to a fairly big competition, BEFORE I found the nasty black gunk in the taps. Have to think some got in the competition bottles. Kicking myself vigorously in the kiester for that.
Just tell them it's "Kombucha-style Lager" and it's a feature, not a defect!
 
Early on, I always primed kegs... I would go in there and turn it down a pound or two to let it slowly come down and keep doing that until it got down to 30psi.
I used to use the 5-liter kegs for aging/dispensing, priming and aging in the kegs. One batch, I miscalculated the priming sugar and wound up creasing the tops of 3 of the kegs. One of the kegs breached, but all it vented was CO2 -- fortunately, I stored the kegs bung-up.

I quit using the 5-liter kegs after that.
 
vomit-jim-carrey.gif


As for me, I learnt the hard way not to microwave fine Czech glassware with gold foil on the rims and in the design. Had a beautiful Budvar glass in which I decided to warm up some sake...

About 7 seconds into the heat, I heard a pop and some tinkle, and wound up having to wipe out the microwave to mop up spilt sake. The metal in the glass heated, expanded, and broke it into a couple of large pieces.

Kitchen messes are to be avoided at all cost if you value your marriage. For example, if your 4L flask cracks and dumps its sticky malt extract contents all over your stove and floor, and seconds later your 2L does the same thing, you clean and re-clean all night before the wife discovers it. Picture below is after the 4L burst - if you look closely, you can see the crack starting on the 2L. Imagine my surprise when it dumped right after I took this picture. Argggh. (BTW, the reason for this mishap was that the DME wasn't fuly dissolved before I put the flasks onto the heat).

1646325622349.png
 
After watching a video of a certain brewery saying they blend their batches to help with consistency, I figured I'd give it a shot. I use 2 SSBrewtech buckets and figured I'd go back and forth to each fermentor with the auto siphon to blend into the kegs. Ended up just pumping straight oxygen into each keg a few times 🤦‍♂️
 
When you sanitize a glass carbide under your hose outside and it is slippery and you sort of stumble on the paver sidewalk as you are making your way back inside and the carbide slips out of your hands like a hot potato, let me tell you that glass carbide makes a hell of racket when it lands on those pavers and explodes in a thousand glass shards that even the NCIS would be hard pressed to reconstruct the crime scene- very fortunate no one was nearby and the carbide was not full of beer...my glass carbide has handles now so that can't happen again
Hopefully not one of those screw on orange carboy handles. They put stress on the neck and can snap the neck off your carboy, especially if you have it on a full carboy. Thos are only supposed to be used to move empty carboys.

The best solution is if you have a plastic milk crate the carboy will fit in.
 
A couple of years ago I was checking my air locks in three different Carboys out in the garage. A mix between ciders and meads. I was bending down next to one of them stealing a sample. I stood up to walk away and I had my work keys on one of those lanyard things (so I wouldn’t lose them).
Sure enough, the lanyard had looped over the top of a carboy and in slow mo, the whole thing tipped over and I had to clean up 5 gallons of mead on my garage floor.
Of course I was on my way to work.
Since then, I keep my Carboys inside of milk crates for protection. And I stuff that lanyard all the way into my pockets too.
 
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