Mistakes. Read one, leave one.

[Larzean]

My first brew ever, Irish red extract... Went to push the airlock into the lid on my bucket and the rubber gasket got pushed in... Ran around frantically thinking what to do, then scrubbed my arm quick and started digging thru the hop debris. It still came out good!

 

[diodeart]

I just turned 7 gallons of fresh maple sap into a smoking crispy black frisbee. Its magic.

 

[whitehause]

I just turned 7 gallons of fresh maple sap into a smoking crispy black frisbee. Its magic.

oooowwwwch

 

[01TRV]

My first brew ever was an oktoberfest extract kit. I was not aware of what krausen was, and thought it would be cool to just ferment in the 5 gal carboy that came with the equipment kit I got from the LHBS. All was well before going to bed. When I got up there was beer shot all over the ceiling, the island, and the kitchen floor. I also didn't know to leave the hops behind when transferring to the FV. Plugged airlock turned into quite the projectile. Live and learn.

I also managed to leave a pitcher that had starsan on it out on the counter top. The laminate has a white mark from the starsan that is permanent. I did notice that a little veggie oil hides it for a while at least.

 

[catdaddy66]

Went to bottle my Irish stout a couple of nights ago. Put the priming solution in and drained the carboy into the bottling bucket and no leaks!

Brought the bucket up onto the counter and turned the spigot downward (I keep it pointed up) a leak started! Thought about reaching into beer to tighten plastic connector but in the end decided to put it back into carboy. Luckily I had sanitized the funnel!

Always check the valve for tightness before filling bucket with fluid, despite it not leaking before!

It was cool watching the fermenting of the priming solution 24 hours later. Am wondering how that may impact the carbonation in the bottle...

 

[Dmlsys23]

Have 6 gallons of wort boiling. Do your first hop addition in your kettle. Watch the hot break go absolutely berserk and overflow since your spray bottle didn't have water in it.

 

[gometz]

Got a new brew kettle, doing a partial grain. While sparging the grain using a colander it slips and lands in the wort.

This was a dark beer, wort was on every surface within 3 feet. FG came out a little too low and I'm still waiting for the final results.

 

[woknblues]

I had a friend on facebook request that I take some pictures while I brew. I initially thought it wasn't a good idea, as one can become distracted or off tempo and make a mistake... Boy was I right!! I forgot to add the cool water and chill my starter wort to reach the right temperature to do my starter. As I somehow managed to pour the yeast into the near boiling wort, "I felt a great disturbance in the Force, as if millions of voices suddenly cried out in terror and were suddenly silenced".... After realizing what I had done, I just walked over and drain poured it. So dumb. Luckily I had another type of yeast I was planning on doing with another batch that would fit the style.

 

[m3n00b]

Adding DME to boiling starter water in my flask. I use fermcap in all my starters from now on.

Adding 2oz hops at once to my first boil.

Poured my starsan into my bottling bucket with the spigot open. I hope I don't do this with beer one day. The kitchen floor was clean that day!

Dropped a nasty icecube from the freezer in my cooling wort. No infection!!!!

 

[MuddyCreek]

Bottled an entire batch, having forgotten to add priming sugar. Thought about it for awhile and decided there was nothing for it but to dump the entire batch BACK into a bucket, add the sugar, stir and rebottle.

This was a poor idea. Uncarbonated, uninfected beer is better than carbonated infected beer. Just an FYI for those who may be wondering.

 

[keggert]

Bottling up a batch. Got it all capped and put away, came back to do clean up, Hmmm whats this liquid on the stove, yep didn't add the priming sugar.

 

[RacingRam]

My first time using my DIY hop spider, I wanted to weigh the bag down to make sure the hops were fully immersed. I had trouble finding something stainless and heavy enough and ultimately used a gas post from my keg. Guess what got thrown away with the hop gunk...

 

[Brews]

I've been kegging for years and brewing a holiday ale. So many people wanted to try it I decided to bottle. Everything was going great until I realized I needed more caps. Put the bottling cane in an empty pint and proceeded to the garage to find more caps. After a little while I returned to the kitchen and about a gallon and a half on the floor. It turns out the little spring inside the bottling cane couldn't withstand the weight of the beer in it. Dogs loved it though.

 

[kombat]

Brewed a 4.5L starter for an Oktoberfest lager, forgot to account for the size of the starter in the batch volume. Carboy is filled to the curve, krausen is currently threatening the airlock.

 

[m3n00b]

Brewed a 4.5L starter for an Oktoberfest lager, forgot to account for the size of the starter in the batch volume. Carboy is filled to the curve, krausen is currently threatening the airlock.

Fermcap to the rescue!

 

[kombat]

It's day 3, the krausen doesn't seem to be rising any further, it's a lager at 45° F so I don't expect a vigorous fermentation anyway... I'm gonna risk it and let it ride. The StarSan in the airlock is foaming out the little holes in the lid like crazy.

 

[gometz]

Bottling up a batch. Got it all capped and put away, came back to do clean up, Hmmm whats this liquid on the stove, yep didn't add the priming sugar.

Not sure if that's better or worse than me bottling the next batch of beer two weeks later and halfway through realizing something seemed different: I didn't do priming on the first batch (which had been conditioning for 2 weeks already).

 

[daksin]

Mixed up a cream ale and a blonde because they weren't labeled. The cream ale got the fruit and the blonde (boiled with rose hips) didn't. Two weird beers.

Also, recently racked a IIPA before its time and dry hopped. I'm usually super anal about checking gravities and temps and all that, but it's back to krausen after adding the hops, and not just CO2 coming out of solution either. Pretty unusual for me.

 

[cthulu1975]

Checking gravity in my basement(which is damp as hell). Infected all three batches, mold not bacteria or wild yeast. Three batches dumped lesson learned.

 

[peterj]

I was racking into my bottling bucket and didn't notice the spigot was open until I saw Breakfast Stout flowing out of it all over the kitchen floor. I always double check it now.

When I first started using a wort chiller I left the tube on the end loose in a bucket. I turned the water on and it started flopping around like a fire hose, so I went to catch it and ended up with some weird looking burns on my arms.

 

[unionrdr]

I passed out after the bittering addition on version 2 of my Hopped & Confused hybrid lager somewhere around 3:50pm on Fat Tuesday. About 5:3Xpm,I awoke & finished the brew,being a partial mash/partial boil biab. Here it is today;
http://[URL=http://s563.photobucket.com/user/unionrdr/media/PICT0004-3_zps96125983.jpg.html] [/URL]
Had a thick,pillowy head right to the bottom of the glass. Carbonation was good too,as can be seen if you look close. It's a 5MP camera,but doesn't do close ups real well. Last night,even the top of the lacing was over 1/4" thick. Nice spicy crispness from the WL029 German ale/kolsh yeast & German & Czech hops. Not bad for an oopsie...

 

[TylerGuy]

finished drinking my first batch before the second is ready to drink. worst mistake ever.

 

[revelation]

Before I picked up an autosiphon, I was trying to get my siphon going to transfer to the bottling bucket. I used water to start it but it didn't work so I ended up sucking to start the suction. I wasn't paying attention and got a mouthful of beer, I panicked and spat into the bottling bucket. Rather than toss the whole batch, I just went on ahead. Beer was good. I called it Beer mit Spucken (Beer with Spit).

 

[hunter_le five]

Just got home from a long horrible day at work only to discover that one of my keezer taps sprang a leak. There was hard cider everywhere. All over the top of the bar, underneath it, inside the freezer box and coffin box, all over the floor in two different rooms... Everything is a sticky mess, and now I'm out ~4 gallons of delicious cider. I just want to cry. Oh well, guess I'd better start the disaster cleanup....

 

[m3n00b]

That sucks bud!!!! I'm sorry but.. Just think about those poor Oklahomans.

 

[TriggerFingers]

Using the same amount of priming sugar in smaller session beers (under 1.040) you would in a normal batch. About my 5th beer I made a English Mild Brown that tasted like brown seltzer water. Lesson? Lower Gravity, Lower Carbonation = tasty session beer.

 

[beargrylls]

Didn't take FG before priming and bottling my first Saison. I remembered just in time to have just enough left in the bottling bucket to measure.... 1.040!!! Luckily no bombs, but I did condition them in ice coolers just in case they blew.

you bottled at 1.040 and the bottles didn't explode?

 

[stvo]

My brain fart: Bottling 10 gal using one bottling bucket, pulled the wand off didn't shut spigot, and proceeded to rack the second half of batch on the priming sugar... wasn't paying attention till my socks got wet, I lost about 1-1/2 gal. I tasted it off the floor ( I know I know ) wasn't sweet at all. So I ended up with 3-1/2 gal of beer primed at 2.7vol for 5gals so far I've lost 7 in my large Rubbermaid container it's an amazing sound when they go off!!!!

 

[woknblues]

My brain fart: Bottling 10 gal using one bottling bucket, pulled the wand off and proceeded to rack the second half of batch on the priming sugar... wasn't paying attention till my socks got wet, I lost about 1-1/2 gal. I tasted it off the floor ( I know I know ) wasn't sweet at all. So I ended up with 3-1/2 gal of beer primed at 2.7vol for 5gals so far I've lost 7 in my large Rubbermaid container it's an amazing sound when they go off!!!!

You are eatin' a beer s@#t sandwich there bro. Sounds maddening.

 

[Bigelow92]

Cooled my brew to pitching temp outside in the snow. Got cold really quick but unfortunately let all sorts o bacterial low life's into my yeasties gated beach community had I dump the whole thing, was undrinkable