Most embarrassing homebrewing mistakes

[passedpawn]

Made a yeast starter Monday night which I intended to harvest from the night before cold crashing. Grab the flask off the stir starter. I sanitize the foil, grab my magnet to pull out the stir bar, run it up the side of the flask and the stir bar pulls the magnet into the flask. SPLASH. I grab another magnet to pull out the stir bar and magnet, run it up the side of the flask and again the first magnet and stir bar crash to the bottom of the flask. Only this time they cracked the flask. Grrr...This was last night...

Did it leak when it cracked? DME on a hot stove can create a sticky mess that takes a while to clean up.

I made a massive mess one night when I broke two (yes, two) flasks. Both of them dumped all over the stove. Wife was in bed, thankfully. I had to scrape the sticky stuff off the stove and floor. Super mess.

In the pic, you can see the broken exploded one. About 3 seconds after I took the picture, #2 in the back also let loose (arrow points to crack ready to blow). I used the big one in the front for years and heated it exactly like that. Why this time?: ALWAYS MAKE SURE THE DME IS DISSOLVED IN THE WATER BEFORE HEATING. IF IT IS STILL SOLID ON THE BOTTOM, FLASK WILL BREAK.

 

[Hwk-I-St8]

Did it leak when it cracked? DME on a hot stove can create a sticky mess that takes a while to clean up.

I made a massive mess one night when I broke two (yes, two) flasks. Both of them dumped all over the stove. Wife was in bed, thankfully. I had to scrape the sticky stuff off the stove and floor. Super mess.

In the pic, you can see the broken exploded one. About 3 seconds after I took the picture, #2 in the back also let loose (arrow points to crack ready to blow). I used the big one in the front for years and heated it exactly like that. Why this time?: ALWAYS MAKE SURE THE DME IS DISSOLVED IN THE WATER BEFORE HEATING. IF IT IS STILL SOLID ON THE BOTTOM, FLASK WILL BREAK.

View attachment 610019

I've always read that you should only heat DME for a starter in the flask if you have a gas stove. Therefore, I've always boiled mine in a pan first, then transferred to the flask.

 

[Franktalk]

Forgot to change the mash tun and grain temperatures on BeerSmith today, and my basement was 50 degrees. Instead of mashing it at 154, I mashed in at 144. I had to boil some water quickly to bring it up. Mash was low for the first 15 minutes. I'll call it an protein rest. Yeah, that's the ticket.

 

[Homergah]

I left my IC in the work shop where I brew. Didn't consider the freezing temps, and the water left in the coils of the IC. Next brew day I toss the chiller in the BK at the usual time before end of boil. When it got time to chill I turned the water on. It was a good while before I realized what was going on. Pumped a lot of nasty water into the wort. I'm talking water with extreme manganese content. I don't even use the stuff to clean with. Beer ruined. Had to dump it two weeks later. Not really that embarrassing, just aggravating. I test the chiller now before dropping it in.

I do have an embarrassing brew story, but I may hang on to that one, for now.

 

[NitrogenWidget]

Oh dude, that hurts. Guess it can't take the pressure.

oh man.
My keggorator is on the back porch.
Off of course.
I have a temp triggered outlet with a 100 watt bulb connected to keep things from freezing.

 

[passedpawn]

You should consider doing a KickStarter campaign for your noodle-ducttapte "Beer Bouy" contraption. Have it kick off on 4/01

This is the fastest way to chill. Boil-to-ambient in only a few minutes. Stir like crazy while pool water rushing past. Also, immersion chiller in there. It's in my pool spa. Marlee approves. Lots of near-disasters before I abandoned this method.

 

[Home_alone1]

For the first few batches I couldn’t figure out why I had so much Trub transferred when using my racking cane . Then I discovered the little black cap wasn’t a cap at all but a filter to pull beer from above !

 

[Sbe2]

I was transferring wort from my BK to my fermenter in my garage. I set my BK on my work bench on top of a three ring binder. The idea was to keep trub away from my valve while on the binder. Well, I went to do something like grab the O2 wand or sanitizer and saw the BK fall 4’ from the bench. The binder somehow unfolded resulting in about 3 gallons of NEIPA on the floor of my garage.

I cleaned up the floor and added 3 gallons of distilled to the fermenter. Turned into a nice NEPA.

 

[dx250]

Now I get to repaint my kitchen ceiling. On a side note remember to put the oring in the liquid poppet before pressurizing your keg to 30psi.

 

[rlonardo]

Always always always always always make sure your kettle valves are closed. I've spilled water and wort on more than one occasion...most notably a nice sticky imperial stout wort all over our apartment kitchen floor and under the stove.

Just this week I was pushing Starsan from keg to keg to purge with CO2. The kid starts crying upstairs, so I run up to take care of him for 5-10 minutes. When I went back to the basement I heard gurgling and see foam and Starsan solution all over the floor. At least it was clean?

A couple of brew days ago my immersion chiller bit the dust. The vinyl hose split just before it enters the coil, spraying water into the wort. I probably would have nipped that in the bud if I hadn't left it unattended to go watch football inside. Instead I walked out to this scene. Dumping a batch before it ever hits the fermentor is quite depressing.

 

[jason613]

Thought I had purchased maris otter for my stout...but the bag was roasted barley. Needless to say gravity was low and there was almost no fermentables...finally noticed it was roasted barley the next time I went to brew.

 

[jason613]

I may have recently forgottten a VERY full keg of sanitizer in the garage.

View attachment 609853

Whoa

 

[MrKelly]

I went to keg a 5 gallon batch and the keg was full with 3 gallons of beer left in the fermenter....

Don't forget to dump the sanitizer before you keg.

 

[Matthew Nelson]

Once I had a mostly blocked airlock due to an aggressive ferment. It deceptively bubbled, but only because it was under extreme pressure. When I pupped the bung to rack it, I was greeted with a 5 foot geyser of beer erupting out of the carboy. Lost a good 2 gallons. The saving grace was that I was fermenting in a bathtub, so the only bad cleanup was the ceiling.

 

[Still Brewn]

I went to keg a 5 gallon batch and the keg was full with 3 gallons of beer left in the fermenter....

Don't forget to dump the sanitizer before you keg.

Very sad. But at least you were able to get some beer from the experience.
I think I will continue to clean my kegs only when they are ready to be filled, that way they are upside down in the sink when I'm ready to refill. I was going to try to stay on top of it and clean as soon as they were empty but with How many people do the same thing I think it is better to just keep putting things off.

 

[ba-brewer]

I went to keg a 5 gallon batch and the keg was full with 3 gallons of beer left in the fermenter....

Don't forget to dump the sanitizer before you keg.

Up until this post the only real embarrassing thing to admit was the feeling of Schadenfreude I was getting from this thread.

One time I keg a beer and thought it was a bit weird I had little more extra beer left after siphoning from fermentor to keg but just went about things as normal. Later I started thinking maybe I failed to empty the keg of starsan before filling. I only use about quart to a half gallon in the keg and roll it around a few time to wet the surfaces.
Don't recall when it dawned on me that was what happen, maybe it was great head on the beer.

Very sad. But at least you were able to get some beer from the experience.
I think I will continue to clean my kegs only when they are ready to be filled, that way they are upside down in the sink when I'm ready to refill. I was going to try to stay on top of it and clean as soon as they were empty but with How many people do the same thing I think it is better to just keep putting things off.

I keep my dirty kegs under pressure from when they kicked and clean just before filling, yet I still messed up.

 

[NewJersey]

most embarrassing thing I've done is brew 3 vessel as opposed to single vessel biab. I feel like such an idiot.

 

[odie]

Today I forgot to turn the heat element off at end of boil. I wondered why my wort chiller was slow???

 

[pshankstar]

Today I forgot to turn the heat element off at end of boil. I wondered why my wort chiller was slow???

I had the same thing happen with my blichmann burner. I thought I turned it off but it still had a small flame going. ‍ Doh!!

 

[ThirstyPawsHB]

Guess the most embarrassing thing was related to drinking too much during brewing. I vorlauf into a 1gal container. Drinking, listening to music and surfing HBT can cause issues. Head bobbing to Jimmy Hendrix, replying to a thread, then noticed my feet getting really warm. Well, because the obvious happened. Wert spilled over all over the kitchen floor. No wife around tho! [emoji106]Learned to have secondary containment becuase there's no way I'm stopping drinking while brewing! 6am or 6pm, beer is involved!

 

[JCasey1992]

I think this picture says it all. Fortunately, I caught it in time. Otherwise I would have had to replace a good portion of my wardrobe [emoji38]. Kaboom!

 

[Jayjay1976]

I think this picture says it all. Fortunately, I caught it in time. Otherwise I would have had to replace a good portion of my wardrobe [emoji38]. Kaboom!View attachment 610487

How did you manage to defuse that situation???

 

[JCasey1992]

How did you manage to defuse that situation???

I removed the lid EXTREMELY CAREFULLY and replaced the airlock with a blow off tube. Still had a little spillage but managed to limit it.

 

[passedpawn]

I think this picture says it all. Fortunately, I caught it in time. Otherwise I would have had to replace a good portion of my wardrobe [emoji38]. Kaboom!View attachment 610487

I assumed that most bucket fermentors were leaky (and thus many people don't see bubbles in their airlocks). Not yours though That's nuts there.

 

[Kharnynb]

Oh dude, that hurts. Guess it can't take the pressure.

not technically pressure in the same way as gas pressure, just the fact that water doesn't compress and ice takes up more space than water...

 

[Kharnynb]

oh, and my own, I've lost count of the amount of times I've forgotten to put the bazooka filter on the bottom fitting of my kettle.

 

[Gunshowgreg]

For me and very most recently I accidentally added potassium sorbate to my coffee stout thinking it was my wine fermenter. Yep, I'm the author of that mistake. I still recovering from it. My brew shop was nice enough to keg it for me and use the bottling gun to bottle with. However I dont think we knew how to use it properly and well I got about 35 bottles of flat beer. While I'm on the subject any advice as to what to do with it? I've tried drinking it but it's not good. I'm gonna make some beer bread and beef stew with it. Any other ideas?

 

[Gunshowgreg]

BTDT.. At least you HAD the priming sugar ready.
On one of my first batches, I bottled the 5 G. and I completely forgot about the priming sugar.

Despite the waste of caps all wasnt lost. You could always use those bottling sugar drops and recap. Sucks but not total disaster. Sorry beer glass half full kinda guy I am.

 

[balrog]

Brewing at 1°. Fill garage-housed brew kettle from outdoor faucet. But faucet covered by styro-bucket and worked! So I didn't have to fill 7g from kitchen and carry to garage. But 40m later, into the mash I'm thinking, maybe I should just run the water so .... too late. Hose froze. Spent entire mash and boil trying to thaw hose to use for chiller.

 

[mongoose33]

I've always read that you should only heat DME for a starter in the flask if you have a gas stove. Therefore, I've always boiled mine in a pan first, then transferred to the flask.

I heat my DME with water in a flask on my glass-top stove. I learned the hard way that if I let that DME stay caked on the bottom, it'll scorch/burn.

What I don't do is crank that burner up all the way. It has a dial that goes from 1-10, and typically I'll have it at 6 or maybe 7.