What are some of the mistakes you made...where your beer still turned out great!

[PhelanKA7]

On bottling day for my first brew I still hadn't realized how the auto-siphon was supposed to work, and like Revvy mentioned in the first post of this thread I proceeded to use it like a pump. My fiance was holding the end of the hose above the water line while I proceedee to spray the beer into the bucket. Talk about oxidation!

The beer of course came out terrific though. One of my fiance's coworkers offered me $20 for a 6pk. I had to turn down the offer though. My fiance, my parents, some of my friends, and I have gone thru almost all 46 bottles in a week
Luckily I put away about 5 bottles to save and age over a year's time. I'm told this is a good practice that will only lead to regret over not aging more.

 

[cheezydemon3]

I boiled over and lost maybe 1/2 the wort (I had to leave it unattended). In exasperation, I topped it back up and added a bag of brown sugar.

It ended up delicious, lol.

 

[chef90]

Ok, I have forgotten priming sugar, santize siphoning lines, Forgot lots of timing for boils ex. hops! always forget to make yeast starter. Also dropped toothpick into fermenter (yes, its was in mouth), forgot to strain hops. cooled wort in garage overnight!
and still I brew and like it. Soo, does my wife.

 

[MrInternet]

Luckily I put away about 5 bottles to save and age over a year's time. I'm told this is a good practice that will only lead to regret over not aging more.

It depends entirely on style, actually. I can guarantee you that you won't be crazy about how a year-old Blonde, Amber, or Ordinary Bitters tastes. IPAs basically become malt-forward pale ales, and stouts, porters, etc can age well if they are complex enough to start, and have enough bitterness initially to fade to style over time.

This is one of those things I'm finding has sprouted in a bubble on this and other brew boards... aging isn't always good. It's not always automatically the most proper way to enjoy your beer, and it certainly isn't something that brewers should consider a "goal" unless, again, they're brewing a style that sort of requires it. Aging MELLOWS harsh/strong/hot beers, and age will USUALLY FIX or at least GLOSS OVER mistakes that were made that resulted in a "bleh" beer. There are a hundred threads here that bear witness to time HEALING bad beer, but there's not much evidence to indicate that all beers should be "aged". Give them a month in primary and a month in the bottle, sure, but when they're ready, go for it.

I bought into this and put most of my first batch of Red IPA in the cellar... I would try a bottle every other week or so, and think "MAN, this is going to be awesome in another 6 months!". Well, now it tastes like cardboard and malt... hops are mostly gone except for the bittering. Of course now I'm wishing I had drunk them all in the sweet spot, but that's how you learn.

 

[BgThang]

wort chiller hose clamp broke spraying water from a dirty hose attached to the wort chiller directly into my beer after the beer came down in temp to about 90. Was afraid I contaiminated the beer. best ipa I ever did.

Also didn't turn off the heat completely when I did an american red from AHS. The liquid extract hit the bottom and scroched a little. The beer came out as a red with a nice roasty flavor. Wasn't bad at all an added a nice twist to the recipe.

 

[PhelanKA7]

It depends entirely on style, actually. I can guarantee you that you won't be crazy about how a year-old Blonde, Amber, or Ordinary Bitters tastes. IPAs basically become malt-forward pale ales, and stouts, porters, etc can age well if they are complex enough to start, and have enough bitterness initially to fade to style over time.

It was a Belgian Tripel so I think it will probably hit it's peak after 6-8 months. Right now it's very malt heavy, but still delicious. It's just not as subtle as I think it will be after a few months aging and mellowing out.

 

[MrInternet]

It was a Belgian Tripel so I think it will probably hit it's peak after 6-8 months. Right now it's very malt heavy, but still delicious. It's just not as subtle as I think it will be after a few months aging and mellowing out.

Sounds like a perfect candidate then

 

[TheBeerNerd]

I'm really enjoying this thread. It makes me feel better about the dumb stuff that i've done.

My first couple batches I washed all my equipment and bottles with normal dish soap. Didn't realize this was a no-no. Beer still turned out fine.

Second AG batch I ever did (american wheat) had a stuck sparge. Beer turned out a bit lighter than expected, but still drinkable.

Have an extract Pale Ale in secondary right now, where I added the LME before steeping... oops. I think it will be ok, we'll see.

 

[kjjohns5]

On my first brew (which happened to only be like 3 months ago, lol), I had NO IDEA that I had to shake and slap around my Wyeast packet. All I read when I got home was "keep refrigerated," so that's where I put it! I had cooled the wort, pulled out the Wyeast, and was like... crap. I smacked it around for a couple minutes, and just pitched it. The beer however, came out very well. It was an extract West Coast IPA recipe that I got from my local homebrew shop.

On my 3rd beer I did my first starter and my 4th will actually be my first all-grain.

 

[Dave11980]

Ok, I'll confess... My first batch a few weeks ago, light on the reading I tried all grain first without the proper equipment. I didn't have properly milled grain so I crushed it with a rolling pin. Obviously my conversion was a little on the low side so my gravities were low after the boil. I added some boiled sugar and corn syrup (not much) to get my gravities up a bit. Maybe getting me from 3.5 to 4.0 on final ABV. I DID sanitize everything with bleach and rinse well. My first time bottling was a mess, not sure how I managed without infecting everything. One of the best beers I've ever had, and my buddy just had one of the last today and agreed. I really must say, everyone here is right. As long as you sanitize it's hard to mess up, and time heals all wounds. I'm sure future batches will be better but if I can make what I've been drinking this week with all these mistakes, I'm hooked. For the record, the second and third batches (a LME recipe) has gone much smoother. The forth is a DME and started yesterday its looking good.

 

[r_flagg]

Oh man, some of these stories are great! I've never dropped my phone in my beer, only the lid to the LME in my Irish Stout, but it was pre-boil anyway and the can was already sitting in hot water, so I just relaxed. We'll see how it turns out in a couple weeks! I also made a Fat Tire clone recently and while xferring to secondary I proceeded to pump air into it while pushing out the last little bits from the autosiphon. I'll remember not to do that next time.

 

[PolishLogic]

Just remembered that I should post my rookie experience.

Trying to pry a stuck bung out of my carboy with a wooden spoon and snapped the handle off. My original thought was that I was in trouble since it hadn't been sterilized. Needless to say, it sat in there for a little over two weeks aiding in the fermentation process, and at the moment I'm currently enjoying the last few bottles of my Broken Spoon Amber Ale. It's been absolutely delicious.

 

[saynomore10]

Had a good laugh reading some of these. Keep them coming!
My worst moment happened last fall. I had finished the boil on a pumpkin ale, put my wort chiller in my brew pot and hooked it up to a garden hose in my backward. I had just moved into a new house and I guess the water pressure was a lot higher than what I was used to in my old house. When I cranked the hose on, the pressure blew the connector off my wort chiller, blew part of the foil covering my brewpot off, and sprayed a solid amount of nasty hose water all in my beer.
The beer turned out great though! Served it at a Christmas party and everyone loved it. Perhaps I'll have to add a bit of hose water again next time I make it?

 

[Newton]

The connection point on my wort chiller sprung a leak into my cooling wort. It leaked unsanitized hose water into my wort for several minutes before I discovered the problem. Then somehow I got my unsanitized hand right in the cool wort. Somehow that batch didn't get infected and it turned out pretty decent.

 

[bsdx]

I nodded off for a while in a chair during a boil part way through my hop schedule, too warm and a beer too many? I was probably behind but I'm sure it came out fine and no boil over. The garage doors were open, the gas burner near the big doors and I was across the garage. Can't remember if that was the pilsner where I had cut open a multi-pack too far and some of the hops made it into the pot but half of one of the sections ended on the floor. I try to improve my results by moderating or abstain from drinking while brewing now but it annoys me so its not 100%.

At least one time we managed to get an entire 5 gallon batch into bottles and half of them capped before I remembered we forgot to add priming sugar! glkjsfjlsfdjsdfjsdlgjsgdjgldjsfdgj;dsflgdsdgk! Felt weird opening the bottles back up and pouring them back into the bucket, and it just didn't feel right to splash hard so I mostly avoided it, and as far as I know it came out fine. From reading the forums I now know about oxidation, not sure if I've ever tasted it though after a few dozen batches.

We've made other minor mistakes before too and it mostly comes out as fine beer, so I take the little things in stride. I've discovered that I was mixing my straight-a and Iodophor way too weak and corrected it though. The only time I dumped a batch was when my LHBS only gave me 3 instead of 6 pounds of DME and even though I had doubts I made it anyway (not sure why, must have been in a hurry and/or impatient). I racked it into the keg, tasted it, BLEH (too hoppy for the weak malt) and dumped it out of frustration even though it could probably have been fixed. If I had been more confident I could have probably fixed it. At the time I just wanted to end that nightmare. It was a kit I had made before so its not like I thought I was going to miss out on something new.

 

[tortination]

When I brewed my second batch ever about 5 years ago I made an extract honey wheat beer and had not yet heard of a blowoff tube. I came home from work the first full day of fermentation and excitedly ran to check my brew. I found my airlock across the room and my ceiling, wall and many of my possessions were covered in sweet, yeasty, hop residue. Awesome. Never could get it all off the ceiling and the landlord kept some of my security deposit for that one.

Also brewed a decent extract IPA while on too much vicodin after breaking my nose longboarding. Not sure how I didn't mess that one up but my "Broken Nose IPA" was one of my favorite extract brews.

I've since moved on to all-grain, and haven't made an undrinkable batch yet (knock on wood).

 

[corbomite]

When brewing my 3rd batch, I put in the priming sugar in the primary(no bottling bucket) and wanted to make sure yeast I might have stirred up would settle so I put my lid back on with the blow off tube still attached. I forgot to remove the lid when I started to bottle so the pressure of bottling thru the spigot pulled water from my water bucket with the blow off tube in it into the primary which got bottled with my beer. This water had been sitting in the bucket for 2 weeks while my beer fermented and I'm pretty sure one of my dogs might have gotten into that room and drink some at one point. It was an AHS Barbar belgian honey ale clone, and yes, it turned out amazing.

 

[robtotten]

I was just checking my inventory and realized that I forgot to add the extract in a partial grain I did Saturday. I was pretty sauced. It was a pretty low gravity beer anyway, so I'm going to have to do something to make this one turn out ok! I'll probably throw a gallon of the fermenting wort into a pot on the stove, boil it w/ the extract, let it cool and pour it back into the fermenter. Durrrrrr!

 

[aphid_rancher]

My last batch (a partial mash) was my first using a Mash Lauter Tun (MLT) I had just made. As I heated the water for the mash I used an IR (touchless) thermometer to measure the water temperature. Problem was that I pointed it into the pot and basically measured the temperature of the bottom of the pot on the stove burner. I tried a variety of things to get the mash temperature up but had really poor conversion in the end. I went through with the rest of the process and measured the gravity after getting the wort into a carboy and adding some water to top it off. The gravity measured was really low because I had merely swirled the carboy to mix in the water. To fix it I dumped in about a pound of DME hopeful that is was not harboring unwanted nasties and shook the whole mess. The result was a very nice IPA and a smarter brewer.

 

[dummkauf]

First time I used my CFC I didn't have a spiggot on my pot, and realized that trying to siphon hot wort sucks. Wound up sucking on the other end of the tube(coming off the CFC, not the boiling wort) to keep it going. Aged that stout for 4 months in secondary and am drinking it now

My first IPA, I couldn't get my siphon to keep going due to the hops(dry hopping) kept clogging the wand. Wound up taking a grain sack I use for steeping grains(always have a few around), putting that over the end of the carboy, held in place by my hand, and pouring the beer through the bag into my bottling bucket. Had to tip it back quite a few times to keep the hops off the bag. I probably aerated the piss out of the beer, but it turned out great(note that this brew lasted about 3 weeks so I'll never know if it would have gotten worse with time).

 

[smokinghole]

My first IPA, I couldn't get my siphon to keep going due to the hops(dry hopping) kept clogging the wand. Wound up taking a grain sack I use for steeping grains(always have a few around), putting that over the end of the carboy, held in place by my hand, and pouring the beer through the bag into my bottling bucket. .

I ended up pouring the beer from fermenter to bottling bucket on my last batch as my siphon would not play nicely.

I also have stuck my arm down in the bottling bucket a TON of times to fix the spigot.

Before a I knew any better I used plain ice out of my freezer to cool wort while doing extract.

I've bottled straight from the spigot on the bottling bucket before.

The first time I dry hopped I used pellets and due to a lack of foresight (I think it was my first batch) I did not have a siphon to to pull the beer off the hops mess. I ended up filtering the beer as best I could through a fine mess bag suspended. It did OKAY but I still ended up with a bunch of hops in the bottle. It was still good.

 

[petep1980]

Popped that stupid o-ring out into wort routinely.

Arm into beer god knows how many times.

Mid 40s efficiencies.

This one is the best though. On an Oatmeal Stout I over-primed the keg, had to bleed for like a month. Finally about halfway through keg, the faucet froze. I bled it again, and put the rest in a bottling bucket, primed with corn sugar and bottled. I then lagered for like 2 months and it was one of my best beers ever.

Extract boil overs which have resulted in 2 minute boil times. Thank god for hopped extract.

And god knows how much sweat has dripped down my brow into the wort prior to finally pitching yeast on a hot summer brew day.

 

[ConiferAles]

...put my wort chiller in my brew pot and hooked it up to a garden hose in my backward No wonder!. I had just moved into a new house and I guess the water pressure was a lot higher than what I was used to in my old house. When I cranked the hose on, the pressure blew the connector off my wort chiller, blew part of the foil covering my brewpot off, and sprayed a solid amount of nasty hose water all in my beer.
The beer turned out great though! Served it at a Christmas party and everyone loved it. Perhaps I'll have to add a bit of hose water again next time I make it?

"The Ho-Ho-Hose Christmas Special"

 

[cheezydemon3]

Ran inside to check something at the wrong time, lost nearly 1/2 the wort to boilover.

Tossed in 2 lbs of brown sugar, boiled, cooled, topped up to 5 gallons, pitched.

Delicious caramel amber (somehow).

 

[demonrichie]

the buddy i used to brew with dropped his indiglo watch in an IPA...a couple weeks later when we racked to secondary we saw it... AND THE DAMN THING STILL WORKED and of course the beer was good too. so i guess its true that time can fix almost anything(pun intended)

btw unless i missed it im the first one: STICKY this thread is great

 

[Revvy]

the buddy i used to brew with dropped his indiglo watch in an IPA...a couple weeks later when we racked to secondary we saw it... AND THE DAMN THING STILL WORKED and of course the beer was good too. so i guess its true that time can fix almost anything(pun intended)

btw unless i missed it im the first one: STICKY this thread is great

I think, by far, you have the best post in this massive thread yet!!!!:rockin:

 

[ReverseApacheMaster]

In my first brew I pitched at 85F and fermented in upper 70s (it was a belgian, so it wasn't a problem, but I had no idea of that at the time).

On the next I forgot to add priming sugar until I was seconds away from filling the first bottle.

I've added hops by mistake at the wrong time in the boil

I've had a stuck fermentation from only pouring one dry packet of yeast in a 1.08 beer

I've shaken my fermenters during fermentation more than I should on several beers

I didn't aerate most of my beer sufficiently

All of these beers still came out great.

 

[demonrichie]

I think, by far, you have the best post in this massive thread yet!!!!:rockin:

lol well everyone says to give the beer time...someone forgot to tell my buddy that it didnt mean literally

 

[Dynachrome]

Humbly submitted - it still made good beer.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f127/what-i-thinking-165148/

 

[robtotten]

Scratch that, it turned to vinegar. It did NOT turn out ok.

I was just checking my inventory and realized that I forgot to add the extract in a partial grain I did Saturday. I was pretty sauced. It was a pretty low gravity beer anyway, so I'm going to have to do something to make this one turn out ok! I'll probably throw a gallon of the fermenting wort into a pot on the stove, boil it w/ the extract, let it cool and pour it back into the fermenter. Durrrrrr!

 

[devilishprune]

I had just siphoned a belgian amber ale to the bottling bucket, sohe bucket was sitting un-lidded on my kitchen floor. My fiance came in and saw what I was doing and picked up a beer bottle off the counter to demonstrate how she could just scoop out some beer fresh from the fermenter. By way of this action, she threw about 1/8 cup of warm, yeasty beer from the bottom of a bottle that she had her mouth on into my freshly racked beer.


Drank the first bottle a couple of days ago and it was great!

 

[FallsDamBrewery]

I had just siphoned a belgian amber ale to the bottling bucket, sohe bucket was sitting un-lidded on my kitchen floor. My fiance came in and saw what I was doing and picked up a beer bottle off the counter to demonstrate how she could just scoop out some beer fresh from the fermenter. By way of this action, she threw about 1/8 cup of warm, yeasty beer from the bottom of a bottle that she had her mouth on into my freshly racked beer.


Drank the first bottle a couple of days ago and it was great!

nice!

 

[shanecb]

I can best you all. From all of the meads I have made, and the batches of beer I have made...


I've never properly sanitized a single thing. Not once, and I've never had an infection. Bottles, fermenters, hoses, everything. Trust me... it was not intentional. My LHBS apparently had their bulk cleaner mislabeled as sanitizer from the times I've bought it (which was only a couple of times.. always just bought a lot), and I've only JUST realized this. The whole time it was apparently just a cleaner (Easy Clean), which while I'm sure helped some in getting rid of the nasties, certainly isn't an appropriate sanitizer.

Just goes to show that while proper sanitization is definitely important, don't fret too much if you think you didn't get the inside of that hose sanitized enough chances really are it will be alright.

 

[Idlehanz]

While I'm still new at this, my third batch ever I was making an orange hef and accidentally knocked the kitchen timer into the wort right after I took it off the burner. Fished it out with the stirring spoon and kept going. Beer turned out fine, but the timer died.

 

[Commander_Nate]

I was boiling my very first wort during the USA-Canada Gold Medal Hockey game during this past Olympics in Vancouver. Needless to say I got distracted a few times and didn't think I would have to worry about a boilover in the first 20 minutes or so...

I turned around after watching the TV for a few to find the pot overflowing and my stove and surrounding cabinetry covered in brownish, hot wort. I thought I was screwed. I removed it from heat for a few minutes and switched burners while I tried to clean up the mess thinking this was already a lost cause.

The beer came out great, all my friends loved it and there was only a slight overcarbonation issue. My stove still has blackened malt extract burned onto it in some parts.

Overall it was a valuable learning experience and proof that you should keep going until the process is finished.

 

[Stuntman]

I was just checking my inventory and realized that I forgot to add the extract in a partial grain I did Saturday. I was pretty sauced. It was a pretty low gravity beer anyway, so I'm going to have to do something to make this one turn out ok! I'll probably throw a gallon of the fermenting wort into a pot on the stove, boil it w/ the extract, let it cool and pour it back into the fermenter. Durrrrrr!

Scratch that, it turned to vinegar. It did NOT turn out ok.

Actually, you could say that you never made beer...I would call it Oatmeal

 

[Priemus]

I can best you all. From all of the meads I have made, and the batches of beer I have made...


I've never properly sanitized a single thing. Not once, and I've never had an infection. Bottles, fermenters, hoses, everything. Trust me... it was not intentional. My LHBS apparently had their bulk cleaner mislabeled as sanitizer from the times I've bought it (which was only a couple of times.. always just bought a lot), and I've only JUST realized this. The whole time it was apparently just a cleaner (Easy Clean), which while I'm sure helped some in getting rid of the nasties, certainly isn't an appropriate sanitizer.

Just goes to show that while proper sanitization is definitely important, don't fret too much if you think you didn't get the inside of that hose sanitized enough chances really are it will be alright.

I know what you mean, I've been buying the same sanitizer from the home brewstore for 2 years, but its "nothing" anyone on these forums uses. I have a sneaky idea it might also just be a cleaner of some description, but until I have a problem I prefer to just use it and relax.

 

[Undead8]

One time I dropped an army knife with dirt on it in the primary before fermentation. I don't remember what I was doing with the knife, but it still got his way into the bucket. The beer was great.

 

[Dunerunner]

Brewed a 5 gallon batch of IPA and the yeast finished early (9 Plato). High OG at (19 Plato), didn't pitch enough yeast. Long and short; had to leave for 3 weeks on vacation and had only two days to decide what to do, so I racked to cornie keg and put 5# of CO2 on to to hold the beer. Came back from vacation, garage at 60 degrees the entire time, pushed the beer back into the fermenter and pitched Denny's favorite 50 and fermented another two weeks but it only dropped to 8 Plato. Drew off the yeast cake from the IPA and I had just finished primary fermentation of an English Brown and just threw the yeast cake collected off that conical into the IPA for another two weeks.

I called it Troublesome IPA! Delicious!!

 

[Dgonza9]

I'll add to the list. It all started with a Propane tank I picked up from 7-11. My burner wouldn't work with it which sent me on a 3 hour journey to find a new burner (no luck there) and miscellaneous parts that didn't help. Finally returned the obviously full propane tank for another, though that sparked conversations in 3 languages. Apparently the threads were messed up. Got started brewing about four hours later than planned. Just as my wort was cooling to 80F, a rainstorm came in. All I had to do was turn on the March pump and pump to fermenter. I had an outdoor umbrella, a grill cover hanging like a tent with the extension cord strategically draped in the air. I was about to plug it in when I decided not to electrocute myself. Good plan because like a minute later a full on monsoon hit. Everything would've been soaked. I covered the keggle best I could then waited out the storm for two freaking hours.

I probably should've reboiled the wort, but it was 11:00pm and my porch light was dead. Decided to just put it into the fermenter and pitch yeast, which had been sitting out for like 12 hours.

Fermentation appears to be normal. I'm looking forward to nice IPA!