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

[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!

 

[instapman]

Yeah, I got some too....

My biggest....

I had a friend who just got into brewing (I had ZERO knowledge of home brewing at the time). We decided to brew a batch the day before my wedding while he was house sitting for his sister. Every thing went smoothly until it was time to put the airlock on the carboy. Such a simple task....I put the first stopper in but I pushed it in the carboy. "No worries" the brew master said, I have another one...(who doesn't drink ALOT the day before his wedding?) So he put the other one in but we had a little bit of trouble. It kept popping out....so I tried....I got it to stay...
I got back from my honeymoon with about a dozen messages on my cell phone...something about a carboy that exploded and how giant shards of glass had went through some dry wall and how I had to go help patch and paint a wall???? not sure what that was about...

Some nominal...

Did the arm in the primary.... Decent beer (first solo brew)

Missed several mash temps....Decent to GREAT beer

forgot to sanitize a carboy....great beer

Weed whacked some Stirlings that I planted this year (last weekend)

My last brew was a catastrophe...
1. Made a 3gal batch from a 5gal recipe
2. stuck sparge...Messed with the sparge for over 2 hours until I pulled all strainers from my cooler and used a hop bag to filter
3. only had enough hops for my bittering addition (LHBS closed due to the 4th)
4. during fermentation, my carboy reached a max temp of 76 deg (currently at 70)

I'm going to bottle tomorrow. I'm sure something will go wrong with that. Last time I capped, my caper would not crimp the caps all the way.

RDWHAHB

It will be beer...

 

[Amabio]

Revvy,

Cheers for this story. Brewed my first beer. Was going to bottle today, but of grieve occurrences a loved one died. Traveling to a funeral instead, but had to take a sip anyways. It was skunky, I'm freaking out, then found your thread. Doesn't sound like contamination, but made a rookie mistake of leaving my gyle exposed to sunlight for a couple of days. I know the funk will probably never leave, but this is still a great insight. TY. I'm brewing an IIPA next weekend (got everything read for this most excellent style of beers). I will always put the effort, respect, and TIME into the beer that it deserves.

 

[Runyanka]

My 3 year old son threw his sweaty baseball hat into my boiling hefeweizen with about 15 min left. Beer turned out great, and it was named "homerun hefeweizen".

 

[kshuler]

Left the carboy cleaning brush in my stainless conical and fermented with it in the entire time. Was wondering where I had put that damn brush. Quite decent beer.

Klaus

 

[Amabio]

Beer turned out great after bottling. My first batch, ya know, I was making sure it had 5 fingers and toes. Not quite as smooth of an after taste as I was wanting, but kicks the crap out of Newcastle for depth and sensory enjoyment.

Will be bottling my IIPA I had a go at. Looking forward to it's try, and going to take a run at Dogfish's 60-min IPA this Sunday. Exciting stuff.

 

[dilbone]

My fermenter bucket has a drum tap on the bottom. I poured the cooled wort into the bucket, pitched the yeast, and then discovered 10 mins later that I had a trickling leak. Unfortunately I didn't have another fermenter empty, so not knowing that the nut was *too* tight, I tried spinning the tap slightly to tighten the seal. Oops. The nut popped off the threads inside and dislocated the whole assembly. So, with one hand holding the tap against the bucket and keeping the beer from pouring all over the floor, I had to put my entire unsanitized arm inside the unfermented wort to reattach the nut.

The beer, an Irish Red, fermented out with no problems and was one of the tastiest beers I've ever brewed.

First post here folks...I'm a total noob and just put my first coopers kit in the fermenting bucket last night. I was relieved to see that I should still be ok after reading the above post. I hadn't put any of my cold water in yet, so it was just my 130degree concentrated wort that I was putting my hand into several times to get the nut tightened up on that spiggot.
Australian Pale Ale is the brew, and I hope it turns out ok for my first attempt. Lots of great info here...looks like I found a home!!

 

[devilishprune]

Today I'm pretty sure I bottled a beer that had been sitting in the primary for 3.5 weeks and hadn't fermented at all. We'll see what happens.

 

[Mitsuzuki85]

Took first sample for hydro reading this morning out of the bucket...didn't take the lid off. I ended up pulling 8oz of blowoff water into 3/4 fermented beer. Fingers crossed it turns out well!!

 

[MickeyD]

I was trying to take a sample out of my fermenter for a O.G. reading. I was using a wine glass for some reason (have since started using a turkey baster). I ended up dropping the wine glass in the fermenter. When I bottled I found the wine glass sitting right side up on the bottom of the fermenter (convenient F.G. sample and plenty of yeast in glass). I was convinced that I had contaminated the batch but it ended up tasting pretty good.

 

[DirtyPolock]

Well this is a kegging story and not a brewing story, and I' pretty sure it's been metioned somewhere else but I'll add my story here.

My temperature guage came out of my keezer in the hot summer. The thermostat read 85, so the power didn't shut off from the external unit. My new keg of a robust porter frozer, along with a citrus weizen and apfelwein. I slowly thawed all the kegs and shook them up after thawing, le tthe yeast settle back down and everything tasts just as good as before.