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

[stratslinger]

Biggest mistake I remember making was on my first brew day... Everything went super smoothly, right through chilling the wort.

I had transferred half of the wort to the carboy before realizing I had never sanitized that carboy. I spent the next couple weeks telling myself that people made beer for millenia before starsan ever was invented, and trying not to worry.

I won't say it was the best beer I ever made - the kit I was given just wasn't up to achieving that title. But it was definitely a drinkable and enjoyable brew when all was said and done!

 

[BrewJay]

This thread has given me all the confidence to start brewing my second batch.

My first was a colossal failure, A coopers kit where I had no idea about sanitizing, pitching temps, etc. I just cooked it up and topped it off with tap water, and let it sit. Tasted like Cider. Now some 10 months later, I've decided to give it another go with a slew of knowledge from this forum, and YouTube. lol

Cheers.

 

[Revvy]

I bottled two batches yesterday. While I was putting caps into my vinator to sanitize for the second batch I dropped one from the baggie into the bottling bucket while I was racking it over. I just shrugged my shoulders and continued on....

 

[mikeysab]

You didn't start a new "Holy crap, what a disaster,my beer is ruined" thread?

 

[RayRay182]

This thread has given me so much hope.
I had four hours of sleep last night, worked a 10 hour shift, helped my sister move some furniture around, and then decided to bottle my beer.
I added the priming sugar, bottled, cleaned but didn't sanitize my fermenter (I used an unsanitized spoon to scrape all the dead yeast and gunk out of the fermenter.) Then sat down to have another home beer.
I then realized that I accidentally added two times the amount of priming sugar to my batch. Oh crap! So I ran downstairs, poured all the bottles back into my fermenter, and now I guess I'm going to wait until that ferments out.
Hopefully it doesn't become infected/oxidized it seems like a great hefeweizen.

Oh and this beer turned out great. It's actually the best thing I've ever made.

 

[bengerman]

calibrated my thermometer wrong (i didn't realize it had a stop @ 32) and ended up mashing almost 40*f high.
somhow nailed my OG. fg was 20 points high, still tastes good, it just won't get you drunk (very fast...)

 

[soupfist]

Third batch I ever made, a Brewer's Best dunkelweizen extract kit: when I went to bottle it, I realized that the spout in my bottling bucket was only allowing a slow trickle. It was so slow I was forced to siphon through the top of the bucket. After bottling I removed the spout to diagnose the problem. Something was stuck in it and I couldn't fish it out, so I decided to blow it out. I took a big breath and out shot an enormous black beetle.

After fighting back the urge to throw up, I debated whether or not to throw out the batch, but I figured what the heck, the spout had been soaking in Star San for a good half an hour. Turned out to not be a problem at all and was a really good beer.

 

[ArcticBear]

just bottled my first batch so i dont know how it turned out yet but i'm hopeful... heres what i did wrong in the first batch:

-didn't cool the wort properly
-didnt rack from the brew kettle to the carboy, just funneled it in unfiltered
-poured the wart into a "premeasured" carboy full of water
-tried to pour 5.5 gallons of liquid into a 5 gallon carboy (see about with improperly racking and already pouring water into the carboy according to the recipe i used)
-accidently pushed down on the autosiphon without a hose attached and sprayed the cabinets
-dropped my hydrometer in the carboy and let it sit through fermentation
-pitched the yeast very late (took a long time to cool the wort/water mixture)
-splattered the cabinets trying to clean my carboy the first time with that useless brush


when i bottled i noticed the beer had a nice color to it, a little light for a porter however.
i tried a sip of it and knew it wasnt going to be ready but it did seem very watery, could just be my mind and the lack of carbonation playing tricks on me, we shall find out in a couple weeks.

starting my first all grain batch tomorrow, hopefully that goes a little smoother haha

 

[JonM]

just bottled my first batch so i dont know how it
turned out yet but i'm hopeful... heres what i did wrong in the first batch:
...

-accidently pushed down on the autosiphon without a hose attached and sprayed the cabinets

Ha! I did that too, only substitute "the cabinets" with "my face."

 

[hank]

Brewed a kolsch 3 weeks ago, after starting mash i realized my 13qts of strike water included approx. 8 qts of starsan solution left over from previous brew day. I usually save 10 gal of water from cooling previous wort to use in mashing and sparging the next batch. Fot some reason I only filled 1 5gal water jug with water and somewhere along the line I used the other jug to store starsan. Kegged the batch yesterday, doesn't seem to taste too bad but this is my first kolsch. Hopeing if it didnt hurt the yeast it wont hurt me. Guess I will NEVER fear the foam again.

 

[gbx]

just bottled my first batch so i dont know how it turned out yet but i'm hopeful... heres what i did wrong in the first batch:

-didn't cool the wort properly
-didnt rack from the brew kettle to the carboy, just funneled it in unfiltered
-poured the wart into a "premeasured" carboy full of water
-tried to pour 5.5 gallons of liquid into a 5 gallon carboy (see about with improperly racking and already pouring water into the carboy according to the recipe i used)
-accidently pushed down on the autosiphon without a hose attached and sprayed the cabinets
-dropped my hydrometer in the carboy and let it sit through fermentation
-pitched the yeast very late (took a long time to cool the wort/water mixture)
-splattered the cabinets trying to clean my carboy the first time with that useless brush


when i bottled i noticed the beer had a nice color to it, a little light for a porter however.
i tried a sip of it and knew it wasnt going to be ready but it did seem very watery, could just be my mind and the lack of carbonation playing tricks on me, we shall find out in a couple weeks.

starting my first all grain batch tomorrow, hopefully that goes a little smoother haha

It doesn't sound too bad. You didn't make any fatal mistakes:

-didn't cool the wort properly.
Don't know what you did wrong, if you cooled it without contaminating it, don't worry about how long it took.

-didnt rack from the brew kettle to the carboy, just funneled it in unfiltered
That is a fine way of doing it, you aerated the wort which is good. Maybe try to leave the trub in the kettle but in a porter you aren't going to notice any off flavours caused by this.

-poured the wart into a "premeasured" carboy full of water
-tried to pour 5.5 gallons of liquid into a 5 gallon carboy (see about with improperly racking and already pouring water into the carboy according to the recipe i used)
A little awkward but not a deal breaker. If the carboy filled up before you had emptied the kettle, it will just be a little weaker

-accidently pushed down on the autosiphon without a hose attached and sprayed the cabinets
You will make a mess when brewing and your wife will hate you. This will give you the excuse to perform some deep cleaning and hopefully she likes beer and can appreciate it when its done.

-dropped my hydrometer in the carboy and let it sit through fermentation
If it was sanitized, its a fine way to do it. I know wine makers who do this a part of the poccess- with no krausen, they can just look in and see where they are at without opening it

-pitched the yeast very late (took a long time to cool the wort/water mixture)
very late? as long as it wasn't contaminated it is not a big deal. If it was kept covered and pitched within 24hrs, not a problem.

-splattered the cabinets trying to clean my carboy the first time with that useless brush
Yeah, brushes are next to useless. Get some PBW and let it soak for a few hours and it will be spotless.

 

[Mysticmead]

over the last 12 years of brewing I've made my fair share of mistakes. To date I have only tossed one batch and thinking back on it now, it was probably fine. That was the first time I ever dry hopped and when I saw a green film on the beer surface I thought it was spoiled and simply tossed it. it was most likely just hops residue.

I have done a lot of other mistakes, or what people would call mistakes. for years after a boil I would simply place the lid on the kettle and seal it with a couple layers of aluminium foil. The next day I'd pitch the yeast. I started to bottle beer and forgot to add priming sugar, I've added to much priming sugar and had to dump it back in the carboy to let it ferment some more. I had a boil over on the kitchen stove which turned out to be the best thing ever. All because my wife banished me from brewing inside and bought me a 10 gallon kettle and burner.

Recently I had my stopper push all the way into the carboy when inserting the airlock (I normally add the airlock then insert the stopper). I dumped everything including the yeast, into a old primary bucket, fished the stopper out and then dumped it all back into the carboy. All that dumping made sure the yeast was mixed in very well and that it was well aerated. I've also done the normal mistakes of starting a siphon with out the end of the hose being in a carboy. or worse, transferring finished beer to the keg while at work (I work from home) only to remember it as you HEAR it overflowing all over the carpeted floor in the next room.

I look at brewing from a very simple viewpoint. People have been brewing beer/mead/wine for thousands of years. LONG before they had any idea of sanitation. In fact they used it to make water safe to drink. If they could do it and not screw it up, then so can I. very little that you do to a brew that appears to have gone wrong really did go wrong.

 

[amaier48]

so last night, had a nice SUNDAY FUNDAY, was hoping to finish it off in the garage brewing a fat tire clone.... everything was great, spent the day at a few local micro pubs and brewerys around town. got home and got the specialty grains steeping.... had the brew pot on the turkey fryer starting to warm up. when a buddy of mine called saying he just shot a deer and wanted me to cut it up for him.... but i already had the grains dropped in and everything... i said sure, but we will need to do the deer at my house... so we had sunday funday "BEERS AND DEERS". i had the misses helping watching the beer since i was elbow deep in deer... she did a wonderful job letting me know times, then i would tell her what to do next.... so after we chilled the wort, i took a break from the deer to get a O.G and pitch the yeast. after i got my sample poured i realized after all that, i never added the DME!!!! so went back in, boiled about a gallon of water, had her mix in the dme, then chilled and added it to the primary bucket.... so i have about 6 gallons of wort in the bucket... should of only been 5 gals. one good thing was when i made the beer i added a 1% abv addition so hopefully even know i have an extra gallon of water it should help a little bit.. i also for the first time made a yeast starter... i was all excited because i learned something and had thought i am going to blow this beer outta the park after all i learned.... then the deer showed up...


so we will see in a few weeks what we got.... its bubbleing like crazy right now... so hopefully we will be okay.

 

[mikeysab]

well, at least you weren't blowing the deer, and then the beer showed up, so you have that going for you.

 

[Ziggybrew]

I had a boil over on the kitchen stove which turned out to be the best thing ever. All because my wife banished me from brewing inside and bought me a 10 gallon kettle and burner.

LOL! I think that is the greatest day in our progression of homebrewing... getting kicked out of the kitchen and banned from indoor brewing. That's when ya go out and get the big equipment.

 

[BierKoning]

Alright, I give in, I'll share mine

First brew I made some big mistakes, it was a SN Celebration clone extract kit. Everything seemed to go great, especially for my first ever brew day, boiled, cooled in ice bath, dumped into my brand new 6.5gal carboy. I needed to cool my top-off water so I had stuck it in the freezer during my boil. Apparently my freezer is awesome, and the water was half-frozen! I panicked about waiting too long to pitch, so I just dumped the water in, ice and all. This was AFTER already cooling pretty well and when I checked my wort temp, I had a nice 52F mix sitting in the fermentor. Did I wait for it to warm up? Of course not! I pitched my ONE VIAL of White Labs liquid yeast, no starter, straight from the fridge!

Okay, the worst is over, right? WRONG. After panicking like crazy, fermentation FINALLY started after 3 days. Bubbled away for two weeks, very slow fermentation. So, now it's time to secondary and dry-hop per my recipe. I transfer to my 5gal carboy and immediately notice something odd, it's at least 1gal short of my expected 5gal! No wonder it was so dark, dense, sweet, took forever to ferment, etc. So, again, I panic. I boiled, cooled, and dumped an extra 1gal of water into the secondary along with the dry-hops.

1 week later I bottled. 2 weeks later I tested. It was dark, obviously. It was slightly watery (not NEARLY as bad as I expected). BUT it was also GOOD BEER! Hop aroma was still great, spot on with the commercial version. Head was good, a little lighter in color though (go figure). It lacks some body, but I'll be damned if it's not a fine beer that was easily drank, shared, and enjoyed!

 

[bcrderrick]

My first lager I brewed went well. Two weeks into fermentation my fridge quit turning it self off and froze the beer probably 80% still bubbling so I left it in the house for three says it thawed out and then it went back into a new fridge. Still hit my final gravity and the beer was great

 

[HooniverseJeff]

My first batch EVER is currently sitting in primary.

This thread is probably the best thing I've read here... thank you ALL!

I'm going to stop stressing, and just wait and see what happens.

 

[Boru]

So while newish (been brewing for 5 years) I brew between 80-120 gallons a year so I figure that qualifies me to throw a couple good screw ups out there. My friend and I who brew together most of the time are actually more concerned when things go smoothly then when we screw up... c'est la vie.

First PM batch was an Imperial Stout. I hadn't read Deathbrewers thread on PM but was using a similar set up... however, I had a friend hold the bag while pouring sparge water over the grains. We took turns... sparging took a solid hour with a lot of swearing and sweating. A lot of squeezing too.

That same batch I aged on bourbon soaked oak chips and put them in secondary. I never took a gravity reading before moving to secondary but had let it sit for 3 weeks in Primary and figured I was good. I did take a reading before bottling (4 months later) and it was a little high, but I attributed that to tannins from the squeezing or the wood chips. I bottled using the normal amount of sugar. After the first gusher at 3 weeks later I was convinced I had a gusher bug. then checked my notes and realized nope... just some over carbonated beer. I just threw it in the freezer for an hour before drinking and they all tasted fine.

Droped a hydrometer in a English brown ale. Mercifully, it was sanitized. Batch was delicious

Then there was the extract Dirty stove tripel. My buddy's girlfriend came into the kitchen to ask a question at the exact wrong moment, we both turned around to answer her and in the 5 seconds our backs were turned it boiled over. That was a PITA to clean up.

Then my personal favorite. Brewing an American Brown ale I've had one of the smoothest brew days ever, with a friend of mine who is learning the process and wanted to observe. The wort is cooled and in the carboy, I pitch the yeast and aerate it. Then I slap the sanitized bung on the carboy... and the bung falls right through and into the carboy. My friend and I look at it bobbing up and down in the beer and I say "Hmm... I've dropped all manner of things into the beer before but never the bung." It was 9 at night and the LHBS didn't open till 10 the next day. I slapped some sanitized aluminum foil over top of it and ran over to get a lipped bung from the LHBS. I go up to the counter to tell them what happens and get half way through saying "The bung fell in" and the guy starts laughing and hands me the new lipped bung and a piece of twine. Twine was on the house and I used it to fish out the bung at the end of the process. We called that batch Bungled Brown Ale.

 

[bengerman]

So while newish (been brewing for 5 years) I brew between 80-120 gallons a year so I figure that qualifies me to throw a couple good screw ups out there. My friend and I who brew together most of the time are actually more concerned when things go smoothly then when we screw up... c'est la vie.

First PM batch was an Imperial Stout. I hadn't read Deathbrewers thread on PM but was using a similar set up... however, I had a friend hold the bag while pouring sparge water over the grains. We took turns... sparging took a solid hour with a lot of swearing and sweating. A lot of squeezing too.

That same batch I aged on bourbon soaked oak chips and put them in secondary. I never took a gravity reading before moving to secondary but had let it sit for 3 weeks in Primary and figured I was good. I did take a reading before bottling (4 months later) and it was a little high, but I attributed that to tannins from the squeezing or the wood chips. I bottled using the normal amount of sugar. After the first gusher at 3 weeks later I was convinced I had a gusher bug. then checked my notes and realized nope... just some over carbonated beer. I just threw it in the freezer for an hour before drinking and they all tasted fine.

Droped a hydrometer in a English brown ale. Mercifully, it was sanitized. Batch was delicious

Then there was the extract Dirty stove tripel. My buddy's girlfriend came into the kitchen to ask a question at the exact wrong moment, we both turned around to answer her and in the 5 seconds our backs were turned it boiled over. That was a PITA to clean up.

Then my personal favorite. Brewing an American Brown ale I've had one of the smoothest brew days ever, with a friend of mine who is learning the process and wanted to observe. The wort is cooled and in the carboy, I pitch the yeast and aerate it. Then I slap the sanitized bung on the carboy... and the bung falls right through and into the carboy. My friend and I look at it bobbing up and down in the beer and I say "Hmm... I've dropped all manner of things into the beer before but never the bung." It was 9 at night and the LHBS didn't open till 10 the next day. I slapped some sanitized aluminum foil over top of it and ran over to get a lipped bung from the LHBS. I go up to the counter to tell them what happens and get half way through saying "The bung fell in" and the guy starts laughing and hands me the new lipped bung and a piece of twine. Twine was on the house and I used it to fish out the bung at the end of the process. We called that batch Bungled Brown Ale.

I had a simmilar experience with the bug falling I. It was in a 3 gallon better bottle with a solid bung. The bung got jammed in the neck of the bottle and h had to use pliers ro get it out. Luckily I had another bung around, but no airlock, so I made a mini-blowoff out of a coke bottle and sone 1/2 inch tubing.

 

[EROK]

From zac:

I guess not a mess up, but funny.. My best favorite hound dog "marked" my banjo burner the first time I had it on the deck. He wasn't hurt, but the steam bath on his dog parts got made me laugh. To this day, he watches the banjo burner like its a shocking stick.


That is the best ever !! I have three dogs and if that happened I would still be laughing !!!

 

[Trophy_Brew21]

So I just bottled my first batch, it was the "Black Christmas Ale" Clone from the "Great Lakes Brewing Co." When it was boiling, it had a wonderful aroma, smelled fantastic, tasted great. I forgot to strain out the hops, so the hops were left in the fermentor for 2 weeks. I just bottled tonight, it smelt a little funky, but not bad, (Just not that same smell as the boil stage) I tasted it, and I can't put my finger on the taste, but again, not the same as the boil stage. Did my beer go bad, am I just too worried, is this normal? I know I should of transferred to a secondary, without the hops in it. But i didn't, can someone try to explain what might of happened, why the smell and flavor are off after two weeks. Thank you very much!

 

[stratslinger]

Give it more time! Most folks around here don't worry about secondary any more, and personally I've found no difference in my finished product if I strain out the hops or if I don't.

2 weeks is still pretty early, the yeast are probably still cleaning up by products of fermentation. Another week or two in the fermenter, then 3 weeks in the bottle, and you'll have beer (and probably good beer at that)!

 

[spazzy]

I was making a 1 gallon batch with left over ingredients and just got really lazy, no hydrometer readings, poured it from the kettle to a large jug, and then to a smaller jug after the krausen dropped. Its still young but it seems to be tasting pretty dang good.

 

[mikeysab]

Your beer is supposed to smell very different after fermentation than it did while boiling. That's what yeast does, those little bastards. Two weeks is pretty short for a first time brewer. What was your fermentation temperature? Was it steady? Did you sanitize well? Pitch enough yeast?

 

[Trophy_Brew21]

Your beer is supposed to smell very different after fermentation than it did while boiling. That's what yeast does, those little bastards. Two weeks is pretty short for a first time brewer. What was your fermentation temperature? Was it steady? Did you sanitize well? Pitch enough yeast?

It stayed around 65-70 degrees the entire time, so I would say it stayed pretty steady. I sanitized very well using san star and bleach. And I believe I pitched enough yeast.
I was tolled that i was supposed to wait 5 to 7 days after it quit bubbling, then it meant it was okay. Can I get a redirection of that so I don't do that again next time? Or is this why hydrometer use is very important? Thank you!

 

[Mysticmead]

It stayed around 65-70 degrees the entire time, so I would say it stayed pretty steady. I sanitized very well using san star and bleach. And I believe I pitched enough yeast.
I was tolled that i was supposed to wait 5 to 7 days after it quit bubbling, then it meant it was okay. Can I get a redirection of that so I don't do that again next time? Or is this why hydrometer use is very important? Thank you!

65-70 isn't as steady a lot of people would like but it's fine for your first beer. no need to use both starsan and bleach...that's just wasting good starsan. as long as you CLEAN it first and then use starsan you'll be fine. a hydrometer is the only way to tell if fermentation is done (or even if it's started). yes the beer will taste different after fermentation and until it's carbonated it won't taste like the final product. just relax... you made beer!

 

[Trophy_Brew21]

Thank You all! I'm just nervous, probably like most newbies! But reading what all you experienced people say, has helped me out a lot! Is there any recommended extra time in the bottle since I pulled the beer from fermentation early? Or after two weeks try it, and keep trying every week till it gets there, or what? Thanks again!

 

[Mysticmead]

Thank You all! I'm just nervous, probably like most newbies! But reading what all you experienced people say, has helped me out a lot! Is there any recommended extra time in the bottle since I pulled the beer from fermentation early? Or after two weeks try it, and keep trying every week till it gets there, or what? Thanks again!

try one at 3 weeks... then stick it in the fridge to chill for 24 hours at least... 48 hours is better.

 

[Trophy_Brew21]

try one at 3 weeks... then stick it in the fridge to chill for 24 hours at least... 48 hours is better.

Thank you very much! Will do! And thank you everyone for the help! I hope it turns out great!