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

[wailingguitar]

You should add bacon grease to your next batch to see if that is the secret

Everything... is better... with bacon!

 

[mikeysab]

turkey bacon, of course. yes, it sounds effed up, but life is better with turkey bacon. Pig bacon is great, but turkey bacon is the wave of the future, and the future is where it's at. (I"m not even convinced, but if I repeat it enough, it'll make sense)

 

[Briguy10]

The inlet hose to my immersion chiller came off 3 minutes into my chill. The hose was spraying tap water into my hot wort for about 40 seconds. I was really worried about infection. However, I just had my first taste of that batch last night and it tasted great. White IPA... instead of using a Belgian Wit yeast I used Forbidden Fruit. Anyone opinions/experience with this yeast strain?

 

[Briguy10]

The inlet hose to my immersion chiller came off 3 minutes into my chill. The hose was spraying tap water into my hot wort for about 40 seconds. I was really worried about infection. However, I just had my first taste of that batch last night and it tasted great. White IPA... instead of using a Belgian Wit yeast I used Forbidden Fruit. Anyone opinions/experience with this yeast strain?

 

[mikeysab]

it would have been totally screwed, but since you double posted your concerns, it'll be fine.

ahh, chances are, it will be fine. if you tasted it, and it tastes fine, then it's probably not infected, or ruined to the point of dumping. bottle/keg it, and enjoy the daylights out of it.

 

[hal9000Beers]

I made a 12 gallon bath of a Belgium tripel and also made all of the candied sugar. 4.5 pounds of it. I had it in the freezer chillen on wax paper on backing pans until i was ready to add it to the wort. It was a hot day an once outside the candied sugar started to get gummy and I couldn't get it off the wax paper without taking some with it. After a struggle I threw it all in the pot. Waited till the sugar dissolved and picked the wax paper out of the boil piece by piece. It was frightening at the time but you would never know by the taste now.

 

[Piratwolf]

Made 4 gal of EdWort's Pale Ale, chilled it, pitched pacman yeast, put it in my ferm fridge, set the temp control, and went on with my day.

Long story short: it froze into slush b/c I set the controller wrong. Took it out, thawed it slowly to room temp (approx 67F) and it fermented out to 1.012!!! Hydro sample tasted great... We'll see in a few weeks if it really came out okay, but I couldn't believe the yeast survived and fermented!

 

[FightingBob]

This has nothing to do with the beer, but more to do with safety:

I brewed an IIPA recently and I was brewing in 15F weather outside. So I planned on calling the beer Frozen Face IIPA. After I pitched my yeast, I began clean up. My basement floor is one of those slick waterproof deals and while cleaning up I left water all over the floor.

I heard the dog yelp upstairs and I thought she was hurt, so I ran to help her. I slipped on the water landed on my left side and slide until the bottom step of the staircase stopped my momentum.

The dog was ok. She came down the stairs and licked my face. She was yelping at my roommate to pet her.

I ended up cracking my rib so the brew name changed to Cracked Rib IIPA. this turned out to be one of my best brews, but I'll never run across a wet floor again!

 

[peanasky]

I was making a dark mild a while back, decided I wanted some Dr. Pepper while I was waiting. Well, I was not thinking straight as I was explaining something to my roommate, and ended up pouring about 7oz of Dr. Pepper into the kettle. Turned out just fine!

 

[FightingBob]

I was making a dark mild a while back, decided I wanted some Dr. Pepper while I was waiting. Well, I was not thinking straight as I was explaining something to my roommate, and ended up pouring about 7oz of Dr. Pepper into the kettle. Turned out just fine!

Dr. Pepper Dark Mild (DPDM)... nice!

 

[bscott1011]

I covered the stove, counter, and kitchen floor with hot wort while trying to strain out hops after the bag opened. Clogged the strainer and splashed everywhere. I dont know how much wort was lost, panicked and topped off with water. Took two hours to clean the kitchen and give the dog a bath after she got it all over her paws and muzzle. The beer (brown ale) came out great.

 

[cval]

i tried brewing an apa 1.5 months ago... i messed up with the hop additions (i used EKG instead of Perle... and then i used some more Perle... only to found out it was chinook actually). Fast forward three weeks and i'm ready to bottle, i wash my bucket, get my priming sugar, sanitize my autosiphon and start transfering... mother!#%T!" forgot to sanitize my bucket!

it's a pretty good APA to this day and no signs of infection

 

[TacoBrew]

A few weeks ago I was brewing a smoked porter (with 25% cherry wood smoked malt!) and when I was putting my immersion chiller into the boil I somehow managed to let the braided vinyl tubing slip into the keggle for (I hope only) a few seconds. When I noticed it, I pulled out the tubing and noticed it had turned yellow, but otherwise seemed to be in good shape.

In any case, the beer tastes great and I don't feel like I've been poisoned, so it's all good!

 

[iskuse]

The first batch I ever made was a one gallon all grain wheat beer. the instructions were horrible. I assumed since I had a one gallon pot that I would be good to go, not thinking that there was 4 pounds of grain to go in that pot. I had a boil-over and I ended up splitting the liquid into three pots, I had no strainer so I was pouring it through coffee filters into the carboy. after a day or two in the carboy I siphoned (with my mouth) the beer into a pot so that I could clean the carboy and filter out the sediment. I then syphoned it back into the carboy to finish fermentation. out of one gallon I got only 6 beers. I was nervous that I would kill somebody with this stuff, so I checked to make sure nothing harmful could live in beer. I felt for sure this stuff was going to be horrible so I took it to work and shared it with my co-workers. It actually was pretty good.

One of my other batches, my grain bag caught on fire and the burning part fell into the beer, I quickly scooped it out with my paddle. That beer was also fine.

 

[justabrewin]

Just before bottling a Raspberry Wheat (for SWMBO), I poured some raspberry flavoring (I know artificial flavoring... but raspberries out of season and she really wanted some) into the bottling bucket. As I was pouring, SWMBO bumped my arm and waaaaaaay too much went it.

Let it sit for six months in the bottle and it did not turn out too bad. A lot of the artificial chemical taste went away. SWMBO had to wait, but she did bump my arm.

 

[scoundrel]

My cat pissed in it and I told everyone I dry hopped with Simcoe. Nobody knew the difference

 

[HawksBrewer]

Back when doing extract my bro-in-law forgot to buy a muslin bag so we steeped our grains in a 'clean' gym sock from his drawer... beer turned out great nonetheless.

Trying to sink a hopbag for a dryhop (just toss 'em in now) I placed multiple unsanitized 'clean' objects on top of the bag to try to sink in... they all fell in and I reached to the bottom of the primary with my entire arm each time to pull each failed attempt out. Needless to say I'm somewhat impulsive and stubborn but that batch turned out very good as well.

Bottom line is exactly what Revvy said a few years ago: it takes a whole hell of a lot to mess up a batch of beer beyond a drinkable state.

And yes, we used a gym sock. +1 to AG mashing lol

 

[jonmohno]

My cat pissed in it and I told everyone I dry hopped with Simcoe. Nobody knew the difference

Its because you didnt offer a black light.

 

[deepcdan99]

I thought I brewed a bad batch when I jammed my head into the fermenter for a big wiff and BAM!!! the CO2 burnt the heck out of my nose. Poured it out, then read on here that it's normal. That could have been the best batch of beer I have ever made....now I will never know

 

[TalkingGoats]

Pretty much all of those issues were on the first AG batch except for the bubblegum off flavor and the lighter lol.

I added to this batch when it was down around a gallon in the corny keg by just dumping a 2.5 gallon batch I had in a MR Beer fermenter.

In the corny was a decent guinness clone, and what I added to it was an experiment added using the MR Beer spigot and an unsanitized hop sock.

It was a 7% abv, black rye thing, fermented at 59* with T-58 I had laying around and the hop bill was 4 oz of Amarillo and Columbus lol

I was moving and there was no way I was putting that sticky fermenter in the car.

It was so good, but then again I have never met a beer I haven't liked.

 

[Revvy]

I thought I brewed a bad batch when I jammed my head into the fermenter for a big wiff and BAM!!! the CO2 burnt the heck out of my nose. Poured it out, then read on here that it's normal. That could have been the best batch of beer I have ever made....now I will never know

And that's why new brewers need to stop making "dump beer" their knee jerk reaction when confronted with something that freaks them out. They need to understand that young/fermenting beer, is often ugly, stinky and tastes like crap and it's usually perfectly normal.....If green beer tasting good during fermentation, then more than likely we'd be drinking it right out of the fermentor...but we're not making Koolaid, this is an organic process, that you usually need to see to it's entirety. Or at least stop on here and look to see if anyone else has experienced that. There's hundreds of co2 breathign threads on here.

 

[firebirdude]

Not really a mistake, but rather the norm around here...

I ferment in a room that's usually ~76 degrees. Maybe a touch cooler at night and I'm positive has gotten a little higher than that during the day. I live in FL alone and it costs me an arm and a leg to air condition my entire house 24/7 (even when I'm at work or out of town). So the A/C has been set very high as a compromise. I'm not large enough scale yet to really warrant a fridge and the swamp cooler is just a PITA IMO. Especially when I go out of town for a few days.

Despite the high fermentation temps I've been getting some pretty tasty brews.

 

[HotHandsHanon]

Turkey bacon is the wave of the future, and the future is where it's at. (I"m not even convinced, but if I repeat it enough, it'll make sense)

Is this an Aviator quote haha? Pissin' in milk bottles the Howard Hughes way...

I'm fairly new to brewing (four months), but this thread is great reassurance that in the end, the brew will kick ass barring major mistakes. Haven't had a bad batch yet, although, the first batch fermented at 80 during the day (Texas) and I forgot to aerate the wort before pitching the yeast and decided to aerate after... Still drinkable, just a slight sour aftertaste (six plus weeks later).

 

[urbanmyth]

My first brew was fermented in a #7 water carboy before I came on here and learned it was a big no-no. I haven't repeated that mistake, but that first beer still tastes great.

 

[Dave11980]

Not really a success story yet but about 2 years ago I brewed a three grain ale with barley, corn, and rice. Trying to make a light bud light ale for the friends that don't drink good beer yet. Got some nasty bubblegum aftertaste to it. No idea to this day what went wrong. I've been bringing a few up every now and then and the last couple, at almost exactly 2 years out, didn't taste too bad. I figure by 3 years this should be some decent stuff. Just goes to show - NEVER THROW OUT BEER!

 

[deepcdan99]

My first brew was fermented in a #7 water carboy before I came on here and learned it was a big no-no. I haven't repeated that mistake, but that first beer still tastes great.

A 7 gallon glass carboy? Why wouldnt you use that?

 

[JeepDiver]

turkey bacon, of course. yes, it sounds effed up, but life is better with turkey bacon. Pig bacon is great, but turkey bacon is the wave of the future, and the future is where it's at. (I"m not even convinced, but if I repeat it enough, it'll make sense)

Some one ban this guy please

 

[Ply318ci]

Only have four brews under my belt but on my first batch ever I was using a siphon to bottle my beer and could not keep a good flow going so I used mouth suction to suck some beer and get a good suction going and got a mouthful of uncarbed IPA. I didn't know that you could drink it in that state and didnt know what else to do and just spit it back into the bottling bucket and bottled as normal and the beer came out great my friends loved it. Now I use a auto siphon no more spit beer .

 

[mikeysab]

Some one ban this guy please

Suck it

 

[soberJim]

I thought I brewed a bad batch when I jammed my head into the fermenter for a big wiff and BAM!!! the CO2 burnt the heck out of my nose. Poured it out, then read on here that it's normal. That could have been the best batch of beer I have ever made....now I will never know

I don't know how many times I've burnt my nose, and the smell seeps into my throat, leaving me just about gasping for air.. ginger beer was the worst for it actually, probably doesn't help that I'm a smoker too