OP
OP
So have you gone back, and re-recreated the original messed up yet excellent version?
What are some of the mistakes you made...where your beer still turned out great!
- Thread starter Revvy
- Start date
Help Support Homebrew Talk:
So have you gone back, and re-recreated the original messed up yet excellent version?
Had a yard of top soil in my driveway to start my front lawn project. A huge gust of wind blew a some of it right into my kettle during the boil. Turned out great!
Racking cane kept getting clogged on the leaf hops used to dry hop. Turned the carboy over and used my hand to hold the hops in while pouring the rest into the bottling bucket. One of my best batches ever!
Boil over boil over damn boil over!
Fermented a Belgian over 80° and was super hot. 2 years later it was a great beer.
Lots of little mistakes but everything works out. Cheers!
Racking cane kept getting clogged on the leaf hops used to dry hop. Turned the carboy over and used my hand to hold the hops in while pouring the rest into the bottling bucket. One of my best batches ever!
Boil over boil over damn boil over!
Fermented a Belgian over 80° and was super hot. 2 years later it was a great beer.
Lots of little mistakes but everything works out. Cheers!
Nope. I've decided there is just no going back!
drummstikk
Well-Known Member
The only mistakes that have ever made a difference were underpitching and allowing fermentation temps to climb too high. I once pitched one vial of old WLP001 into a 1.080 wort. It tasted like sulphur! Additionally, every beer I made was too sweet until I started pitching correctly.
Another time, I fermented WLP550 Achouffe without temp control in the summer -- got up into the upper 80's and tasted like nail polish remover! I pitched a lager yeast at 62F and then cooled it down to 48F. Tasted fruity, not like a lager.
Seriously, these two things -- pitching rate and temp control, do make a difference. But here's a whole list of things that don't:
Sanitization. How many stories on this thread of beer / sweaty man arm contact that didn't result in an infection! Just pitch at the right rate and drink your beer within a month or two, and you'll never have a problem. I have reached into my beer countless times. What they don't tell you is that EVERY batch of beer is infected. The yeast simply outcompete everything else. If you have poor sanitization every time, and you brew every week, then eventually some bugs like Lactobacillus or Pediococcus that can compete with yeast will emerge, and then you'll have an actual problem. But this only happens to very regular brewers who practice poor hygiene, i.e., some commercial breweries. Don't worry about the occasional contamination.
Oxidation. Ok, this actually matters if you're aging your beer, but most of the time you're going to drink it within a few months of when it's brewed. Splish splash, esepcially when yeast are still in suspension. They'll reduce whatever oxidized fatty acids you create, and your beer will taste great. I have racked with the wrong size tubing and aerated an entire batch like it was in a bong. Tasted awesome.
Lots of ingredients / taboo combinations -- I've tasted some pretty bad commercial recipes, but at home, I've never had a bad batch from experimenting with the recipe. Go ahead and combine hops from the German / English / American families. Go ahead and use 13 malts. Go ahead and add all your hops in the whirlpool! Just think about the flavors you're using, and TASTE YOUR INGREDIENTS beforehand. You'll never make a bad batch as long as you're pitching the right amount at the right temperature.
If you make a beer that's not hoppy enough, boil some hops in water and toss it in. If your beer doesn't have enough body, boil some maltodextrin and toss it in. If the beer isn't dark enough, steep some carafa and toss it in. Underattenuated? Do a champagne yeast starter and toss it in! You can fix just about anything you don't like about a beer.
Another time, I fermented WLP550 Achouffe without temp control in the summer -- got up into the upper 80's and tasted like nail polish remover! I pitched a lager yeast at 62F and then cooled it down to 48F. Tasted fruity, not like a lager.
Seriously, these two things -- pitching rate and temp control, do make a difference. But here's a whole list of things that don't:
Sanitization. How many stories on this thread of beer / sweaty man arm contact that didn't result in an infection! Just pitch at the right rate and drink your beer within a month or two, and you'll never have a problem. I have reached into my beer countless times. What they don't tell you is that EVERY batch of beer is infected. The yeast simply outcompete everything else. If you have poor sanitization every time, and you brew every week, then eventually some bugs like Lactobacillus or Pediococcus that can compete with yeast will emerge, and then you'll have an actual problem. But this only happens to very regular brewers who practice poor hygiene, i.e., some commercial breweries. Don't worry about the occasional contamination.
Oxidation. Ok, this actually matters if you're aging your beer, but most of the time you're going to drink it within a few months of when it's brewed. Splish splash, esepcially when yeast are still in suspension. They'll reduce whatever oxidized fatty acids you create, and your beer will taste great. I have racked with the wrong size tubing and aerated an entire batch like it was in a bong. Tasted awesome.
Lots of ingredients / taboo combinations -- I've tasted some pretty bad commercial recipes, but at home, I've never had a bad batch from experimenting with the recipe. Go ahead and combine hops from the German / English / American families. Go ahead and use 13 malts. Go ahead and add all your hops in the whirlpool! Just think about the flavors you're using, and TASTE YOUR INGREDIENTS beforehand. You'll never make a bad batch as long as you're pitching the right amount at the right temperature.
If you make a beer that's not hoppy enough, boil some hops in water and toss it in. If your beer doesn't have enough body, boil some maltodextrin and toss it in. If the beer isn't dark enough, steep some carafa and toss it in. Underattenuated? Do a champagne yeast starter and toss it in! You can fix just about anything you don't like about a beer.
hector
Well-Known Member
I would definitely like to know what "Dr. Bamforth" would say about that !!!
Every time someone asks him to give the best piece of advice for Homebrewers , he says :
" Hygiene , Hygiene , Hygiene "
Hector
drummstikk
Well-Known Member
I would definitely like to know what "Dr. Bamforth" would say about that !!!
Every time someone asks him to give the best piece of advice for Homebrewers , he says :
" Hygiene , Hygiene , Hygiene "
Hector
I bet Dr. Bamforth doesn't brew at home very frequently. He's spent his career diagnosing problems in commercial breweries with lots of hard-to-clean nooks and crannies that are exposed to wort several times every day, where it's much easier to develop a persistent strain of spoilage bacteria.
Just this morning I discovered a pellicle atop the thin layer of beer I left in the carboy from my most recent brew to protect the sedimented yeast. I was planning to save this yeast and re-pitch, but I hadn't got around to putting it in the fridge yet. It's only been a week, so I guess my beer had an infection! But can you taste it? Nope, not at all. There just wasn't enough oxygen present in the beer for these O2-lovers to make their character known.
Now that the beer is carbonated and at 4C, those bugs will never have a chance to rear their ugly heads. I'd probably have to keep the keg at room temp for another 6 months to notice the infection.
That's why noobs don't need to worry. Even infected beers will usually taste like uninfected beer.
![Craft A Brew - Safale BE-256 Yeast - Fermentis - Belgian Ale Dry Yeast - For Belgian & Strong Ales - Ingredients for Home Brewing - Beer Making Supplies - [3 Pack]](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51bcKEwQmWL._SL500_.jpg)
hector
Well-Known Member
I listened recently to a Webinar which he had taken part in .
He said at the end :
"I don't brew at home . If I was a brain surgeon , I wouldn't operate on my wife , either ."
Hector
brewski09
Well-Known Member
hector said:
Uhh, right. I brew at home, hence I call it a hobby. If I were going pro in any capacity (including teaching/speaking about brewing for $$$), I wouldn't brew at home either. Just saying' guys/gals, don't make it more than it needs to be. Otherwise you may end up despising it. Cheers
With my first AG batch - APA with caramel based on "Classic Recipes" (with some hops substitution done at LHBS by looking at hop profiles and changing numbers):
1. I also started mashing at 154 as book suggested, but dropped to 148 after an hour - I guess I cooled to 154 by stirring before grain got warmed up (1st AG - next 4 batches I had no more than 2 degrees loss)
2. I used a hydrometer which I later discovered reads 6 points low and calculated the amount of DME to "fix" my OG, but bought 2lbs of light DME only 2 days later and added after a short hesitation all of it in a fermenting wort (boiled in water).
3. FG is 1.01 (with hydrometer correction) (expected was higher, but 1.01 was perfect)
This beer become very popular (really hopy "APA" of ~7% ABV) that I am trying to figure out how to duplicate all of the mistakes I made on a regular basis Well maybe with a slightly lower ABV as this beer causes severe giggling during tasting sessions
1. I also started mashing at 154 as book suggested, but dropped to 148 after an hour - I guess I cooled to 154 by stirring before grain got warmed up (1st AG - next 4 batches I had no more than 2 degrees loss)
2. I used a hydrometer which I later discovered reads 6 points low and calculated the amount of DME to "fix" my OG, but bought 2lbs of light DME only 2 days later and added after a short hesitation all of it in a fermenting wort (boiled in water).
3. FG is 1.01 (with hydrometer correction) (expected was higher, but 1.01 was perfect)
This beer become very popular (really hopy "APA" of ~7% ABV) that I am trying to figure out how to duplicate all of the mistakes I made on a regular basis
Well maybe with a slightly lower ABV as this beer causes severe giggling during tasting sessionsWith my first AG batch - APA with caramel based on "Classic Recipes" (with some hops substitution done at LHBS by looking at hop profiles and changing numbers):
1. I also started mashing at 154 as book suggested, but dropped to 148 after an hour - I guess I cooled to 154 by stirring before grain got warmed up (1st AG - next 4 batches I had no more than 2 degrees loss)
2. I used a hydrometer which I later discovered reads 6 points low and calculated the amount of DME to "fix" my OG, but bought 2lbs of light DME only 2 days later and added after a short hesitation all of it in a fermenting wort (boiled in water).
3. FG is 1.01 (with hydrometer correction) (expected was higher, but 1.01 was perfect)
This beer become very popular (really hopy "APA" of ~7% ABV) that I am trying to figure out how to duplicate all of the mistakes I made on a regular basis
Sounds like an IPA to me! ;-)
I know this post is a few months old but I wanted to chime in and say I do this all the time. Also, I never clean my bottles, I just rinse and sanitize. Never had a gusher or a spoiled bottle.
Also, I never aerate before pitch, nor do I worry about splashing when bottling. I figure let the problems come to me before I worry about taking every precaution.
My biggest mistake recently was pitching a witbier (3944) smack pack into my smoked porter (grabbed the wrong pack from the fridge). I realized my mistake a week later when I was brewing my witbier and couldn't find my yeast! Turned out awesome. The clove taste from the yeast really worked with the peated malt.
evo8ur8
Active Member
i am perfect and i have never made a mistake!!!! JK, i have only done one brew and not sure what my mistake was. the beer ended up with a watered down (like a coorslight taste) on teh front end and then that went away and it actually was pretty good. but the OG was suppose to be 1.056 and it was only 1.044. so still processing adn going thru my notes to find something.
epistrummer
Well-Known Member
I dumped the priming sugar in the bucket without mixing it with water and boiling it first...none of the bottles have exploded yet...but I've sampled the goods and it carbonated fine and tasted great.
gandalfiii
Well-Known Member
I brewed up a nice chocolate stout last fall. First my floating thermometer broke in the wort. Then a heavy storm blew in out of nowhere right in the middle of my boil. So it became a chocolate, glass, steel and rainwater stout. It turned out to be probably the tastiest beer I've yet brewed. I did my best to filter out the little steel balls and the glass and I don't think I drank any glass but maybe I did. Either way it all turned out fine.
cheezydemon3
Well-Known Member
I accidentally took 4 hits of acid and mistook my fermenting stout for the bodily fluids of my mini-van, so I emptied all of the oil out of the engine and syphoned in my stout.
When I came down I realized my mistake, I drained the stout by bottling straight from the engine to save time.
The beer turned out GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRREAT!!!!
When I came down I realized my mistake, I drained the stout by bottling straight from the engine to save time.
The beer turned out GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRREAT!!!!
RiffMagnum
Well-Known Member
ArcticBear
Well-Known Member
Pics or it didn't happen
I just bottled yesterday and realized I forgot to sanitize the outside of my bottle filler. I'm pretty sure I'll be fine since it is already at about 7% ABV but I guess I wont know for sure for a few more weeks. Thoughts?
My worst mistake was a few batches back when I had a few too many Belgians while brewing and added a gallon or Star San to my wort for top off. That batched ended up ruined from that mistake and adding way too much orange marmalade to my honey wheat. Nasty, nasty beer. From now on I clearly label my Star Stan gallon since I use empty bottled water containers.
My worst mistake was a few batches back when I had a few too many Belgians while brewing and added a gallon or Star San to my wort for top off. That batched ended up ruined from that mistake and adding way too much orange marmalade to my honey wheat. Nasty, nasty beer. From now on I clearly label my Star Stan gallon since I use empty bottled water containers.
user 98891
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Dec 5, 2011
- Messages
- 384
- Reaction score
- 41
My very first batch of beer was a exercise in futility. First, the starter kit I bought didn't come with sanitizer and the homebrew store was closed for the night. We had already started the boil, so I decided that I could use hydrogen peroxide as a substitute. On top of that, my stove struggled for almost 30 minutes to bring 2.5 gallons of water to a steeping temp. Then after steeping the grains I had to wait another crazy long time to bring it to a boil. Finally, I went off recipe and added some extra hops for 'flavor'. The next big disaster came from the lack of a good dry run. I had assumed the kettle would fit in my sink, but it was too wide. So I had to carry 2.5 gallons of boiling wort up stairs to my bathroom tub to attempt to cool it (I at least had the forethought to buy bagged ice). I then decided the best way to cool the beer was to slosh it around my tub full of water and ice which not only caused the beer to slosh around, but I'm fairly sure got a little of that tub water in my beer.
Once the wort cooled, I dumped it into the bucket, carried that down stairs and topped it off with bottled spring water. I tore the top off the packet of yeast and dumped it in and slapped the lid on the bucket. I carried the beer down the basement and attempted to push the airlock into the grommet on the lid. If you guess that the little rubber grommet poped out of the lid and into the wort, you were 100% right. So after spending a few minutes with the plastic paddle trying to find it, I resorted to rubbing my arm down with peroxide and going bicep deep into 5 gallons of beer. I recovered the part, finished installing the airlock and filled it with tap water.
Two weeks later we racked to a secondary (with starsan this time) and 1 week after that we bottled. We dubbed the brew longarm and it was a hit with everyone who tried it. I have a few friends and my wife still asking me to brew it again. Unfortunately, I have no notes and I'm not sure if I can recreate all the happy accidents that go with making something great out of a kit beer. I went all grain this spring and I'm on my 3rd all grain batch now and recently brewed my first all grain hop heavy IPA (It tastes so good out of the bottling bucket I could drink it flat). Hopefully this beer will finally top the mystique of "Hey, you have any more of that great beer you stuck your arm in?"
Another scare we had was with our chocolate oatmeal stout. It was an extract beer and we added 90% cocoa bar chocolate during the last 5 minutes of the boil as well as a few oz in the secondary. The fats from the chocolate caused this oily film to appear on the beer and I was sure that I screwed up and it was infected. I took pictures and was about to post my first "Is this infected?" post. Luckily I decided to wait and see. We bottled it and everyone enjoyed it (wasn't my favorite, but everyone else likes it). Had I gotten nervous and dumped it, I would have wasted good beer.
I also learned the dangers of drinking and bottling with that beer. I was drinking one of my rye pale ales and I picked it up mindlessly and filled it with stout and gave it to my friend to cap. A few seconds later I was really confused trying to find my beer. Turns out, that combo made a ok half and half.
I'm a little over a year into this new passion of mine. Every brew brings new improvements to the process and new tricks to improving the quality of my beers. I've gone from a 3 gallon pot and a bucket to a 10 gallon all grain setup and will be kegging my next beer and buying a large freezer to collar (I want 4 taps). I can't wait to see how much my brewing improves as the years go on.
Once the wort cooled, I dumped it into the bucket, carried that down stairs and topped it off with bottled spring water. I tore the top off the packet of yeast and dumped it in and slapped the lid on the bucket. I carried the beer down the basement and attempted to push the airlock into the grommet on the lid. If you guess that the little rubber grommet poped out of the lid and into the wort, you were 100% right. So after spending a few minutes with the plastic paddle trying to find it, I resorted to rubbing my arm down with peroxide and going bicep deep into 5 gallons of beer. I recovered the part, finished installing the airlock and filled it with tap water.
Two weeks later we racked to a secondary (with starsan this time) and 1 week after that we bottled. We dubbed the brew longarm and it was a hit with everyone who tried it. I have a few friends and my wife still asking me to brew it again. Unfortunately, I have no notes and I'm not sure if I can recreate all the happy accidents that go with making something great out of a kit beer. I went all grain this spring and I'm on my 3rd all grain batch now and recently brewed my first all grain hop heavy IPA (It tastes so good out of the bottling bucket I could drink it flat). Hopefully this beer will finally top the mystique of "Hey, you have any more of that great beer you stuck your arm in?"
Another scare we had was with our chocolate oatmeal stout. It was an extract beer and we added 90% cocoa bar chocolate during the last 5 minutes of the boil as well as a few oz in the secondary. The fats from the chocolate caused this oily film to appear on the beer and I was sure that I screwed up and it was infected. I took pictures and was about to post my first "Is this infected?" post. Luckily I decided to wait and see. We bottled it and everyone enjoyed it (wasn't my favorite, but everyone else likes it). Had I gotten nervous and dumped it, I would have wasted good beer.
I also learned the dangers of drinking and bottling with that beer. I was drinking one of my rye pale ales and I picked it up mindlessly and filled it with stout and gave it to my friend to cap. A few seconds later I was really confused trying to find my beer. Turns out, that combo made a ok half and half.
I'm a little over a year into this new passion of mine. Every brew brings new improvements to the process and new tricks to improving the quality of my beers. I've gone from a 3 gallon pot and a bucket to a 10 gallon all grain setup and will be kegging my next beer and buying a large freezer to collar (I want 4 taps). I can't wait to see how much my brewing improves as the years go on.
I sincerely hope you are just bull****ting us on this one. Seems likely. But just in case, folks, thermometers generally have mercury in them. Highly toxic. Your high school chemistry teacher uses special gloves and a special vacuum to deal with a broken thermometer.
I know you are just f-ing with us, but if your thermometer breaks in the brew, it's a dumper.
gandalfiii
Well-Known Member
No BS, true story. But as mentioned above, thermometers use alcohol these days. I was actually more concerned that the weights were lead balls but found out that they are just steel balls so no worries there. My biggest concern at that point was broken glass, but as I said it turned out fine.
TimpanogosSlim
Well-Known Member
maybe not ethyl alcohol either, but it probably boiled off real fast.
green_bierz
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Oct 6, 2011
- Messages
- 74
- Reaction score
- 7
Most thermometers now a days use alcohol instead of mercury. At least that's what I've come to understand.
I'm glad to hear that. You had me worried. Showing my age!
go digital.. no worries about broken glass or anything toxic
now for my contribution... after brewing for many years (since 1999) I forgot to drain about 4 ounces of starsan out of a cream ale last sunday. its fermenting nicely so I suspect that it didn't do any harm. I'll let ya know when the keg goes dry after taking it to a party
now for my contribution... after brewing for many years (since 1999) I forgot to drain about 4 ounces of starsan out of a cream ale last sunday. its fermenting nicely so I suspect that it didn't do any harm. I'll let ya know when the keg goes dry after taking it to a party
Dynachrome
Well-Known Member
Some thermometers are alcohol based. hey have red dye in them.
Mercury thermometers have a silver color to the column.
http://www.mercury.utah.gov/disposal_thermometers.htm
http://t2.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQb0fM8hjzRia8NH8sTcZR-Ln8pmTIXZMoaCbnUNAVTuDse6ezU2g&t=1
What color was the column in your thermometer?
Mercury thermometers have a silver color to the column.
http://www.mercury.utah.gov/disposal_thermometers.htm
http://t2.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQb0fM8hjzRia8NH8sTcZR-Ln8pmTIXZMoaCbnUNAVTuDse6ezU2g&t=1
What color was the column in your thermometer?
Dynachrome
Well-Known Member
Nick's Aleworx.
Similar threads
