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

[KeyWestBrewing]

I was brewing a pumpkin ale and ran inside to grab the ginger and other spices while I let the first gallon of wort run off. Well the glass jar of ginger fell and shattered, so while I was cleaning the mess about 2 gallons of my highest gravity wort was emptying all over my porch. It nearly cut my abv in half. The beer was fine and I brewed the batch over the right way. But I still kick myself in the ass for it.

I wanted to cold crash a batch, which I do not have the equipment for but my friend does since he kegs. I drove my carboy over there after fermentation and dry hopping. Trying to go slow(which I figured out was making things worse half way there) it was rocking, swirling around, and even had a few heart stopping splashes over the course of this 10 minute drive. I will never do this again but the batch didnt taste even the slightest bit oxidized and turned out great.

 

[HookUp]

I brewed a budweiser style beer w/ rice. Once. And only once.

Turned out fine if you like rice-beer. I dont. My buddies polished it off in two nights.

 

[scutiger]

I created a siphon from my carboy to my bottling bucket with my mouth when my auto-siphon broke.

I've also made several batches that fermented in the high 70's or low 80's all good beers.

 

[bigebrewer]

I was making my extract pumpkin ale and had the wort sitting in an ice bath cooling, it was under 100 degrees at that point. I looked over and saw a 3 lb bag of light extract that was supposed to go in as a late addition (oops!). So I made it a really late addition and stirred it in quickly, and went ahead and pitched my yeast. I hit my numbers exactly and tasted the first bottle last night and it turned out great. I think I will dub it Last Minute Pumpkin Ale.

 

[Scut_Monkey]

I have had the standard error where my dumb rubber grommet for the lid of the fermentor fell into the wort. Of course it was my first batch and I thought it was an absolutely crucial part so I sanitized a garbage bag and used it as a glove to retrieve it. The beer turned out fine. I have also racked beer onto 1/2 gallon of starsan. This beer turned out to be slightly tart and "green" but calmed down after a couple weeks. I haven't had a horror story like my carboy exploded and I had to get 30 sutures.

 

[t_met]

The a couple days before a party, I kegged a standard PA. Knowing I was going to fill a second keg later in the week, I decided to keep the one keg filled with Idophor. That night before the party I force carbonated the PA. The morning of the party, something told me I should try the beer, probably to make sure it was carbonated. It was a little lighter in color on the pour and tasted of Idophor... I force carbed the wrong keg.

Luckly I had enough time to force carb the warm PA and have it cold before the party.

 

[velocity]

I used cleanser instead of the no-rinse sanitizer for the bottling bucket. Best batch I've made by far. (Vanilla Bourbon Porter)

 

[Bithead]

Couple months ago I started mashing in a pale ale and noticed the crush was not good. Ended up with 58% efficiency where I usually get 78%. After checking gravity going into kettle and finding it at 1.037 I decided to change to recipe to a bitter. So changed up hops and yeast. I didn't realize till the end of the boil that I was quite low on water. Ended up 1 gallon short but gravity was 1.053 into the fermentor. It's been a delicious beer!

 

[woody34]

I was racking from secondary to bottling bucket. I had an overused oven mit propping up half of the carboy so it was tilted. Somehow, the oven mit slipped and fell....yep, right into the bottling bucket. I grabbed it quickly before it sank too deep. I continued to bottle, pretending as if nothing happened. It was a Hefewiezen and it turned out great. I called it Glove Love Hefe.

 

[Beer-lord]

Not a huge problem but I forgot about the stir bar in my starter and it went in when I pitched. Without giving it a thought, I reach down to my elbow and grabbed it. I'm drinking the beer now and it came out just fine. It's hard to mess up a beer but sometimes you can do everything right and it comes out wrong and sometimes you're just lucky.

 

[BassBeer]

I was moving my kettle to a bucket of ice for cooling and my dial thermometer popped off the rim and fell into the wort.
Without really thinking I sprayed my arm with StarSan and fish it out. I continued the process normally
but was pissed that I let that happen. It's been about 7 weeks now and the beer tastes excellent, and getting better each day.

 

[folly]

I've accidentally added 2lbs of extra pale malt to an Irish Red; it turned out to be an "Imperial" Irish red (don't drink and weigh grain). Pretty good stuff! I call it Blarney Stone because at 9% if you have more than a couple you'll be babbling.

After 10 minutes of chilling a an ESB I noticed that the connection from the garden hose into my chiller was dripping. Into my warm wort. So far, so yummy.

I've forgotten ingredients, like dark malts and sugars and yeast (yes, it wasn't bubbling after 3 days. I wonder why not?) and they all turned out great.

I've burned the heck out of a decoction for a scotch ale and it was malty and caramelized and delicious; however, the pot was difficult to get clean.

My glasses have slipped off of my face on a hot day straight into the fermenter. Good hefe, though.

I brew in the garage and I am a fly ninja with my electric fly swatter. Gotta watch where they fall after you kill them near the brew pot.

I'm always learning. Some days the process works, and some days it doesn't. I haven't had to dump one yet, and it's always beer.

Cheers!

 

[andycr]

I filled my grain bill for a golden ale with carapils, victory, and vienna at the LHBS. When I got home, I only had 8 ounces of steeping grains - should have been 12.

Figured out that all I had gotten was the carapils, and double what I'd wanted at that - 8 ounces. If it had been a 5 gallon batch, that's 1 pound of carapils!

Some of the best brews come out of mistakes, so I went with it to see what it would turn out as.

Drinking the result now, turned out to be a nice, simple blonde ale with a head that just will not go away!

 

[SiriusStarr]

Okay, let's see... My first AG batch and first time using BIAB. I didn't think before starting the mash about burning my bag on the bottom of the pot and ended up with an 8 gallon pot full to within a half-inch of the brim in which I was trying to maneuver my bag so as not to burn it. Spent the entirety of what turned into a 2+ hour mash slowly raising the temperature so as to not burn it (which was probably completely unnecessary) and chewing my nails off. Then I had to face the fact that my bag was too fine and clogged and wouldn't drain, so a frantic hour was spent trying to get the sweet wort out of the bag.

Finally, I got my volume out and started boil and added my bittering hops. This was my first time using whole-leaf hops, so I just threw them in, figuring they'd make a nice filter when it came time to transfer to the fermenter. The boil was uneventful until I put my IC in in the last 5 minutes, when of course the pot that I've been watching closely for the last hour boils over. Well, not the end of the world, so I cooled the wort and got my yeast rehydrating.

Time to sanitize the fermenter and first time using Star San, so mountains of foam, but that's no big deal. Don't fear the foam and all, so I'm finally (this is already a very long brew day) ready to transfer to the fermenter and pitch. I take out my brand new autosiphon and try to start a siphon, and it won't pull. Some leaf from the 4 oz of leaf hops had gotten stuck in the valve, so I had to fiddle with that I try to get it out to no avail. So I figured I'd do things the old-fashioned way and filled the siphon with sanitizer to start one that way. I forgot, however, that part of my wort was already in the fermenter and I shouldn't exactly dump the sanitizer in the siphon in there. Too late, added a good quart of Star San right into the fermenter, and the siphon ended up clogging again almost immediately. Finally giving up on siphoning, I poured the rest of the contents of the kettle through a strainer into the fermenter (with much touching of the wort with unsanitized hands along the way), which meant that essentially all of my trub ended up in the fermenter, and there was a lot, this being the first batch I had added Whirlfloc to. In the process, the kettle got set down on my hydrometer, snapping it and preventing me from taking any OG; it's nowhere near my desired volume anyways. Finally I manage to pitch my yeast (which has been sitting around for two hours now) and shove the carboy unceremoniously in the closet.

A day and a half later, there isn't really any activity in the beer. It had gotten very cold sitting outside for so long and had only warmed up to ~63 F inside. So I put it on a hotpad, intending to bring it up to maybe 68 F. Which I succeeded in. At which point fermentation really took off in a major way and my temperatures shot up far too hot (to about 75 F) without control. At this point, I was beyond caring and let it sit for two weeks before unceremoniously dumping in the dry hops.

Finally it was ready to bottle, so time for round 2 of racking off the massive cake of yeast, hops, and trub. Once more the autosiphon is repeatedly non-functional and jams on hops, so there is much stopping and clearing along the way. After about a quarter has been transferred and the autosiphon clogs enough that it starts pulling air, essentially aerating the entirety of the beer. Welp, time for oxidation. Finally got everything bottled and threw it in the closet with zero expectations at this point, no idea of the ABV or anything.

Just cracked open a bottle yesterday, and it's an amazing fractional IPA. Wonderful malt balance and almost indistinguishable in taste from DayTime by Lagunitas (which I love). Best (and clearest) beer I've made.

 

[PortlandPatrick]

Okay, let's see... My first AG batch and first time using BIAB...

Awesome... not exactly one of those stories where you think "Hmm, a mistake was made, but it's worth replicating" because hell, that was a lousy brew day, but your recipe must be bulletproof. Care to share?

 

[SiriusStarr]

Awesome... not exactly one of those stories where you think "Hmm, a mistake was made, but it's worth replicating" because hell, that was a lousy brew day, but your recipe must be bulletproof. Care to share?

Haha, certainly, but it's nothing amazing by any means. Was going for a Belgian/Cascade fusion pale ale, but I didn't end up getting much Belgian funk out of the yeast (not impressed with T-58), so it ended up as a really nice fractional IPA/hoppy pale ale. Not my place to decide which to call it; I just get to drink it. FG is predicted given the hydrometer breaking, but the efficiency was known. Since this is BIAB, mash volumes are appropriate for that (and as constrained by my kettle size).

The only thing I'd change in making it again is significantly increasing the dryhop. This was also the first beer I've dryhopped, so I didn't know just how much aroma it was going to contribute. I didn't want it to compete with the Belgian-ness, but seeing as this yeast didn't give much Belgian-ness for me (may be a function of the temperature wackiness), I'd go to probably 3 oz's in the dryhop. But I like hoppy beers, so YMMV.

The Super Galenas are in no way relevant to the recipe; I just have pounds of them sitting in the freezer from a friend who grows them and they're a nice neutral bittering hop. Regardless, they could be subbed out for whatever would be more at home the style, but they did give it a really nice bitterness that was definitely "there" but not overpoweringly dominant.

================================================================================
Batch Size: 5.000 gal
Boil Size: 6.057 gal
Boil Time: 60.000 min
Efficiency: 78%
OG: 1.052 (predicted)
FG: 1.011
ABV: 5.4% (predicted)
Bitterness: 38.8 IBUs (Tinseth)
Color: 6 SRM (Morey)

Fermentables
================================================================================
Name Type Amount Mashed Late Yield Color
Belgian Caravienne Malt Grain 16.000 oz Yes No 74% 24 L
Great Western 2 Row Pale Malt Grain 8.000 lb Yes No 81% 2 L
Total grain: 9.000 lb

Hops
================================================================================
Name Alpha Amount Use Time Form IBU
Super Galena 12.0% 0.500 oz Boil 60.000 min Leaf 19.1 (AA% is an estimate, since they've been sitting sealed in my freezer, but they have good storage properties, so it may be a bit higher)
Cascade 8.9% 1.000 oz Boil 15.000 min Leaf 14.1
Cascade 8.9% 1.000 oz Boil 5.000 min Leaf 5.6
Cascade 8.9% 1.000 oz Boil 0.000 s Leaf 0.0
Cascade 8.9% 1.000 oz Dry Hop 14.000 day Leaf 0.0 (I don't rack to a secondary, so I dryhopped directly in the primary 1 week before bottling. Obviously, rack off if you so desire.)

Misc
================================================================================
Name Type Use Amount Time
Wyeast Yeast Nutrient Other Boil 0.500 tsp 10.000 min
Whirlfloc Fining Boil 0.5 tablets 5.000 min

Yeast
================================================================================
Name Type Form Amount Stage
Safbrew T-58 Ale Dry 11.5 g Primary

Mash
================================================================================
Name Type Amount Temp Target Time
Dough In Infusion 6.475 gal 107.187 F 104.000 F 20.000 min
Saccharification Rest Temperature --- --- 152.000 F 60.000 min
Mash Out Temperature --- --- 170.000 F 10.000 min
Infusion 1.348 qt 32.000 F 32.000 F 0.000 s

Water Corrections
================================================================================
Salt Amount
CaSO4 4 g
CaCl2 5 g
MgSO4 1 g
88% Lactic Acid 2 ml

Ion Final Concentration
Ca2+ 113 ppm
Mg2+ 12 ppm
Na+ 9 ppm
Cl- 102 ppm
SO42- 108 ppm

Est. Room Temp Mash pH: 5.45

 

[BrewinHooligan]

Interesting you didn't get much Belgian "funk" from the T-58. It's my go-to Belgian yeast with lots if character. Matbe the hops just overpower it. I never get the "funk" I'm looking for in Belgian IPA's

 

[SiriusStarr]

Interesting you didn't get much Belgian "funk" from the T-58. It's my go-to Belgian yeast with lots if character. Matbe the hops just overpower it. I never get the "funk" I'm looking for in Belgian IPA's

It's possible the hops are covering it, but I'm blaming it on the brewing process on this one. Definitely gonna go for another try at the Belgian-Cascade pale ale, but I'll probably use WY3522. This beer was very much a "hm, I have stuff in the fridge, let's throw it all together and see what happens" experiment.

 

[chiteface]

No lie, this all happened in one batch just finished bottling what should have been an American stout, but instead I misread the label at the LHBS and got Special Roast instead of roasted barley. I brewed it, my hop spider partially melted and took a quick dip in the wort. The connection on the wort chiller blew off and sprayed water into my mostly chilled wort. Was studying for the GMAT for the last 3 months, so this just sat down in my basement, with a blowout tube attached. When I went to move it finally to bottle it, nasty ass gym sock smelling water sucked up through sed blowout tube, directly into my finished product. Still have no idea how that happened. I set it aside for another few days and bottled just now. Tasted pretty good, albeit more like a hoppy Scottish ale than a stout.

 

[crage]

wife got me a copy of beercraft-six packs from scratch. Read it cover to cover and decided to start with the first recipe since they were supposed to go from easiest to hardest. I poured over this first page of the recipes trying to decide what grains, hops and yeast to use and how much. For an easy recipe, it seemed like it had a lot of options that could be used and ranges of amounts to include. Brew day came and I wrote down a recipe, best I could, worked my way through my first batch. After it went to fermentation, I decided to turn the page to the second recipe, which could be slightly more difficult only to realize the VERY first page was a description of how to READ the recipe and not actually instructions to be followed. The pale ale that followed was much easier to navigate. Have to say that first batch was horrible, but over a year now and I still crack one open every now and then just to make sure...

 

[Braufessor]

I brewed a brown ale, intending to use 3lbs of munich, 2 lbs of dark munich and 6 lbs of 2 row in a 6.5 gallon batch (along with other specialty grains). Got my sacks of grain mixed up and ended up using 6 lbs of munich, 2 lbs dark munich and only 3lbs of 2 row. It was great. To this day I brew my brown ale this way.

 

[Dynachrome]

I brewed a brown ale, intending to use 3lbs of munich, 2 lbs of dark munich and 6 lbs of 2 row in a 6.5 gallon batch (along with other specialty grains). Got my sacks of grain mixed up and ended up using 6 lbs of munich, 2 lbs dark munich and only 3lbs of 2 row. It was great. To this day I brew my brown ale this way.

That sounds kind of good. What are the characteristics of "dark munich"?

 

[Braufessor]

This is the description from Northern Brewer site (I think regular munich is 7-10 L):

15.5° L. Darker than regular Munich malt, this will add color and a strong malt flavor to beer. Great for dark lagers. Mix this base malt with other base malts for a complex malt flavor and deeper color.

 

[Braufessor]

I also use smaller additions of maybe a half pound or so each chocolate, coffee kiln, brown malt, flaked oats, and wheat. Not positive, but it is something like that. Anyway, the high percentage of munich turned out surprisingly well for this "mistake."

 

[drummstikk]

Maybe one way to sum up some patterns in this thread:

1. Ingredient substitutions and changes to amounts are seldom a problem; in fact this may be a great way to discover a new style.

2. Sanitation mistakes almost never matter for most of us who keep our beer cold and drink it fresh.

3. Similarly, oxidation doesn't seem to be a huge problem, especially on the hot side.

4. If there's one thing that does seem to affect the beer when it's a little off, it's yeast pitching rate and fermentation temperature.

What do you guys think? Additions/Changes?

 

[SiriusStarr]

3. Similarly, oxidation doesn't seem to be a huge problem, especially on the hot side.

Not sure I agree with that. I completely ruined a witbier (almost to the point of undrinkability; I'm considering just dumping it) by oxidation post-fermentation. I think it can be a definite issue in lighter, more subtle styles. That being said, this was extreme oxidation (e.g. cascading it through a strainer into a carboy), since it was before I knew to be careful to avoid it. The bubble or two in your racking cane isn't an issue.

 

[drummstikk]

The bubble or two in your racking cane isn't an issue.

Right, oxidation only matters if it's an extreme case, either beer you want to age for a year or more, or beer you sent through a strainer post-ferment.

In extreme cases, all the things we've been discussing matter. It won't be a good beer if you substitute roast barley for your base malt, or if you spill a container of yogurt in before pitching yeast.

I think the point of the thread is to identify things that can go a little wrong and not matter, to ease all of our minds.

 

[SiriusStarr]

Of course. I just always have to insert that caveat, because I don't want anyone else to suffer my mistakes.

On a happier note, I've had my crappy auto-siphon wannabe aerate my last two batches fairly severely post-ferment, and they've both come out tasty. Needless to say the siphon has gone in the trash, but some bubbles won't ruin your beer.

 

[DrunkleJon]

I think the point of the thread is to identify things that can go a little wrong and not matter, to ease all of our minds.

This. Basically beer is reasonably forgiving. Most newcomers to brewing are understandably anxious and treat their beers like a firstborn. Then once they experience the effects of different mistakes, or other accidents that happen in the process they learn that it will still become beer, and usually with the mistakes turn out rather impressive and be un-recreatable. Though, then again occasionally there will be an undrinkable batch, which we need to realize happens, and learn from our mistakes to improve on our process and nor repeat.

It will be beer. It will not always be great beer. But it will not kill you. Unless you do something incredibly stupid like brew with cyanide adjuncts. What would you call that other than a bad idea?

It all boils down to the age old RDWHAC(raft)B until you have a finished product then RDWHAHB.

 

[Revvy]

This. Basically beer is reasonably forgiving. Most newcomers to brewing are understandably anxious and treat their beers like a firstborn. Then once they experience the effects of different mistakes, or other accidents that happen in the process they learn that it will still become beer, and usually with the mistakes turn out rather impressive and be un-recreatable. Though, then again occasionally there will be an undrinkable batch, which we need to realize happens, and learn from our mistakes to improve on our process and nor repeat.

It will be beer. It will not always be great beer. But it will not kill you. Unless you do something incredibly stupid like brew with cyanide adjuncts. What would you call that other than a bad idea?

It all boils down to the age old RDWHAC(raft)B until you have a finished product then RDWHAHB.

THIS is exactly the message and the reason I created this thread. New brewers have a tendency to think their beer is something weak, and that every little mistake or perceived mistake means our beer is ruined. When the truth is, we're human, and we are all going to make mistakes at any given time, and making a mistake or 5 is not a guarantee that the batch is ruined.....