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

[brewski09]

I caught a sour infection. Twice. I now have a nice brown ale with cherries and red currants (a little like 3 philosophers) and a witbier with kumquats bulk aging that smells fantastic.


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[mrboz]

I had just cooled and racked my wort for an oatmeal stout into a 6-1/2 gallon glass carboy. As I was going about my business of cleaning up, I grabbed another carboy by the handle and spun and clipped my wort filled one, breaking off the top 1/5 of the carboy into the wort. I grabbed an ale pale and gave it a quick sani-rinse and racked the wort from my broken carboy into the bucket ... then pitched and fermented as usual.

Turned out okay ... scored a 32 in a local competition and drank it all.

 

[sgreath]

I just bottled my very first batch, after the 2nd or 3rd 22oz bottle I realized the plastic piece on my bottling cane was missing. I was kind of stuck with my hands full and couldn't stop the spicket. So one beer for sure is going to be nassssssty!


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[conneryis007]

Biggest goof of my brewing career...
Forgot to fully cap the liquid side of the coupler on my sanke keg for some pressurized fermentation. The entire contents of the fermenter ended up coming out of the keg by the next morning. Luckily my fermentation chamber is a garbage can, so all of the beer ended up outside the fermenter, but inside the not so sanitized trash can. Not wanting to waste the entire batch, I scooped it back into the boil kettle, boiled it for 20 minutes to re sterilize it, cooled it and pitched a new batch of yeast(hooray for keeping a packet of dry yeast in the fridge fr emergencies). I had lost a full gravity point of OG from the work the first yeast had done, and then boiled away much of that alcohol. Long story short, this beer turned out to be very delicious!!

 

[Fells_Pint]

I've brewed about eight brews now, finally on the last batch ran out and bought a food scale for priming. Always felt that while the beers turned out well, 5 oz of priming sugar was too carbonated for my taste.

So i'm bottling my stout, on the evening of the g/fs and my 2 year anniversary and in my haste to finish before our dinner reservation i misread the priming sugar chart and prime with too little sugar. Realized my mistake the next day, and panicked but knew from reading on here to just let it be and wait.

Popped the first one open on St Paddys Day and its the smoothest stout i've brewed yet!

Now need a good summer ale recipe to try in the next few weeks...


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[brewski09]

I've brewed about eight brews now, finally on the last batch ran out and bought a food scale for priming. Always felt that while the beers turned out well, 5 oz of priming sugar was too carbonated for my taste.

So i'm bottling my stout, on the evening of the g/fs and my 2 year anniversary and in my haste to finish before our dinner reservation i misread the priming sugar chart and prime with too little sugar. Realized my mistake the next day, and panicked but knew from reading on here to just let it be and wait.

Popped the first one open on St Paddys Day and its the smoothest stout i've brewed yet!

Now need a good summer ale recipe to try in the next few weeks...


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What kind of "summer" beer do you like?


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[EdMerican]

I've brewed about eight brews now, finally on the last batch ran out and bought a food scale for priming. Always felt that while the beers turned out well, 5 oz of priming sugar was too carbonated for my taste.

So i'm bottling my stout, on the evening of the g/fs and my 2 year anniversary and in my haste to finish before our dinner reservation i misread the priming sugar chart and prime with too little sugar. Realized my mistake the next day, and panicked but knew from reading on here to just let it be and wait.

Popped the first one open on St Paddys Day and its the smoothest stout i've brewed yet!

Now need a good summer ale recipe to try in the next few weeks...


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If you have fermentation temp control may I highly recommend a steam beer? Personally I think I have a real winner for summer.

 

[brewski09]

Great idea. I'll have to make an anchor stream clone this summer.

 

[Revvy]

Oh dear god, I just flushed a 3 piece airlock down my toilet! Is my beer, er I mean my toilet, ruined?

Geez...

 

[Malty_Dog]

Accidentally used a full can of Munich LME instead of Pilsner LME in a dubbel. WLP550 did not give a damn...it just made a great beer anyway!

 

[KavDaven]

No poop, there I was. I had my neighbor over,first time ever, going through a brew day. Being a veteran brewer, I didn't want to scare him away from brewing with an advanced all grain brew. I decided to show him how easy it was to brew an extract beer. No stepped mash, no sparge. So simple, not even a yeast starter was prepared. I was going to pitch safale05. So, there I was talking to a beer snob about how to brew beer. My specialty grains were steeped perfectly. Hop additions were added at exactly the right moment. I made sure to have him smell the different hops that were going into this black IPA. Then, flame out, and discussed the importance of cooling the wort quickly. And... WTF... I forgot to add 9lbs of golden malt!?! UGH, brought it up to a roiling boil, added the damn extract, let it go for 10 minutes. Then talk about how no brew day has ever gone perfect. If it has gone perfect, it's only because you screwed up and haven't figured it out yet.

 

[bleme]

Personally, I would have gone ahead and added the extract after flame out. Wouldn't be the first time...

 

[Zepth]

Ok, let's start this off bullet style then I'll change it halfway through to switch it up. Or because I can't keep a theme going.

-Used plain old tap water to top up. No boil, no campden.
-Pitched random slurry amounts with no calculation for cell count. 1 jar per week in the fridge.
-Brewed and bottled while sick
-Bottled up some hop debris somehow
-Brewed/bottled while drinking

And most recently I've been using a juice jug to add extra sparge water to halfway boiled wort. My stove has limited boil capabilities, this allows more time for the burner to be on the wort heating. No big deal. Until later when I used some top up water from the tap to the carboy. It was about the next day I realized that I used my wort-jug for the top up water and not the shiny sanitized one. Having faith in yeast, rolled with it and decided to see how things ended up. A slightly bubblegummy belgian (can't be blamed on the mishap), no infections, no gushers.

Side note: my stove seems to hit an on-off cycle whenever I use a certain stock pot. That would explain why one boils faster than the other. I think it's time to retire the cheap one.

Edit to avoid double posting:
Also I'm a master of falling asleep on the couch while my kettle(s) cool in the cold water filled bathtub. Not the intention, it just happens. Pitch in the morning, all works out fine.

 

[TobyBenjamin]

Me and my brew-partner were making our first AG batch that wasn't from a kit, so we were pretty psyched. The recipe we based our brew on recommended a 158*F mash and we'd read anything over 170* would ruin our beer. It seemed to be steady, so we took a minute (or five) to enjoy a beer while the grains steeped.

Well, when we got back the mash was at 196*F and smelled roasted if not just burnt.

We continued as normal, which back then for us meant dumping the mash from a 3g sauce pot through a spaghetti colander, into two 1g pots, cleaning the 3g pot, recombining the two 1g pots into the 3g, then pouring hot water over the colander into the 3g to sparge, then boil. Obviously the whole damn kitchen was brown and sticky.

Thankfully, it was a stout and the flavors blended and mellowed perfectly into what we still consider our flagship brew... though we've since been careful not to scorch the grains like we did the first time. Maybe that's why it's never been quite the same...

 

[deewilliam17]

I just brewed my second beer (an irish red extract) and it did not go well at all. I couldn't get the wort to pitching temperature so I used cans of soda that were in the fridge to cool it, I dropped my spoon into the wert and had to use my hand to pull it out. I sprayed everything with starsan but I only let it sit for a second or two before putting it in my wort and I pitched my yeast (after it'd be rehydrating for 30 minutes) at 87F.. Before I went to sleep I checked it, and it was fermenting rather well. Does anyone here think it'll get infected or have off flavors from the pitching temp?

 

[KepowOb]

I just brewed my second beer (an irish red extract) and it did not go well at all. I couldn't get the wort to pitching temperature so I used cans of soda that were in the fridge to cool it, I dropped my spoon into the wert and had to use my hand to pull it out. I sprayed everything with starsan but I only let it sit for a second or two before putting it in my wort and I pitched my yeast (after it'd be rehydrating for 30 minutes) at 87F.. Before I went to sleep I checked it, and it was fermenting rather well. Does anyone here think it'll get infected or have off flavors from the pitching temp?

You might have avoided infection (though you might want to give the StarSan some more time next time around), but 87F is terribly high to pitch it at. What yeast was it, and what's it's temperature now that it's fermenting (if you know).

 

[deewilliam17]

It was a Munton's dry ale yeast and it's about 66-68 now

 

[KepowOb]

If it chilled down fast enough that might not be a problem... It's possible that it shocked the yeast and killed of some though... The good news is that you'll have beer .

A lot of people on here, myself included, have made bigger mistakes and still made something half decent... Just read through this thread for some examples.

 

[MaxStout]

Ok, let's start this off bullet style then I'll change it halfway through to switch it up. Or because I can't keep a theme going.

-Used plain old tap water to top up. No boil, no campden.
-Pitched random slurry amounts with no calculation for cell count. 1 jar per week in the fridge.
-Brewed and bottled while sick
-Bottled up some hop debris somehow
-Brewed/bottled while drinking

I've done all but the 2nd one, and it turned out OK each time. On the 3rd one, I just made sure I didn't cough or sneeze when I was near anything that needed to stay sanitized.

Then there was the time when I used a muslin bag for a hop addition. I tied the end in a knot and just dropped it in the BK and didn't tie it to the side. After the boil and after I chilled it, I forgot it was still in there. When I racked to carboy using the BK's valve, that bag got stuck against the inlet of the valve. Without thinking I reached in with my bare hand and pulled it free. The beer turned out fine, with no infection. But I was sweating it for a few weeks.

 

[k1ngl1ves]

I forgot to add dme to an extract batch during the boil. I had already transferred it to the carboy, so I said what the hell and poured the dme right in. Shook the crap out of it and pitched the starter. I had to swirl it up periodically for two days until the dme finally mixed fully into the beer.

Turned out great! Probably because I pitched a big starter...

Now I make sure all my ingredients are out on the table while brewing. Lol!

 

[surffisher2a]

Well lets see, I broke a floating thermometer in my wort during the boil.

Majorly screwed up a hop schedule due to a timer that the batteries went dead in during the first 10 min of the boil and I didn't realize it.

Wasn't paying attention to the immersion chiller once and the hose came off of it dumping lots of nice tap water into my cooling wort.

Had my dog's tail knock off an airlock while I was at work.

Forgot to add clearing agents to a couple wines that I have done.

Those are what I can think of off the top of my head, I am sure i had many other near misses along the way.

 

[Zepth]

Forgot to add clearing agents to a couple wines that I have done.

Reminded me that in my barleywine and english standard bitter I just made entirely forgot the campden. Oh well. Might post later with an update if all is good or wrecked. Predicting it's fine and I'll forget to update.

 

[ShootersBrewCrew]

Just today brewing a summer citrus wheat and had a stuck valve. Thought I would stick my un sanitized arm in to unstick it (uhhhh dummy there is a false bottom there) used a coat hanger (unsanitized) to unstick it. Smooth sailing

Miss mash temps constantly but only by 5-8 degrees up or down and the beers are always fine

Except when my thermometer broke (didn't know it) and mashed at 145 degrees for 60mins. No sweetness but the 12oz of citrus let me know I sucked on that one!


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[TimmyWit]

Being overseas military, I regularly order my stuff from the states to include yeast. Usually I only order yeast during the colder months and I haven't had a problem. Every once in a while a package will get hung up and take longer than expected to get here. Recently, I wanted to try a Wyeast private collection; 3864. It ended up being one of those packages that took a month to arrive. I made a starter and used it anyhow. After 2 weeks of fermentation it was down to 1.008 so I went ahead and bottled. It wreaked of sulfur and I feared it might be ruined due to unhealthy yeast. I kept my fingers crossed but wasn't sure what I was in for. After a month in the bottle, it's fantastic. I'm getting some really nice, fruity esters that I perceive as pear.

 

[BlueHouseBrewhaus]

First brew ever was a True Brew extract with specialty grain kit - Red Ale. I didn't realize how big a pot I would need. My HUGE pasta stock pot was a whopping 5 qts. So I scrambled trying to find something that would hold 2 gal of wort. Ended up with a big enameled oval lobster pot that spanned two burners on the stove. When it was done, I poured the near boiling wort into the carboy. Amazingly enough, the carboy didn't break, I had no ill effects from hot side aeration and I had the first "Lobster Bisque Red Ale". Needless to say, I've since bought a brew pot (or two) and retired the lobster pot - although the last time we had lobster, it did taste a little grainy.

 

[Laughing_Gnome_Invisible]

One time I made the mistake of snorting coke off the belly of a Brazilian hooker that turned out to be a dude. Next time I brewed beer though, it still turned out great!!

 

[By-Tor]

Mixed up my washed yeast in the fridge(forgot to label) made a blonde with hefe and American ale yeast. Tasted horrible when I kegged, so I threw an oz of Amarillo in the keg. Pretty darn good when chilled.

 

[mrgrimm101]

I have had a beer where the autosiphon wouldn't keep, and I had to literally use it like a pump to move the beer.

I have had my auto siphon and my bottling wand get so gummed up with whole hops and pumpkin goop that I couldn't use them. Then ground the spring tip of my bottling wand in the garbage disposal and had to literally bottle directly from the spigot.

About acouple of these points..My autosiphon never keeps, and if it does, its literally a trickle. I always have to pump the siphon to keep it flowing.

And I never use the bottle wand lol. I never figured out how, so I always bottle directly from the spigot.

Am I really doing something that wrong? It must be wrong if you included it in this post...

 

[JonM]

Bottling from the spigot without a bottling wand is a surefire way to oxidize the heck out of your beer. I did it with my first and second batches and got cardboard-flavored beer.

 

[mrgrimm101]

Weird. I've done 4 brews so far and 3/4 have been amazing. Something was off about one of them. It was really good after it sat in bottles for 2 weeks, but after a few more it was pretty undrinkable. Some bottles were good, but most were bad.