whats the worst brewing accident you have witnessed or been a part of?

[Tinga]

other than rootbeer bottle bombs the only other decent accident was when a hose from my HERMS system slipped out of place and spilled wort all over the kitchen for about 30 seconds. I guess I have been pretty lucky.

seriously considering getting rid of my glass carboys now though.

 

[beerbeerbeer123]

My brother thought it would be cute to take a dump in my fermenter.... i did not think it was cute. needless to say i bottled it and gave it away as gifts..SIKE... i am lucky i never had a bad brewing accident (knock on wood) only got burnt a few times very minor

 

[andvari7]

This past January, I was siphoning to bottles, from a plastic bucket. About two-thirds of the way into it, the 2-gallon bucket, which was perched rather precariously on the bathroom sink counter, tipped over. I was covered, and I lost the rest of the batch. Just as well; the beer was plastic-y and undrinkable.

I'm not taking any chances next time: I'm siphoning on an inverted five-gallon bucket, and keeping the bottles in a Rubbermaid bin whilst bottling.

No, I'm not - I'm using the same toilet I've been using since day one, and that's that.

Seriously, though - I racked to secondary, which I now know is not usually necessary, nor wise, and everything went well. Except for the towel that was covering the drain for a runoff pipe on the A/C. Yeah, that towel was completely soaked, and it added another load of laundry, but it's clean and fresh; ready to soak up the exploded bottles from overcarbonation, which is scheduled for Friday.

The key to my avoiding these kinds of problems? Standing very far away from the molten sugar water.

 

[Chuckus95]

Spilled 5+ gallons of 200+ degree wort down my right leg. Third degree burns on my thigh, knee, and foot, plus a helluva mess to clean up. Not the high point in my brewing career.

 

[brettg20]

Few beers + rinsing glass corboy = trip to ER for stitches

 

[AbeLincoln]

An overcarbonated batch of Kolsch taught me to point bottles away from my face while uncapping. Two thirds of the ridged portion of bottle cap gouged itself into my cheek.

 

[christpuncher123]

An overcarbonated batch of Kolsch taught me to point bottles away from my face while uncapping. Two thirds of the ridged portion of bottle cap gouged itself into my cheek.

That's is the best tattoo I have ever seen!

 

[AbeLincoln]

That's is the best tattoo I have ever seen!

Healed completely. Was sort of hoping it would and wouldn't at the same time.

 

[christpuncher123]

I dropped 6gal carboy of oatmeal chocolate stout that I had aging for 6 months, in the basement! I actually cried, it smelled awesome in the basement for 3 days and then, not so much! I ended up having to cut the bottom off about 30 feet of wall that it ran behind to clean it up!

 

[Chadwick]

Worst thing I've done was decide at the the last minute to put one more cup of sugar in the wort. The bag of salt was right next too it........guess what happened.

Lesson: Do not over indulge in beer while making beer.

That was 12+ years ago. I know not to use cane sugar now too.

 

[iaefebs]

One of the toughest things I have found about brewing in the winter is what to do with the water running out of the wort chiller. I brew in the garage, and in the warmer weather i fill up a few buckets with the warm runoff to help with cleaning, but most of the water runs down the driveway. A few weeks ago it was in the teens and I was worried about turning my driveway into a sheet of ice. My co-brewer, John, came up with a great solution - he routed the runoff hose into a flowerbed next to my house.
We had a relatively good brewing day (with the exception of a stuck sparge on the second batch). Wait, did I mention that I was brewing two batches to enter into the NHC? A Quad and an American Amber. We had company during the second batch in the form of John's cousin Ricky. The three of us had a grand time mashing and boiling and adding hops and cooling wort down and pitching yeast. Lots of laughs and we got to learn a thing or two from each other. I would have called it one of my best days yet. After I pitched the yeast on the second batch, it was time to show Ricky my basement bar. I built it last year, and I'm still stoked to show it off when I get the chance. That's when the **** hit the fan.
We walked into my finished basement (17x30) carpeted basement and found an inch of water over 80% of it. Each step you took sounded like you were sloshing through a pond. I nearly cried. We spent the next 7 hours pulling up carpet, throwing away padding, vacuuming water, buying fans, etc. On top of that, the Mrs. was bitching about how stupid John and I were for running water next to the house. "Every idiot knows not to put water against the foundation" I heard 1000 times.
Lucky for me, John is a carpet guy and he hooked me up with new padding and he put the carpet back in place the following Saturday and and that freed us up to brew a 10g batch of a very tasty milk stout.
The second brew day was so smooth that it was almost boring, and I ran the hose down the driveway instead!

But wait. . .
I tell the Mrs that I am much smarter now and that the water won't be a problem this time. You see, I put the water down the driveway this time. Even an idiot like me can learn from his mistakes!

Then. . .
John goes down to the basement to pull us a pitcher to enjoy during clean up.
AND . . .
Well, all I can tell you is that there is significantly less water produced when you make one batch instead of two. For the second week in a row my basement flooded from brewing. It turns out the that frost free valve in my garage wasn't so frost free and it burst inside my basement ceiling. Every time I opened the valve to chill my wort, it was spraying all over my basement.

The silver lining - My wife issued a public, facebook apology to us because it was a burst pipe rather than our idiocy that caused the floods. The 15 hours spent cleaning the mess might be worth that alone.

I'm going to guess that you left your hose attached to the spigot and that's why it didn't drain from the garage back to the valve in the "frost free" valve. You need to disconnect your hose and allow the water to drain from the valve during the cold months.

 

[brobeman]

Miller bought the naming rights to the stadium of my beloved Brewers thereby ensuring a decent beer can never be consumed within.

Top that.

Regards,
Brobeman

 

[Ondori]

I've been doing this for over a year without any issues at all. While you shouldn't.... You certainly can.

I just did this tonight...I would rather do it by mouth than fill up the cane with unsanitized water lol Maybe, I am just old school. I did make sure that the part that touched my mouth was thrown into some starsan foam at the bottom of the keg though

 

[kombat]

I know not to use cane sugar now too.

You shouldn't? Why not? I mean, I don't, but I've read in several places that plain old table sugar can be used to goose ABV without changing the flavour - did I miss an important caveat?

 

[Chadwick]

You shouldn't? Why not? I mean, I don't, but I've read in several places that plain old table sugar can be used to goose ABV without changing the flavour - did I miss an important caveat?

I suppose you could use it. I mean, it will ferment. I've always gotten an undesirable twang flavor when using cane sugar. I stopped using cane sugar and started using corn sugar instead. The twang flavor I mentioned never returned.

 

[kombat]

I suppose you could use it. I mean, it will ferment. I've always gotten an undesirable twang flavor when using cane sugar. I stopped using cane sugar and started using corn sugar instead. The twang flavor I mentioned never returned.

Hmm, interesting, I'd never heard that.

Back when I brewed with extract kits, I used dextrose (corn sugar), and I still had that "extract twang." I was led to believe it was due to either old LME or scorching it during the boil. At any rate, that "twang" was why I switched to all-grain, and I haven't tasted it since.

An interesting experiment would be to brew the same beer in two batches, one fortified with cane sugar, the other with dextrose, all else being held equal, and see what taste differences manifest.

 

[andvari7]

Miller bought the naming rights to the stadium of my beloved Brewers thereby ensuring a decent beer can never be consumed within.

Top that.

Regards,
Brobeman

There is a mixed blessing with that one: Would you rather watch the Brewers lose, while drinking an [Harry Caray] ice-cold Budweiser [/Harry Caray]? I can't imagine what life is like in St. Louis. At least they have a team that can win a World Series to take their minds off of their refrigerated Clydesdale urine.

 

[starsman20]

About a month ago I was moving 6 gallons of a really good looking American wheat from my primary fermentation chamber to the freezer I use for cold crashing. After getting the bucket about 6 " off the bottom of the freezer something gave. 4 weeks and a hernia repair surgery later that beer is still cold crashing.

 

[billybryson54]

My bad experience isn't nearly as bad as most I've read on here (I only have five brews under my belt) but I do recall once, my hop bag slipped out of my hands back into the brew pot, right after I turned the flame out. They all spilled out and essentially made the bag useless, but no big deal except for the fact that the hop particles plugged up my plate chiller, which lead to a lot of loud swearing. . I had never even heard of whirlpooling at the time, otherwise I might have given that a shot. On the positive side, the brew turned out to be the best one I've made to this day!

 

[zeg]

Not quite brewing, but in preparation for it so I think it counts. While assembling my immersion chiller, I decided to put in the short-radius bends by hand. Wound up hyperextending my thumb badly enough to need a splint for a few weeks, and it took a good 2-3 months before it was entirely back to normal.

But I saved $10 by not buying a tubing bender! And it only cost me $150 for an urgent care visit and X-ray! Totally worth it.

 

[Onihige]

Thankfully, this didn't exactly turn out to be an accident.

But me and my old man had done several tests with water, to see if his new electric brewery was safe.

Then on the friggin' brew day it started leaking RIGHT where the electric element was mounted. Scary.

 

[Redbeard5289]

Doing a late nite brew one evening with a couple of my homebrewing neighbors there to provide assistance (minimal amount) and beer talk (maximum amount). Since I had my fermentation bucket tied up with a Amber Ale 6 days in its primary fermentation I had to resort to putting this newly brewed Oktoberfest Ale in my bottling bucket. I rinsed/santized out the bottling bucket and ran some sanitizer thru the spigot to for good measure as my wort chiller was cooling the wort down. Went back to check on my wort chiller to check temp. Got my wort down to 70 degrees and started to transfer from the boil kettle to the bottling bucket. Realizing I forgot my hydrometer inside I asked my two neighbors to watch the transfer while I dashed in to get the hydrometer. When I came back I saw my two neighbors standing over the bottling bucket, drinking and chatting while a stream of golden amber wort ran down the driveway to the street from the bottling bucket. As I raced over to shut the value off on the bottling bucket one my neighbors steps back and goes "Dang when did that happen... We were watching it too" All we could do is laugh and have another brew.
Lost about half of my wort for the Oktoberfest Ale but in the end it turned out to a really good beer that me and my neighbors dubbed Driveway Drippings Oktoberfest.

 

[HomeBeers]

mine involved my cat Still it smelt nice after!

 

[xjncoguyx]

This one is going to probably make you all cringe. Well, two stories actually. So, first story, i was brewing and had just finished the boil. Threw in my immersion chiller and flipped the water on. I think instead of the cold i hit the hot water which flash boiled the water as it ran through immersion chiller and let out a plop of boiling hot water and steam. Which wouldn't have been a big issue had my return hose not have been jammed up against the sink. Which caused this boiling hot water to splash up and onto my foot. Which also wouldn't have been a problem had i been wearing socks. But i ended up boiling the top of my foot, which turned into a big liquid filled bubble for about a week. It was pretty gross.


Second much worse accident happened when we were moving a hot keg. We had just finished a 10 gallon boil, and didn't have pumps at the time. So we needed to move the keggle to higher ground for gravity purposes. Well, the keg started to slip out of my buddy's grip and as a gut reaction i kind of threw my legs/crotch region under the keg to stabilize it. Well, what i forgot was that baseball pants(i hadn't changed from my softball game) melt at a fairly low temperature. So yeah i had to apply burn cream to my nuts for a week and pick melted baseball pants from my junk.


Moral of the story, dress for the occasion.

 

[Brewcrew02]

Is your last name really Brewer?

If so, well played, sir.

-Scott

Gotta live up to my name! Finally!!

 

[PijanyPole]

Just got done cleaning up... Ice bath fail, left the water runing and got side tracked. Lost the whole damn batch.

:smack:

 

[zeg]

Threw in my immersion chiller and flipped the water on. I think instead of the cold i hit the hot water which flash boiled the water as it ran through immersion chiller and let out a plop of boiling hot water and steam.

Oof. I get some of that even with cold water---the first 10-15 seconds are a lot of sputtering and steam escaping. I always take care to be sure that the return hose is well-settled in the sink. I used cable ties to connect the return hose to the feed hose, which helps because it's a shorter run of loose hose at the end. In any case, I'll be doubly careful to check this in the future!

Second much worse accident happened when we were moving a hot keg. We had just finished a 10 gallon boil, and didn't have pumps at the time. So we needed to move the keggle to higher ground for gravity purposes.

All things considered, I think this story ended a lot better than it could have...

 

[Ogri]

One of the toughest things I have found about brewing in the winter is what to do with the water running out of the wort chiller. I brew in the garage, and in the warmer weather i fill up a few buckets with the warm runoff to help with cleaning, but most of the water runs down the driveway. A few weeks ago it was in the teens and I was worried about turning my driveway into a sheet of ice. My co-brewer, John, came up with a great solution - he routed the runoff hose into a flowerbed next to my house.
We had a relatively good brewing day (with the exception of a stuck sparge on the second batch). Wait, did I mention that I was brewing two batches to enter into the NHC? A Quad and an American Amber. We had company during the second batch in the form of John's cousin Ricky. The three of us had a grand time mashing and boiling and adding hops and cooling wort down and pitching yeast. Lots of laughs and we got to learn a thing or two from each other. I would have called it one of my best days yet. After I pitched the yeast on the second batch, it was time to show Ricky my basement bar. I built it last year, and I'm still stoked to show it off when I get the chance. That's when the **** hit the fan.
We walked into my finished basement (17x30) carpeted basement and found an inch of water over 80% of it. Each step you took sounded like you were sloshing through a pond. I nearly cried. We spent the next 7 hours pulling up carpet, throwing away padding, vacuuming water, buying fans, etc. On top of that, the Mrs. was bitching about how stupid John and I were for running water next to the house. "Every idiot knows not to put water against the foundation" I heard 1000 times.
Lucky for me, John is a carpet guy and he hooked me up with new padding and he put the carpet back in place the following Saturday and and that freed us up to brew a 10g batch of a very tasty milk stout.
The second brew day was so smooth that it was almost boring, and I ran the hose down the driveway instead!

But wait. . .
I tell the Mrs that I am much smarter now and that the water won't be a problem this time. You see, I put the water down the driveway this time. Even an idiot like me can learn from his mistakes!

Then. . .
John goes down to the basement to pull us a pitcher to enjoy during clean up.
AND . . .
Well, all I can tell you is that there is significantly less water produced when you make one batch instead of two. For the second week in a row my basement flooded from brewing. It turns out the that frost free valve in my garage wasn't so frost free and it burst inside my basement ceiling. Every time I opened the valve to chill my wort, it was spraying all over my basement.

The silver lining - My wife issued a public, facebook apology to us because it was a burst pipe rather than our idiocy that caused the floods. The 15 hours spent cleaning the mess might be worth that alone.

I'm going to guess that you left your hose attached to the spigot and that's why it didn't drain from the garage back to the valve in the "frost free" valve. You need to disconnect your hose and allow the water to drain from the valve during the cold months.

Crikey!!!!!!!!!! Don't let his wife hear that:fro: I was enjoying the silver lining/happy ending

 

[golfduke]

Brewing mistake-

I got drunk before making the beer. Only time I've ever hit 60% efficiency, haha.

Clumsy mistake- A 5gal secondary carboy shattered in my hands while sanitizing it. 13 stitches over two fingers and a pint of blood less, and I'm a heck of a lot more careful with glass.

 

[xjncoguyx]

All things considered, I think this story ended a lot better than it could have...

yeah, i could've spilled the beer