Whats your biggest fail?

[Anks]

This past weekend I had my biggest failure of a brew session. I thought it'd be fun to hear similar stories. So here's what happened...

I started an all-grain apricot wheat IPA recipe that I was experimenting with on a beautiful sunny day in NH. The forecast showed a 30% chance of showers, and I was brewing outside but I decided to risk it. Everything was going great, until 20 minutes into the boil. Out of the blue, the sky opened up and I was brewing in what I can only assume was a full on monsoon. All the hop pellets I had tediously divided up for continuous hopping were now sitting in dixie cups full of water. To make matters worse, my propane tank ran dry with 25 minutes left in the boil. I sprinted to my neighbor to house through the torrential downpour, grabbed his propane tank and hooked it up. 3 minutes later the flame sputtered as the 2nd take ran dry. I dropped in my heat stick, but being only 120 V 2000W, the temp continued to drop as chilly rainwater filled my keggle. Now bolts of lightning were dancing across the sky and I decide my life was more important than saving this brew, so I dumped the remainder of my soaking wet hop pellets into the pot and kicked on my chiller. Finally able to pull the pot inside, I was able to check the damage. I checked my sight gauge and saw I had 7 gallons of wort, almost 2 more than I should have had. My OG, which was supposed to be 1.070, was 1.040. I pitched my yeast because, why the heck not. Another 20 minutes outside to try and rescue my equipment and I had had enough. I dried off, just in time to see the rain let up and sun shine through the clouds. I haven't tried the batch yet, I'm sure I'll have beer in 3 weeks but it definitely won't be what I was going for. Total disaster.

Feel free to share your biggest failure. A good laugh never hurt anyone!

 

[keesh]

Sounds good. Rain beer.

I've failed on multiple occasions, but the one that comes to mind is when I was trying to get a hydrometer reading by sticking my wine thief into the hole in my bucket lid and the bottom part of the thief detached because I didn't pull it out straight (heh). So I basically had to fish it out, I don't recall exactly how I got it out, but it resulted in a pretty nasty infection. I think it was lacto. Anyways once I realized it was infected I bottled it straight away and it ended up tasting good.

Another one: I had a carboy which had an oddly sized mouth, and the 2 sizes of stoppers I had were either too small or a little too big, so I would use the too small ones by shoving them in until the taper got large enough and it would be airtight. This would, not unexpectedly, make it hard to get out. Once I tried using my racking cane to remove it, by sticking the curved end in and trying to pry it out. Of course it snapped. That is when I remembered that I used my knife steel (http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_lZluDOmV3tQ/TGNoEVIH2CI/AAAAAAAAAlo/9a8NIEfL0ZE/s320/Knife+Steel.jpg) to take it out.

Oh and another one. I was having a bad day and I was trying to clean up after bottling and I couldn't get the bottling wand out of the tubing. So in a fit of rage I screamed some obscenities and hit it against a doorframe, sending shards of plastic across the room. Definitely not one of my proudest moments.

Okay one more, the most recent. I was draining oxyclean solution from my glass carboy by propping it up on some stairs in my backyard and it fell and shattered in my hands. Could have ended up a lot worse, only got a couple superficial cuts from that. Definitely my last glass carboy.

For the love of... okay this is the last one. I accidentally froze an entire plastic bucket full of beer (I think the same one from the first part, it later got infected...) when I was trying to cold crash it. I totally underestimated the little dorm fridge I have. Oh well.

 

[cepster]

Haha, my racking cane has been attached to its tubing since my second brew because I had such a hard time removing it. I just gave up..... I definitely wanted to hit it against a doorframe!

 

[wSelwyn]

My worst was before I realized how to clean my bottling wand correctly.
The previous batch had been dry hopped, so some hop pellets got stuck in the spring of the wand. I never checked this before I bottled the next time. The hops sat there for some time (3 weeks), until I bottled 3 batches in one day... needless to say, all 3 got infected.

Lessons Learned: 1) Disassemble, check and thoroughly clean everything. 2) Star San doesn't sanitize gunk.
And I am so afraid of an infection again, I won't bottle more than one batch at a time.

 

[Spartan1979]

Probably the time I went to add Polyclar to a finished beer and grabbed the wrong container. It was some type of cleaner. As soon as I realized it, it went down the drain. The only batch I've ever dumped.

 

[stikks]

Mine was last winter,It`s about 8 degrees outside I`m making a winter warmer to
come out at about 1.072.Brew day went pretty good except for freezing.I hook up
my IC to cool and go into the house to warm up.When i came back out to check temp
I suddenly had abut 7.5 gallons of wort after boiling down to 5.25.The fittings on the
IC were loose and 2 gallons of hose water drained into kettle.Ended up with 7 gals.
of 1.032 winter warmer,didn`t taste to bad and avoided an infection but that was a
brutal day to end up with watered down beer.Ended up calling it - Spiced Winter session
Ale 3% ABV.