Worst Homebrew Disaster

[stbnj]

1) Not cleaning a boil over

2) Buying a fake stainless braid, couldn't understand why my run offs took hours.

3) 2nd all grain and 1 st pumpkin ale, didn't account for the all the pumpkin absorbing heat, ended up with a really thin dry pumpkin beer, like 1.004.

4) Not sanitizing O2 absorbing caps on 2 batches I wanted to age because I heard it activates the seal prematurely. Those were the only 2 batches I ever lost to gushers.

 

[Rank_Amateur]

^^^ Lol none of those so far...

Anyways update: Less than 2L of beer gone and no permanent damage apart from the sediment reducer being busted. So cleaned up everything re-sanitised and its still happily fermenting away (temps crept up to 12-14 so will check in the morning to see how cold it gets over night... ) Just have to pray that an infection hasn't gotten in and told that I can hold the temps consistently.

 

[dslater]

1. The first batch I kegged wound up on the basement floor due to a loose OUT post.

2. 6 year old daughter went to school smelling like a brewery after the carboy in the closet burped yeast and trub all over her coat ...

 

[ktblunden]

My first brew (as most probable are) was an extract in a pot that wasn't large enough. Massive boil over that lost me a good portion of the LME I had just added. Didn't clean the stove until the next day, which was a tremendous disaster.

And just this past Saturday I did a batch sparge on the IPA I was making and realized after I had collected my runnings and started the boil that there was at least a gallon, possibly two, just sitting on top of a massive dough ball of grist. So I didn't get a good rinse of the grains and my efficiency was terrible. I missed my OG by 22 points. Guess it'll be a small IPA. I think instead of an imaginative label I'll put a white "Beer" label on the bottles for this one.

 

[emmdubb23]

Last week I left some cider an extra day before pasteurizing, I cracked one open it was pretty fizzy, but not bursting, I started pastuerizing as normal, on my 8th or 9th batch, I had 9 bottles cooling on the counter I was leaning on, and then it was like a bomb when off, they ALL exploded, well needless to say my wife was pissed, and I was covered with, glass, hot cider and blood, we are still finding glass in random places. Oh well lesson learned.

 

[beerloin]

well nothing as spectacular as yours. but i had a drunk friend shove a #7 stopper ALL the way inside a glass carboy. its now sitting at the bottom of the carboy. cant figure out how to get it out without braking the carboy.

sorry to jack your thread - but had to respond to the above topic!!

i used pliers, a screwdriver, and a power-drill with a large bit..... this may take 2 people -
1) rack off the beer
2) Hold the carboy upside down and grab the stopper with the pliers.
3) insert the screwdriver and try to inch-up the stopper to the neck of the carboy
4) drill into the stopper
5) pull with all of your might
6) repeat after the stopper stretches, shoots back into the carboy and you get frustrated
7) patience is a virtue here - and you will have to throw away the stopper, but at least you don't have to throw away the carboy
8) forget what i said above, and try the napkin trick (i knew i should have come on HBT first before trying my way!!!!)

 

[passedpawn]

8) forget what i said above, and try the napkin trick (i knew i should have come on HBT first before trying my way!!!!)

Hah! Good videos of this trick on youtube, but I bet you've found those already.

Another way would be to lower a mouse in there. He'll shred that cork in no time. But I'd try the cloth napkin trick first

 

[Rank_Amateur]

Last week I left some cider an extra day before pasteurizing, I cracked one open it was pretty fizzy, but not bursting, I started pastuerizing as normal, on my 8th or 9th batch, I had 9 bottles cooling on the counter I was leaning on, and then it was like a bomb when off, they ALL exploded, well needless to say my wife was pissed, and I was covered with, glass, hot cider and blood, we are still finding glass in random places. Oh well lesson learned.

Bummer... I have my first batch fermenting now... think I'll opt for the backsweeten with lactose option for now... prefer not to be picking glass out of of my 14 month of twins if a bottle explodes in kitchen... and murphy's law being what it is...

 

[emmdubb23]

Bummer... I have my first batch fermenting now... think I'll opt for the backsweeten with lactose option for now... prefer not to be picking glass out of of my 14 month of twins if a bottle explodes in kitchen... and murphy's law being what it is...

I know what you mean I have 3 girls, and they had all recently just went to bed. If you are looking for a decent sweetener, I tried stevia for a blackberry wheat I just bottled, it tasted pretty good when I was bottling, We shall see how it turns out after carbonation and conditioning, but it was a good sweet, without an off flavor. I used a brand called Sweet Leaf, because they don't add any sugar into the final product.

 

[LibertyHillBrewery]

Nothing major yet,...yet! but was out of fermenting buckets and carboys, thought i could primary in a corny keg......thought!! oops!

 

[mountainman13]

I had a yeast cake of Pacman from a RIS that I wanted to keep, so I put it in a growler and stuck it in the keg fridge. Stuck two warm kegs in the fridge to cool. Fridge evidently warmed up to working temps for Pacman (that stuff is beast!) and apparently there was still plenty of food in the cake. After a while, I noticed that the metal cap on the growler was bulging. Oh sh!t. So like a *******, I took it in the house and proceeded to bleed off pressure with a pair of pliers on the cap (it was too tight to take off by hand). After about five minutes, the hissing stopped, so I figured I was good to go. One final twist. BOOM! Sounded like a shotgun. There was NOTHING untouched by nasty, sticky Pacman dregs in our utility room. Celling, floor, walls, washer and dryer, water heater, etc, etc.....you get the point. This room also serves as our main entrance to the house through our garage. Not your typical utility room. It's actually pretty nice. Needless to say, the wife didn't find as much humor in it as I did, so no pictures were taken, and I spent about 2.5 hours cleaning. I should have just through that crap in the trash can, let it blow, and called it a loss on a cake and a growler. Lesson learned.

 

[dslater]

Nothing major yet,...yet! but was out of fermenting buckets and carboys, thought i could primary in a corny keg......thought!! oops!

I primary in conies all the time and never got blowoff like that. What were you brewing? Which yeast?

 

[LibertyHillBrewery]

it was a brown ale, with a london ESB Ale Liquid yeast. @ 68 degrees, got really violent! if it was in a bucket with an airlock, there probly would have been a mist as the water sprayed out! Ha!

 

[schematix]

It was our first lager batch ever... SOP for us is to use a Therminator to get down to ale pitching temps in a single pass. Knowing we couldn't get to 50F in 1 pass we decided to prechill with an old immersion chiller. The immersion took us down to 100F using just tap water and so we switched to ice water. While trying to prime the pump for the ice water loop I saw a big bubble in the kettle. I checked the volume on the sight glass we had more than we started with... the immersion chiller had blown a hole!

Immediately I called the LHBS and the owner was kind enough to loan me his personal chiller. We fired the kettle back up to a boil and went and got the chiller. An hour later we were back to a boil, gave it a few minutes, then repeated the cooling process.

I just tried the beer for the first time yesterday and it was great! This is one beer however, I hope to never reproduce.

 

[amandabab]

I once set my mead on fire.









actually it was a Brochet, nicely caramelizing to OMG its on fire in 5 seconds flat.

 

[malc]

We moved into the brand new house we just built. After about a month, I found out I had two neighbors that also brewed. I invited them over for a brew day. As I was carrying the carboy down to the basement it slipped out of my hand and shattered all over the tile. Wort went all over the place. Tile, carpet, down the basement steps and into the cold air returns on the floor. My wife and I literally stared in shock for a good 3 mins before we could even move to do anything.
I was impressed that neighbors I just met stayed to help me clean the entire mess. We have since be one good friends. I think their presence also saved my life.

 

[apparatus]

I have had a couple. One was when a friend asked me if I could brew some beer for a special event coming up. I agreed to do it , but to have it ready in time meant I would have to brew after work on a week night. I brewed late into the evening around midnight. Just finished the boil and primed the pump with the wort to go to the plate chiller. As soon as the wort started coming out of the plate chiller I decided to shut off the pump and go get my yeast off the stir plate in the kitchen. I put the end of my wort line in a bucket of starsan and went inside, not even thinking it would continue to gravity feed out. Well I got side tracked in the kitchen for awhile and then went back out to the garage to find the entire batch all over the floor. Not only was I tired and frustrated, but now I still had a huge sticky mess to clean up.

 

[Zuljin]

Triple berry beer blew out the air lock and the closet looked like a purple paintball attack.

Some soapy water and kilz fixed that.

 

[htc]

Similar to the OP, I neglected to buy the proper fittings to connect the out line to the corny keg. I did however heat the tubing and "thread" it onto the quick disconnect. It felt secure, I couldn't pull it off, and the threads visibly embedded themselves into the tubing. Long story short, be sure to bleed off the pressure from force carbing mode to serving. I'll bet that beer shot a good 10 to 15 yards and made for one sticky atv, trailer, and truck in the driveway.

 

[AndrewD]

I gingerly (I mean gingerly) set a carboy full of sanitizer on a smooth finished concrete floor. There was a tiny (I mean tiny) point of aggregate protruding slightly (I mean slightly) above the finished surface of the floor. 50+ pounds of sanitizer and glass focused onto one tiny pencil point stone is not a good thing.

Pros:
1. Sanitizer is easy to clean up.
2. 200 square feet of sanitary floor
3. Dermal integrity not compromised (Pure luck)

Cons:
1. One less ancient heavy glass carboy water bottle

 

[ktblunden]

It was our first lager batch ever... SOP for us is to use a Therminator to get down to ale pitching temps in a single pass. Knowing we couldn't get to 50F in 1 pass we decided to prechill with an old immersion chiller. The immersion took us down to 100F using just tap water and so we switched to ice water. While trying to prime the pump for the ice water loop I saw a big bubble in the kettle. I checked the volume on the sight glass we had more than we started with... the immersion chiller had blown a hole!

Immediately I called the LHBS and the owner was kind enough to loan me his personal chiller. We fired the kettle back up to a boil and went and got the chiller. An hour later we were back to a boil, gave it a few minutes, then repeated the cooling process.

I just tried the beer for the first time yesterday and it was great! This is one beer however, I hope to never reproduce.

I think that's the smoothest save I've seen yet on the old leaky immersion chiller problem. Very well done.

 

[ktblunden]

I have a brewing related disaster that doesn't really have anything to do with the actual brewing. My son was born three and a half weeks ago and neither my wife nor myself have been getting much sleep as a result. A few days ago she passed him off to me after being up with him most of the night and went to bed. I was walking him around trying to soothe him when I had the idea of checking on my Wee Heavy in the ferm fridge in the garage. So I carried him out there to check. Our doorknobs will turn from the inside even if they are locked on the outside. As a result we always make sure to check that they're not locked every time we go out the front door or garage door. I had my arms full of fussy infant and forgot to check this time. I opened the fridge and saw that I'd had a blowout through the airlock (I KNEW I should have set up a damn blowoff tube on that one!) and went to go inside to grab a rag and my bottle of starsan. Then I found out I'd locked us in the garage. I knocked on the door for about 5 minutes, but my wife was passed out from exhaustion.

Then I figured I'd open the roll up door and walk around to the front door to ring the bell. So I did that. Rang the doorbell about 15 times, but my wife was in such a deep sleep she didn't even stir. So I broke into my own house holding a three week old newborn. Luckily for the both of us the guest room window was unlocked and the screen has tabs on the outside. I popped the screen out, slid the window open, reached through the window, set my son on the bed, and climbed in the window in about 25 seconds...which does not make me feel entirely safe. Suffice to say that window is now locked.

 

[passedpawn]

I have a brewing related disaster that doesn't really have anything to do with the actual brewing. My son was born three and a half weeks ago and neither my wife nor myself have been getting much sleep as a result. A few days ago she passed him off to me after being up with him most of the night and went to bed. I was walking him around trying to soothe him when I had the idea of checking on my Wee Heavy in the ferm fridge in the garage. So I carried him out there to check. Our doorknobs will turn from the inside even if they are locked on the outside. As a result we always make sure to check that they're not locked every time we go out the front door or garage door. I had my arms full of fussy infant and forgot to check this time. I opened the fridge and saw that I'd had a blowout through the airlock (I KNEW I should have set up a damn blowoff tube on that one!) and went to go inside to grab a rag and my bottle of starsan. Then I found out I'd locked us in the garage. I knocked on the door for about 5 minutes, but my wife was passed out from exhaustion.

Then I figured I'd open the roll up door and walk around to the front door to ring the bell. So I did that. Rang the doorbell about 15 times, but my wife was in such a deep sleep she didn't even stir. So I broke into my own house holding a three week old newborn. Luckily for the both of us the guest room window was unlocked and the screen has tabs on the outside. I popped the screen out, slid the window open, reached through the window, set my son on the bed, and climbed in the window in about 25 seconds...which does not make me feel entirely safe. Suffice to say that window is now locked.

Great story.

 

[MikeWI]

First and worst brewing disaster was 2 weeks ago. The hefeweisen was done and I was giving the carboy a last rinse with starsan and it slipped out of my hands, hit the top of the basement stationary tubs and exploded. Fortunately I instinctively backed away instead of trying to catch it, but I left a nice trail of blood from the basement to the 2nd story where my wife was. I just wanted some band-aids but she took one look and made me go to the emergency room. 4 hours later after x-rays (no broken glass in the cuts) cleaning (slash on my left pinkie and 1/4 inch trench on my right middle finger) and stitches (the slash on my left pinkie got 6) I got back home and had to dump the brew since it was at room temp for almost 5 hours and I didn't have anything to put it in. Very very sad about the beer.

But I still had the yeast, so I threw it back in the fridge, got another fermenter this week (plastic for me, from now on), picked up some wheat extract and hops and finally brewed my first hefe yesterday.

If you get thrown off a horse there's nothing to do but to get up and get back on the horse.

Mike

 

[Benzade]

Only two home brewing disasters that I know of and both happened to my friend about 12 years ago. We had both decided to get into making home brew so we set about buying the necessary ingredients and some cheap basic equipment just in case it proved to be too difficult to make.
We figured the best place to house a fermenting container would be in the airing cupboard of his house, which also houses the hot water tank so that the heat generated from it would help speed up the fermenting process. I'd purchased a dark lager and my friend a mild bitter so we set to work.
At some point my fool of a friend decided to add a 2-litre bottle of lemonade into his mix. So that it would "add gas and make him a lovely bitter shandy" so he claimed later. The resulting "bitter" when finally fermented resembled the contents of a plasterers bucket after he's washed his tools in it and was a bright purple color!
Not deterred by this my friend proceeded to drink his brew exclaiming "Tastes alright!"

The other disaster involved the bottling of another of my friends brews. He'd taken my advice and left the fermenting to do its business this time around. But when he came to bottle his brew instead of leaving the caps loose for a while after bottling he'd decided to jam them on tight. Needless to say he has about a dozen 2-litre plastic soda bottles literally shaking on the top of his wardrobe with fermentation gas. The bottles have also dangerously expanded until the inevitable happened and they began to explode showering his newly decorated bedroom with Irish stout.

He gave up on the home brew idea after this had happened.

 

[jerrodm]

I posted this in a different thread, but it’s worth repeating here.

Several years ago I was stationed overseas in the military, and was brewing extract batches at home, since the Middle Eastern country I was living in had limited access to alcohol. One night I was brewing an Irish red ale, but I didn’t have a wort chiller or any other way to cool down my beer. I decided stupidly to take my just-boiled five gallons of wort and deposit it directly onto the glass shelf of my refrigerator.

It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that when you put 40 lbs. of 200F liquid on a 40F glass shelf, something bad is about to happen.

Of course, the shelf immediately exploded in a shower of glass, and my kettle started to fall. And of course, instead of getting myself out of the way, I reached out to grab the kettle, saving most of the beer but dumping a good gallon and a half of boiling wort all down my arm. Second degree burns from my elbow to my fingertips, and I had to sleep with my arm in a pitcher of cold water.

To top it off, the beer took over four hours to get down below 80F, so by the time I pitched and went to bed it was like 3AM. Needless to say, the beer wasn’t the best I’ve ever made, but I drank every single drop of it!

 

[AndrewD]

I posted this in a different thread, but it’s worth repeating here.

Several years ago I was stationed overseas in the military, and was brewing extract batches at home, since the Middle Eastern country I was living in had limited access to alcohol. One night I was brewing an Irish red ale, but I didn’t have a wort chiller or any other way to cool down my beer. I decided stupidly to take my just-boiled five gallons of wort and deposit it directly onto the glass shelf of my refrigerator.

It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that when you put 40 lbs. of 200F liquid on a 40F glass shelf, something bad is about to happen.

Of course, the shelf immediately exploded in a shower of glass, and my kettle started to fall. And of course, instead of getting myself out of the way, I reached out to grab the kettle, saving most of the beer but dumping a good gallon and a half of boiling wort all down my arm. Second degree burns from my elbow to my fingertips, and I had to sleep with my arm in a pitcher of cold water.

To top it off, the beer took over four hours to get down below 80F, so by the time I pitched and went to bed it was like 3AM. Needless to say, the beer wasn’t the best I’ve ever made, but I drank every single drop of it!

You might be a homebrewer if...

 

[keesh]

well nothing as spectacular as yours. but i had a drunk friend shove a #7 stopper ALL the way inside a glass carboy. its now sitting at the bottom of the carboy. cant figure out how to get it out without braking the carboy.

Air pressure... there has got to be a way to use pressure, like from a tank of CO2, to get it to come out. I just can't picture in my head how, exactly.

Edit: just realized this was from 2009... oh well.

 

[Whattawort]

My biggest disaster was really just a common boil over. The reason I consider it a disaster is because it happened 3 times in as many minutes. That was the last time I asked my friend to watch the pot while I clean/sanitize the bucket. SWMBO was not amused as this happened on our newly sealed back patio. Probably wouldn't have been as big of a deal hadn't it been a stout I was making. I still catch hell about that even though we've since moved.

 

[lstorie1971]

Moving bottles to the fridge in the garage, I tried to slide the fridge over a bit to get room to open the door more so I could add a shelf, a case of beer is now on my garage floor. It smells good out there, but it's a mess. Wife hasn't seen it yet.