Worst Homebrew Disaster

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michael.berta

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I am curious what some of the biggest disasters that happened due to home brewing.

Here is mine:

Once upon a time I had a corny of Irish Red Ale in my Kegerator. I had just racked it to the keg on gas and left to my girlfriends house for a few days. When I got back I was super excited to pour a pint. I grabbed a glass and pulled the handle but nothing came out.

I was very confused so I opened the door to the kegerator shook the keg and it was empty. My roommate is literally a mormon with a liver disease so I knew he didn't drink it. Then I noticed my feet were wet and I started to smell vinegar. The entire keg of beer was in the carpet and had been sitting there for several days.

Basically clamp on the beer line from the keg to the tap was loose and could not take whatever pressure I had the CO2 at. The beer slowly dripped out from below the tap over the course of several days. As more beer dripped more gas was put into the corny thus the cycle continued until the keg was empty.

I ended up having to take apart my living room, rip up the carpet, take out the carpet pad, and treat the subfloor for mold (just incase). Then I put in a new carpet pad and had the carpets professionally cleaned.

The stain on the carpet is still there but we've since re arranged the room so the couch is where the kegerator used to be.

Lesson learned: Make sure the clamp on your beer lines is tight!!

-Mike
 
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.
 
I cannot compare to that story.

One time I was racking to the bottling bucket, and after I set up the siphon I went into the other room for a conference call. I came back after the call and found my entire batch of beer spread out on the kitchen and dining room floors. :( I had left the spigot on the bottling bucket wide open after sanitizing it.
 
TipsyDragon said:
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.
Click to expand...

Tipsy,

Fill the carboy up with hot water (just from the tap) and let the stopper soften up. Pour the water out, turn the carboy upside down and monkey around with it until the tapered end is sitting in the neck. Then, try pulling it out with a pair of needlenose pliers.

Same thing happened to me and that managed to get it out. Not before a few f-bombs, though.
 
TipsyDragon said:
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.
Click to expand...

Put a plastic bag into the carboy, trap the stopper in the bag, pull. Be careful manipulating the carboy.
 
TipsyDragon said:
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.
Click to expand...

Here is a pretty neat trick to get that out, get a thin cloth napkin (like what you use at a restaurant) shove half of it in the carboy, turn said carboy upside down. When the stopper comes to the head of the carboy make sure its the small side down (may take a few tries) and pull the napkin out. Shizam, its a great table trick with wine bottles and a cork, I would assume it should work with your carboy, never tried though. You could always get acetone at your local auto shop and just dissolve it (heat up the acetone it will go faster). Just make sure to rinse out your carboy really well.

As for my worst brewing accident. I was at a buddies house brewing and he has his wort chiller hooked up to the sink. Well we were fairly hosed and started to cool off the boiled wort, it took me about 5 seconds to realize that the hot end of the wort chiller was pouring down my leg. I proceeded to jump around and yell a bit while trying to stick the water into the sink, until we were both laughing hysterically. I wasnt burned to bad (yes I was in shorts) but it was a hell of a shocker. Guess it wasnt really that bad but it was funny as hell.

And of course I have had those random mishaps of not putting a blow off when it needed one, thats always a nice mess.
 
On my second AG, I tried to brew a 10 gallon Oatmeal Stout. Of course, when I started sparging it got stuck. I blew back through the spigot with no results. I tried to heat my keggle to thin it out, but that didn't work. I decided, with the help of a friend, to scoop out some grain with rubber gloves. My hands were so hot I could only last three seconds without regrouping. Then I pulled out the manifold and cleaned it out. Yet, six weeks later I was so surprised that had a rather nice beer. It was named after the street I lived on, Miracle on 10th Avenue Oatmeal Stout. I even brewed it again without so much trouble.
 
My worst brewing experience usually happens when the beer starts tasting marvelous. It means that the keg is almost tapped...
Then I get the pleasure of running out of gas before the last pulls of my brew.
Im gonna go cry now
-Me
 
as i ran my Odell's Easy Street clone from the kettle to the carboy, i went to check on the chicken on the grill during which time, the funnel clogged up and spilled a gallon of the sweetest wort onto the drive, then down into the street. after swearing and spraying the driveway off, i made a sweet tea from what i had:

-8 oz corn sugar
-4 oz honey
-6 oz of light malt extract
-8 oz chopped lemongrass

i boiled the tea for 5 min. with 3 qts of water, then chilled and added it to the fermenter.

after 2 weeks, it is pretty good. a little thin tasting, but not bad considering.
 
TomInMaine said:
Ok this need more explaining. carboy of wort in POOL.:mug::mug:

Great topic.
Click to expand...

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f13/dumbest-thing-ive-done-so-far-126971/#post1417867

I still cool my boilpot in the pool (with a floatie pool noodle wrapped around it, and IC inside).

P4040022.JPG
 
Last summer I was carrying a carboy full of red ale wort down to my basement. A step gave under me and I let go of the carboy, which I then proceeded to watch as it bounced down the steps and went *smash* on the basement floor.

Now I do all my primaries in plastic.
 
the only disaster i have so far (just now on 2nd batch) was on the first i wasn't monitoring my kettle when it hit the hot break. I caught it before it got too bad. It looked like someone poured a cup of honey water on my stove....
 
My second boil over managed to get malt behind the cover to my oven and a malty streak has been there since. I've moved outside and laughed off many simple boil overs since.

Oh, and I've had some nasty infections and one beer from LHBS where I pitched an ale and champaign yeast simultaneously and let's just say GROSS!!!!
 
Homercidal said:
Sorry, I have not yet had any real homebrewing disasters. I like your guys' though! ;)
Click to expand...

You better knock on some wood!!! :)

The first time I carbed up using the shake method I failed to use a hose clamp on the beer out line. The line popped off and sprayed ALL OVER my living room - I was finding spots of beer that I missed while cleaning for months...and I maintain a clean house! Lessons learned: 1 - always, always, always use hose clamps; 2 - there is no reason to have the beer-out line connected when shaking the kegs

The second disaster was when I failed to use a blow-off tube when I first used my better bottle. The bung popped off and beer exploded everywhere. It was so bad I had to repaint the ceiling!!
 
hokster said:
Last summer I was carrying a carboy full of red ale wort down to my basement. A step gave under me and I let go of the carboy, which I then proceeded to watch as it bounced down the steps and went *smash* on the basement floor.

Now I do all my primaries in plastic.
Click to expand...

You should fix the steps
 
I quit I'm sure about a year ago. I went back to read all the McNair rumor stuff they would have obviously had, but the site was gone.
 
I haven't had any major disasters with my beer, just one with a carboy I was cleaning. (link) I was cleaning it after kegging the beer, and for no apparent reason, it just broke. The result was a severed tendon and nerve. I had surgery to repair the damage, and still have no feeling in my index and middle finger. The feeling in my thumb is coming back, and I can feel a little bit in my middle finger, so I have hopes of getting back to normal.

I did have a small leak in my kegerator once, which left quite a bit of beer on the floor of the kegerator, but I caught it before dumping the whole batch.
 
Oh I had forgotten about a batch I made with a roommate about 10-12 years ago. It was happily bubbling away in the sink in a carboy when the blow-off tube clogged up overnight, resulting in a HUGE explosion at about 3 or 4 in the morning. There was glass and beer stuck to the ceiling, not to mention the walls and floors, of the kitchen and both adjoining rooms. It is for that reason that I will never again use glass carboys. If anyone had been in the kitchen when that thing went off, they'd have been seriously injured.
 
On my first batch I took my eyes off the pot for a minute and it boiled over, making a huge mess on the stove. The wort was smoking on the burner and set off the fire alarm. I had to take apart the stove to clean it. My wife was pissed to say the least.
 
Feeling your pain guys... just this morning I went to check on my first attempt at a lager. Its winter in NZ so I am fermenting in my plastic carboy inside a 200l food grade plastic container (which is wrapped in blankets and a duvet, and sitting on some foam pads to insulate it all) using the swamp cooler method. Will refer to the larger barrel as the ferm chamber from here on. I got this set up down to 10 degrees in the middle of summer so am confident I can get it down to 2-3 degrees in winter for lagering - Winter is about 10-12 degrees cooler than the summer here...

Anyhoo put the batch down last night and go to check the temp and replace the sole bottle of ice (aiming for 10c or 50F) pull the barrel up to check what the thermometer reading is... got a stick on job down to 10C. No colours... so I go to have a closer look thinking that only one bottle of ice shouldn't be quite enough to get it under 10 although it was probably only 11 over night... when the fermenter slides off the side of the barrel and crashes almost sideways into the ferm chamber... not glass so maybe not the biggest deal... until i realised I'd popped the bloody tap of the barrel and there was beer hosing out into the ferm chamber.

At this stage I am already 10 mins late for work so dropping the F and C bomb liberally, I slid the fermenter onto its side (nearly breaking the airlock at the time, as the whole thing without the airlock just fits inside the ferm chamber on its side, grabbed the tap. Aside from a broken sediment reducer it appeared to be ok so screwed it back in and decided that I had the sh*ts with the whole think so threw two more bottles of ice in and will check it tonight... hopefully the tap has just popped out and not cracked the fermenter housing otherwise the fermenter will be empty when I get home. If not then I will have lost about 5L of beer which sux but otherwise survivable... but I will have to unwrap the barrel, empty the beer/wort out, clean and re-sanitise, re-fill, re-check and probably take the tap back off and resanitise along with the airlock... so a one second screw up that will cost me minimum of 2 hours work and 5L of beer... NOT a happy start to the day!

The only plus is that I only pitched the yeast yesterday so provided I didn't lose it all out of the fermenter oxidation will not be a big issue... although probably will have a laggy start so there will be an infection risk.

I will update once I get home and re-survey the damage!
 
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.
 
^^^ 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.
 
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 ...
 
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.
 
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.
 
TipsyDragon said:
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.
Click to expand...

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!!!!)

2012-02-04_14-58-39_876.jpg
 
beerloin said:
8) forget what i said above, and try the napkin trick (i knew i should have come on HBT first before trying my way!!!!)
Click to expand...

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 :D
 
emmdubb23 said:
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.
Click to expand...

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...
 
Rank_Amateur said:
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...
Click to expand...

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

20120526_090204.jpg
 

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