Worst Homebrewing Mistakes - HBT Article

[joshesmusica]

These are some things that seem to be common throughout the "help I'm a noob" threads:

1. Not reading up enough on simple brewing techniques and just trying to figure things out as you go.

2. Not having some kind of ferment temp control.

3. Trusting the guy at the lhbs, whether that be in buying equipment, ingredients, and/or instructions on brewing techniques.

4. Not pitching enough yeast, and/or not handling yeast properly.

5. Being impatient and racking/packaging too early.

6. Not brewing a proven recipe.

7. Trusting kit instructions.

8. Not becoming a member here first and reading through a lot of the aforementioned "help a noob" threads.

9. Going off of airlock activity when determining when fermentation is completed, instead of gravity measurements, and/or measuring FG with a refractometer.

10. Dumping out a beer because you realized you made one of the previous mistakes and therefore assumed the batch was ruined.

 

[ZebulonBrewer]

Last year about 1/2 my batches were bottled without stirring the priming sugar, resulting in varying degrees of carbonation, which was sad, because it's hard to fully assess a recipe/process if the last step (carbonation) was screwed up.

Everyone else's comments are great, especially the not needing 5 gallons of starson (though it's not really a mistake, but an optimization of your brew day)

 

[JonM]

Treating every batch like your life depends on a successful outcome.

It's not the last batch you'll ever brew. If something's not perfect this time, make note of what you did and do something else next time. Don't freak out over every little imperfection. In other words, RDWHAHB.

 

[oljimmy]

Storage. Keeping carbed/carbing bottles in 75F or less. Not only does this greatly increase shelf-life, last year I nearly murdered my own cat with a pair of exploding bottles in 105F temps. Poor little guy escaped harm but it could have been a lot worse!

 

[coyotebrew]

Not enough oxygenation, pitching yeast too hot, remove from primary too soon.

 

[Spartan300man]

Local home brew supply store ground half of my grains and put in bag with the other half not ground. Figuring out the oddity in my OG after my mash was really stumping me, until I looked closely at the BIAB grains I dumped in the compost pile. Talk about low efficiency!

 

[joshesmusica]

Treating every batch like your life depends on a successful outcome.

It's not the last batch you'll ever brew. If something's not perfect this time, make note of what you did and do something else next time. Don't freak out over every little imperfection. In other words, RDWHAHB.

You had me until that last sentence!

ersonal pet peeve:

 

[obie]

Using PBW on Aluminum.

 

[normonster]

Thinking through every detail of system design only to find you've overlooked ferm temp control.

 

[normonster]

Some of my more spectacular SNAFUs:



--Not being mindful of fermentation temps. Had an IPA fermenting close to 80.

--Not being mindful of sanitation. Ended up with 50 bottles of nasty, sour Irish red that erupted upon opening.

--Bottling, then noticing after about 30 were capped, the priming sugar solution still sitting on the counter.

--Bought a bunch of QD connectors for the water going in and out of my IC. Didn't bother to run a pressure test with those cheap, Chinese fittings beforehand. On brew day, it was like a water park in my garage.

Dude, you just lol'd they shiz outa me. Hilarious.

 

[Teromous]

I guess this is more a combo list of advice, issues, etc from my brew days:

Don't mix up 5.2 and PBW. They kind-of look the same but they are not.
Don't forget to label everything including grains, cleaning solution, and beer bottles.
Don't rely on one propane tank.
Don't forget to check your valves before doing anything.
Don't mix up your hoses when they are connected.
Don't forget to make sure that your screen (or whatever you use in your MT) is in place before you mash in.
Don't forget to crush your grains before you mash in.
Don't tie off you hop bag to the pot and let the string dangle over open flame.
Don't fill your pot or mash tun until you're sure that it's on a stable, sturdy, and flat surface.
Don't brew on days or hours your LHBS are closed (optional but it helps).
Don't brew until you know where everything is and that everything turns on, operates, etc.
Don't forget to check the weather if you brew outside.
Don't forget to check your water spigot if you brew outside in the cold.
Don't brew when you see city workers messing with sewer systems, water pipes, or road construction near your house.
Don't forget to have spare extract and yeast on hand.

 

[kwgriz]

I went to the homebrew store (2 hours from my house) to buy some grain and a packet of Wyeast 3711 French Saison. Two nights before brewing I made a starter, added the yeast, yeast nutrient, and even oxygenated it. As I was holding it in one hand, slowly swirling the flask, I reached out with my other hand to grab my stir plate. Unfortunately, I was too close to the edge of my granite countertop, and half a swirl later, glass met stone, and CRACK! My entire starter with the yeast in it was on the floor.

The next day I called up the homebrew store to see if they had any Saison yeast. Turns out they had completely run out, White Labs as well as Wyeast, all Saison strains, were gone!

So I put the grains on the shelf and ordered a new pack of Saison online. Had to delay brewing by a week. The moral of the story is, be VERY careful with glass flasks around granite!!

 

[MannyEdwards]

Wow. Knowing this group of people, I figured I'd get some useful feedback, but you guys have really stepped up. I'm very grateful. I hope the article lives up to your generous input. Cheers!

 

[MannyEdwards]

And hey, if you got more, keep it coming. I can revise up to the last second, no problem.

 

[kdw2pd]

Failing to calibrate your thermometer can wreck your brew in so, so many different spots.

 

[Chris_Primavera]

1. Leaving the cover on the thermopop (it has holes in it) thinking it wouldn't matter - mashed at 162°F

2. Putting the wort chiller into the kettle with five minutes left in the boil and melting the hoses where they passed the bottom of the kettle.

3. Leaving the probe out of the fermentation chamber and cold crashing on the first day.

4. Running out of beer and thinking it would be OK to take a 1.062 IPA from grain to glass in three weeks.

 

[hockeybrewer]

Putting your round floating thermometer on the table and turning around to mash in.
Squeezing your steeped grains like they owe you money.
Flicking the foam off your hydrometer while holding the skinny end.
Not using a blow off tube on a hefenweizer.
Trusting your $3 glass carboy handle while its full of beer.(caught it just in time)
Doing a 2 gallon boil in a 2.5 gallon pot.

 

[Cheesy_Goodness]

One more...
My LHBS either didn't tell me or or I didn't hear the part about krausen. I got a 6 gal bucket and a 5 gal carboy with my first kit (I'm sure you can see where this is going).
My primary for a 5 gallon batch of beer was the 5 gallon carboy. I noticed some beer in the airlock the next morning but didn't think anything of it. After 5 minutes of research at work I headed home for lunch in the nick of time. The airlock had already mostly clogged and when I took off the bung...let's just say it was a good thing I had everything in the guest shower

 

[joshesmusica]

4. Running out of beer and thinking it would be OK to take a 1.062 IPA from grain to glass in three weeks.

If you're kegging it, I don't see what the problem is.

 

[bhchrist]

The first cousin of not checking valves: Not checking hose clamps.

 

[Gavin C]

Using pH 5.2 Magic mash stabilizer.

 

[Chris_Primavera]

If you're kegging it, I don't see what the problem is.

2 Weeks primary / 1 week bottle conditioning = meh

Beer was much better two weeks in, but by then it was mostly gone.

I have my best results with 3+2 weeks

 

[joshesmusica]

2 Weeks primary / 1 week bottle conditioning = meh

Beer was much better two weeks in, but by then it was mostly gone.

I have my best results with 3+2 weeks

that's why i said, "if you're kegging it..."

i find really good results with 2-3 + 3 when bottling. but i don't store my bottles really warm.

 

[MannyEdwards]

Liked it before, liked it again. Great stuff @markstache . Hats off

OP. There's your article

Yes, that's going to make it. Man, that was funny!

 

[MannyEdwards]

If you have any pictures of your mistakes, feel free to share them, and I may include them in the article (with attribution and your permission, of course!). I'm thinking pictures like a bad ferm, a messy blowout, a pot full of carbonized extract, exploded bottles, that kind of thing.

 

[passedpawn]

If you have any pictures of your mistakes, feel free to share them

If you're looking for pictures, you could use this video. Mistakes here:

1) don't float your boil kettle in the pool with a pool noodle duct taped to the pot; if it rains, big problem
2) Dogs are not sanitary - keep them away
3) Lift with your legs, not your back!
4) Don't use an airlock when making a starter, totally defeats the purpose
5) Leave some headspace for krausen. Don't fill the fermentor to the rim for gods' sake, derp.

[ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y8CAyasNwag[/ame]

 

[ECBrew]

Do NOT stand close to your turkey fryer burner on full blast while wearing corduroy or other flammable type material pants. Easy to do on a cold brew day, or while checking the floating thermometer or adding hops to the kettle. Said pants WILL catch fire, and you will quickly be drawn back to the time when you were a child and learned stop, drop, and roll! That was the one biggest mistake I've ever made in my 11 years brewing and now we have a smoked porter named after the incident, "burning man" or alternately "smoked porturoy". Luckily my burns healed up and are now unnoticeable, but it took a while and treating burns is not fun. Have pics somewhere but I'm sure you don't need any gore in your article.