Your "uh oh...." moments....

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seatazzz

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Sitting here waiting for the boil to finish and just thought to myself...I've got 6 total kegs. All are full or almost full. What the heck am I going to do with this one? No room in the budget for more cornies and I don't want to bottle anymore. Should have one finished by the time this one is ready to keg, but it got me to wondering...what are your most memorable "oh crap!!" moments, and how did you react?
 
Had too many while brewing a double batch and pitched two Wyeast packs into the same bucket. The other had to do with the dregs from each package since it was 9pm and the HBT was closed the next day.

I don't remember it being terrible, but wasn't good.
 
Last year I was getting started and ran out of propane while heating the hot liquor. While in line to get propane from the U-haul shop their metering broke but it was still dispensing fuel so I had to talk them into charging for the fuel by the weight. I got both tanks filled and they only charged me for about half of the fuel I got as a courtesy for the BS.
 
I have one from today. I was kegging a cider and somehow inadvertently pulled the siphon hose out of the keg and covered half the kitchen floor with hard cider before I realized what was happening. Good thing SWMBO wasn’t home.
 
Last brew day...dumped the water that was preheating the cooler mash tun...dumped in the strike water and added grains...stir really well, check temp and put top back on...turn to set timer on phone and there is the cpvc manifold right next to the phone...

Freaked for a moment...said oh well got a paint strainer bag let it sit for an hour put the bag into a bucket dumped the whole thing into said bucket drain and sparged as usual

Hit my numbers on the money!
 
Last brew day...dumped the water that was preheating the cooler mash tun...dumped in the strike water and added grains...stir really well, check temp and put top back on...turn to set timer on phone and there is the cpvc manifold right next to the phone...

Freaked for a moment...said oh well got a paint strainer bag let it sit for an hour put the bag into a bucket dumped the whole thing into said bucket drain and sparged as usual

Hit my numbers on the money!

I did that last year with my old cooler mash tun..as I recall it was one of the best batches to come out of that setup.
 
Like the last two posts, heated my mash water, dumped the grain into the mash tun with the water, RIMS stopped working. Realized I didn't put the false bottom in the mash tun. Proceeded to scoop everything out, clean the tun, put in the false bottom, then return it all and return to temp. Sooooooo smart.
 
I've had so many of these moments I'd be way too embarrassed to list them all.

Batch #2, I opened the first bottle and the pressure literally blew the bottle opener out of my hand and it went flying into the ceiling fan. It was as loud as a firecracker.

Ran out of propane? Why sure!

Pitching the wrong yeast? How about pitching no yeast for 3 days!

5 infected batches in a row? Check!

Dropping things inside the fermenter and not being able to find them for weeks.

A favorite fond memory, my scale went bad and I accidentally added 3x the amount of black patent and hops to my beer........ my 15 gallon batch of beer.

You guys really shouldn't take brewing advice from me!
 
I had another one just yesterday. Was kegging at the brewery by myself (boss was doing construction things at the new digs) and in the middle of running sanitizer into a keg the control panel went out. I just about peed myself, that thing is expensive. Finally had to call the boss to find out where the reset was (way up high on a wall behind the kettles) and got it going again. Then while kegging this morning got to yakking about something and overfilled the keg. Good thing I know where the mop & bucket are...
 
Running water slowly through my carbon filter to remove chlorine in the kitchen into a 20L bucket only to get distracted waiting for it to fill reading stuff on my computer. Needless to say i was in the kitchen pretty quickly when i heard the overflowing water hit the floor from the next room.
 
This one is barely even "uh-oh" and more "really, dumby?"

I got a keg last christmas---my first one. I was so anxious on kegging day that I decided to go with the shake-method to carb up my beer faster. I also had decided to dry hop in the keg. Unfortunately, I added the hop bag and THEN SHOOK THE KEG. Boy, that was dumb. Every single glass of that beer had to be poured and allowed to settle for a few minutes. Frankly, I hated it. Dry and astringent, way too much centennial dry hop character. I gave half of that keg away in an afternoon when I found drinkers who liked it.
 
Running water slowly through my carbon filter to remove chlorine in the kitchen into a 20L bucket only to get distracted waiting for it to fill reading stuff on my computer. Needless to say i was in the kitchen pretty quickly when i heard the overflowing water hit the floor from the next room.

I used to do the same, and many times caught them just before overflowing or half a minute later. :smack: I resolved both issues by using Campden/Meta.

Although it doesn't help unattended buckets from overflowing, it's much better and faster using a quarter Campden tablet or a 1/16 of a teaspoon (a good pinch) of Sodium or Potassium Metabisulfite ("Meta") powder per 5 gallons/20 liters to remove Chlorine or Chloramines from water.

Also, don't use an aerator on the faucet or let the water splash wildly into the vessel. The less air in the water the better (LODO).

Now one day I hear water trickling in my lower level den. Sure enough, water was coming down. From the kitchen. The plastic tubing that feeds the freezer's ice maker had developed a pinhole, out of the blue. Amazing how much water that tiny hole yielded, half a bucket in 15 minutes. Glad I was home and noticed it in time. Lesson learned, we now shut the mains off when we leave for extended times.
 
started kegging last saturday and my wifes water broke right at the end.....forgot to purge o2 before leaving it for 4 days....still didnt turn out bad. Also, last batch of lager, pitched the stir bar w/ the starter, so had to buy another to keep going on the next brew....Oh and the first time I used my DIY mash tun, the PVC manifold I made came apart after adding strike water. I had to put on rubber gloves to re assemble without burning my hands.
 
Thank goodness the only "uh-oh" moments I've really had have been minor. After 30 some odd batches I knock on wood every time I think of that. The laws of probability are waiting to pounce, I'm sure.

First time I used a bottling bucket I forgot to close the spigot after standing there telling my better half that I was "really paying attention to all the details and not going to make a mess I promise Babe!" Ten seconds later I was scrambling to shut the valve off as kvass goes splashing down on to the (thank god) towels I had in place for any spills on the (thank god) tile floor. All I could do was point to the towels and say "See Babe? I'm prepared! And the floor's tile, too! :D"

Needless to say all valves are very clearly marked on all my equipment now, and I'm a little ocd about them.

Btw, great thread! Fun reading and educational at the same time.

Cheers Bud!
:mug:
 
I don't have great ones..

I have had a flood due to turning on the water to cool a pot in the kitchen sink, going to the basement, realized that I didn't turn off the water when it started pouring in the basement.

Boil overs while typing a response on HBT.

Burning a hole in the tubing of my IC. Luckily I keep spare tubing on hand.

After a move from RI to FL, I found it almost impossible to cool my wort even with a swamp cooler so it was 36 hours before I bought a chest freezer, got the temperature down and pitched the yeast.

Last bottling day, Started siphon into the bottling bucket, then realized that I had not made a priming solution. Stop siphon, make priming solution then continue.
 
Once...just once, I dumped the water into my 7 gal Rubbermaid mash tun, stirred in the grain...looked to the right and saw my bazooka strainer sitting there...OOPS! I had to pour is all out (into a bucket) to screw the strainer in place.
 
Last bottling day, Started siphon into the bottling bucket, then realized that I had not made a priming solution. Stop siphon, make priming solution then continue.

I know MOST people add the priming sugar to the bucket first, but I don't. I fill the bucket first to make sure of the volume to be primed to make sure I don't over/under prime. I give the beer a slow swirl and slowly pour the priming solution in. I also give it a few swirls during bottling to make sure it stays more homogenized.
 
I know MOST people add the priming sugar to the bucket first, but I don't. I fill the bucket first to make sure of the volume to be primed to make sure I don't over/under prime. I give the beer a slow swirl and slowly pour the priming solution in. I also give it a few swirls during bottling to make sure it stays more homogenized.

I have my Better Bottles marked so I am within a quarter gallon of knowing what will be in the bottling bucket. I start the siphon with the tube curling around the side at the bottom. This creates a vortex. I then add the priming solution and it mixes well with no extra stirring.
 
Twas making the Mosaic Honey Wheat recipe from this forum in a gallon size yesterday, when a friend stopped in to borrow my chainsaw. While talking to him and trying to take a mash step temp, I dropped my digital thermo into mash. First instinct reaction was to grab it, which pushed it under the mash and thru my BIAB bag and centered it perfectly in the hole of the ball valve. Had to break out BBQ tongs to retrieve. Pushing on with same batch, hit all my numbers, and hooked up wort chiller. ( I use pump and water iced from our koi pond ice in the sink ) We went out to get chainsaw, came back in 15 minutes later to find that hose on intake side had cracked and a nice slow stream of pond water was now filling my kettle up to about the pre boil volume. Said friend is not allowed back on brew days.

Boil overs? Aren't they the true baptism of home brewers?
 
not sure how this one happened, but poured wort into the brew bucket and the CLOSED ball valve did not close. Wort came pouring through and I did not recognize this until I had poured the entire kettle in. Fortuantely, I was able to hook up a tube to said ball valve and run it into a carboy with only about a quart of loss. I have never been able to recreate that episode again - I have tried a number of times, but it never repeated itself.
 
First time I used my “last straw” bottle filler, I unscrewed the end cap to take all the small parts out to sanitize them. Put the wand into my half full bucket of starsan. Was trying to kill off the last half of a keg to make room for the next. Hooked up the beer out hose, and proceeded to organize bottles.

Didn’t notice my starsan bucket was getting more full. Who would notice that. Without the end cap, I free flowed the whole keg right into my starsan bucket.
 
Wow, there have been so many "uh oh" moments that it's hard to pick them out. Missing times for hop additions or other additions? Leaving the ball valve on the kettle open when I start adding water (or worse, wort from the mash tun)?

They say we learn from our mistakes; I must be pretty darned smart then. :)

*************

The most recent one was pumping strike water from BK into the mash tun through the ball valve for underletting the grist. Working fine, just like it's supposed to. The pump drains the kettle, I shut it off while using a hemostat to clamp the two hoses. I then proceed to remove the camlock disconnect from the mash tun. The hose is clamped off, right? So nothing should leak, right?

Wrong. Somebody forgot to close the ball valve, which proceeded to put a stream of water/wort right on the floor. I hurriedly tried to close the valve but it has/had one of those sliding clips to hold it locked into place---in the open position. I managed to get it closed, lost about a quart and a half of water/wort.

That sliding clip for locking? It's been removed. And the operator? He's even smarter now. :)
 
I am absolutely loving reading these. In two+ years of homebrewing I've had some really stupid moments..knowing that my fellows have had most of the same moments as me makes me feel much better. And that's why we're all here on HBT, in my opinion.....
 
After chilling the second batch of a very tiring back-to-back brewday last weekend, I turn around to find an ounce of flameout hops sitting in Dixie cup on my brewing table. Oops! This was the first blatant ingredient/brewing process mistake I've made in almost 4 years of brewing.

I figured RWDHAHB, I'll just throw it in with the dry hops.
 
First one was brewing without a chiller.
It was my first brew, and I had heard of using an ice bath in the sink to cool wort. So I figured I’d do that. I should have made sure my kettle fit in the sink first. Wound up carrying the kettle and ice upstairs and filling the bath tub.

Second time:
When Brewing in New York in the winter, make sure the hose is thawed out.
Ended up bringing the 40 foot hose into the house and running it under hot water in the sink. That created a pond in the kitchen. On the bright side I Started cooling wort about 2 hours post boil.
Oh and there were plenty of late hop additions, that got way more time than intended.
Lesson learned.
 
This one is barely even "uh-oh" and more "really, dumby?"

I got a keg last christmas---my first one. I was so anxious on kegging day that I decided to go with the shake-method to carb up my beer faster. I also had decided to dry hop in the keg. Unfortunately, I added the hop bag and THEN SHOOK THE KEG. Boy, that was dumb. Every single glass of that beer had to be poured and allowed to settle for a few minutes. Frankly, I hated it. Dry and astringent, way too much centennial dry hop character. I gave half of that keg away in an afternoon when I found drinkers who liked it.

The very first beer I kegged was my Arrogant Bastard clone. Beer was terrific, and I had grand visions of pouring many pints from it. I didn't read up or research on how to force carb, and I wasted about 3/4 of the beer in that keg pouring foam out of it before I figured it out. Once I did, got about 5 more pints before the keg kicked and I had nothing in the pipeline to hit next.
 
Two brews ago I was transferring a NEIPA from the BK to the fermenter. I wanted to keep the trub in the BK so I set it on a 4” three ring binder to gain height for my ball valve. I use this method on my fermenter all the time so no worries right??? No, this time the binder shifted when about 1.5 gallons were transferred. The BK fell to the garage floor and dumped green wort all over the garage floor and me. I scooped up the BK and somehow had enough to get 4.5 total gallons into the fermenter, trub and all. Topped off with distilled water and made one of my better beers to date. I am sure there will be more, but I hope nothing as bad as that.
 
I may have added columbus instead of azacca as a dry hop in my neipa, still a damn good taste but I can smell the hint of columbus everytime I take a sip so I know it's there
 
#1 2nd allgrain brewday, read the therm as C instead of F
#2 Boil over check
#3 no priming sugar prepared check
#4 Ran my strike water to the MT, then when adding the next batch of water to the HLT valve still open and running room temp water to the MT! thin mash that day.
#5hose running too near the burner grabbed it to get more slack and it would up in the flame and also divided in two.
#6Dripped a little wort on the garage floor near the bruner, no big deal right? until the dog goes to have a treat and lick it up and you smell hair burning! no animals were harmed in the making of this beer.
#7 Star san remaining in the bottling bucket, only realized AFTER you have the whole batch of beer also added to the Bottling bucket.

that is all that come to mind... ahh the joys of homebrewing, relax dont worry have a homebrew.
 
I only noticed 13 batches in to this hobby/obsession that my pants are getting tight. I dunno why but I wasn't anticipating that.

Proudly displayed on the wall of my garage are two empty 55lb grain sacks as evidence. Have I mentioned that I end up drinking the majority of my beer?

Now I'm trying to get interested in low gravity beers and my exercise bike.
 
Bottling one of my batches, I heated up my priming sugar in the amount of water needed. Got everything ready to bottle, did the whole bottling process, started cleaning up and noticed the priming sugar solution still sitting on the stove. Went to the LHBS and picked up some carb drops, opened every bottle and added a drop and recapped. The batch actually turned out pretty good and was carbed nicely.
 
My very first brew, I went in with a buddy and we split the batch. It was bottling day and we were over at his house. We had the priming solution in the bottling bucket and were trying to get the siphon going but it would peter out almost immediately. After about 10 times, I took a swig of our Iodopher and gargled with it for a minute and started the siphon with my mouth. I was startled when the beer hit my mouth and spit it into the bottling bucket on reflex. His eyes got big and we both glanced at the wives. They hadn't noticed so we silently agreed to keep the 'oops' between us. Beer turned out great but I ordered an auto-siphon that night.

Fast-forward a couple years. I had just fermented a 10-gallon batch (which is still to-date my ONLY 10-gallon batch). I racked 1 gallon into a jug with some Brett then bottled the rest. As I am cleaning up, I notice I still have a nice, clean, sanitized, 1-gallon jug on the counter and realize that I racked to the wrong jug. Oh well! A year later I had a gallon of good malt vinegar.
 
I had one 2 brew sessions ago and I've been brewing for 10 years.

I was mashing in, had been a minute or so, saw water on the floor...thought, what the hell? Forgot to close the damn valve on the mashtun! Lost only like 2 quarts...just rolled with it since I was adding starter wort anyway. Hadn't made an eff up like that in a long time. Wasn't a good brew session, but the beer turned out okay.
 
I was bottling a Quad that I had aged on cherries so it had a nice deep red/purple color to it. In trying to clean the filled bottles on the counter I knocked 3 off the island and onto the carpet...of course white carpet. SWMBO was less than impressed and I cleaned that spot endlessly. Needless to say, there is now a rug over that area of the floor and somehow I still haven't convinced SWMBO that I need a kegerator o_O
 
Good brew session making 12 gallons of Red Stripe Clone. It was quite cold outside but had only recently dropped in temp so I assumed that the house faucet would still function for cooling the wort. It didn't. 6 hours later after sitting in 17°F the wort was cool enough to transfer to the fermenter. Beer turned out great but lacks clarity despite using gelatin.

Outdoor winter brewing is fun.
 
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