BeerBorg

I figured it would make for some interesting reading by both newbie and long time brewers alike to share some of the things, funny and maddening, that have disrupted a typical brewday. I'll start it off with something I did about a year ago...

Brewed a five gallon batch of Rye beer and the whole day went great, until an hour later when saw the yeast I was supposed to pitch still sitting on the table.

Had a full rolling boil going for about 15 minutes and decided it was a good idea to move the thermometer that was clipped to the side of the pot. (Please note, those also get a bit warm during the boil.) Un-clipped and proceeded to drop it directly into the boil. Thank goodness for long handled grilling tongs. Took me about 5 minutes of fishing until I could get a good hold on it. Was ticked at first, but as I fished the comedy became evident. Probably would have got it out sooner if I wasn't laughing so much...

My first AG batch wanted to keep it simple and did a SMaSH,started at 11:30 am Sunday, it was going ok I was just getting the wort up to boil and the digital thermometer dove into the boil. Got it all dried and thought had it working again, was in the chill process and it took a dive in again! Got it dried and working again, and no matter what I did I couldn't get the wort under 91 degrees, ice bath along with the chiller nothing worked, also did not have a temp strip for new Ale Pail, I'm flipping out my first AG is gonna be ruined! after adding 2 un needed hours into the brew day, I said WTH and pitched the yeast on what I thought was upper 80's wort. It is now 9 pm, took down in the basement, packed it with ice packs and came back with temp strip Monday nite and found my digital thermometer killed itself and was reading 20 high. Had to put heating pads to get the yeast to wake up, but in the end it was a fantastic tasting beer and I now keep the important part of the digital away from drowning opportunities!

See this thread
viewtopic.php?f=7&t=3553

I was quite amused this past brew session when I had my chiller hooked up and forgot to put the thermometer into the port I added. Wort, at 75 degrees (Chiller worked!), came shooting out of the port sideways like a man peeing on a tree! A quick "oh crap" moment ensued until I crammed the thermometer in to the port. Amusing now, but wasn't while it was piling up on the rest of the day mishaps.

One of my first AG batches. I can't remember the recipe, but I definitely remember the experience.

I had just switched from a metal braid to a CPVC manifold, and while I wasn't pleased with the connection to the draining nipple, it had been working okay. But I guess I disengaged it while mashing in, because shortly after I started the first runnings, it clogged. Somehow, I had to re-attach it, but after numerous attempts at reaching through 155 degree water/wet grains, complete with screaming many bad words in pain and frustration, I just scooped the mash into a large bowl until I could reach in and quickly put it back on. Then I scooped the stuff back in, and proceeded with the rest of the day, which went fairly uneventful, and I did end up with beer. I also ended up having a raw burn on the back of my hand, after removing a layer of two of skin in a two-inch patch at the base of my thumb.

Fortunately, the Borg came through again, and DRabbit suggested a piece of tubing to make the connection tighter, but still able to be taken out for cleaning. I'm also a lot more careful when I stir.

Then there was the time my glass thermometer broke in the wort, and I had to dump 2.5 gallons of mercury-and-glass contaminated wort. I have since switched to a digital, and am much happier. And safer.

ScrewyBrewer wrote:I figured it would make for some interesting reading by both newbie and long time brewers alike to share some of the things, funny and maddening, that have disrupted a typical brewday. I'll start it off with something I did about a year ago...

Brewed a five gallon batch of Rye beer and the whole day went great, until an hour later when saw the yeast I was supposed to pitch still sitting on the table.

That would take a long time to ferment....

I can't recall any epic mishaps outside of the mead I made after purchasing a clearance box of 16oz jars of honey that had all been prepackaged for a baker that went out of business. It said 16 oz jars on the box with the jars in it. I new that I needed X lbs of honey and so I added that many jars to some warm water and it didn't look right. I took a gravity measurement thinking OK maybe it's just thicker because it's a sack mead. It wasn't even on the scale for my hydrometer. After a while of panicking I just decided to double the batch. While I was waiting for it to cool I started cleaning the jars and the jar was labeled "16 fl oz".

While brewing over my daughter's house my ten gallon kettle straddled three burners on her stove. After shoveling snow into the pre-chiller the immersion chiller was taking a lot longer than ever to cool down the wort.

Fifteen minutes later I looked behind the kettle and sure enough we had forgotten to turn off the third burner. I made a mental note that day to never do that again.

Brewing a batch of Chocolate Brown, I had already cooled the wort and pitched the yeast into one of my fermenter buckets. I already had another bucket in the chamber, and when I tried to put the 2nd bucket in, it was then that I realized it wouldn't fit. In a panic, I ran and grabbed an LBK and sanitized it quickly. Trying to transfer the beer into the LBK from the bucket, I ended up spilling a good quart of it on the floor! I was pissed and worried that I may have dumped out a bunch of yeast with it so that it may not have fermented. Fortunately it did ferment, but on bottling day, the f&%^%cking spigot on the LBK cracked! I begged my wife to grab my bottling bucket and I just let it sit on the floor when I just broke the spigot off completely, letting the beer rush out. That day, I threw away both of my LBKs and swore up and down while I was bottling the beer.

The moral of the story? This was the best batch of Choco Brown I ever brewed and Iwas lucky it didn't oxidize!

Did you know sanitizer will put out grass fires?

More on that when it's not so late. I'm going to bed.

Inkleg wrote:Did you know sanitizer will put out grass fires?

More on that when it's not so late. I'm going to bed.

Hmmmm... interesting!

Looked away from a pot that had lots of DME in it that was not foaming up at all for 30 seconds.

Came back to a huge fooking mess, got into the gas burner, had to use a wire brush to get that burner working again.

Most memorable mishap was the exploding glass carboy but that wasn't on brew day as such, and perhaps could be categorized as worse then a mishap... (5 gallons of wort seeping through second floor of old house, glass shards embedded in the walls, it was ugly). I've posted that story a few times here and on the old Mr. Beer forum.

Although this really isnt a beer story, it is probably the worst mess Ive made. Was making my first fruit wine and didnt realize you add the fruit until AFTER fermentation is done and the yeast killed off. Dumped the fruit into the carboy and gave it a quick stir. Half the 6 gallon batch shot out of the top and onto my basement ceiling. Amusingly enough, the wife still thinks that was one of my better wines, so Im not sure if she just really liked it or my other wines suck....

Only memorable mishap was dropping my mash on the kitchen floor when moving the pot (with grain bag inside) adjacent to the stove. Grain stayed in the pot, the +/- 150 degree wort spread across the hardwood floor & quickly became sticky as it cooled. I mopped it up, cleaned the floor, then called it quits for that day. No burns or injuries!

When making my first 5 gallon batch with a can of Munton's Nut Brown, I totally spaced out on cooling things, since with Mr. Beer you don't need to. But since I used a lot more water, it was very hot. After adding the wort to the LBKs and topping off, I was in the 90s. Yikes!

I put them in the garage to cool and it took several hours, then pitched the yeast. One batch went bad, the other was fine.

I won't talk about opening the Mr. Beer cans with a pointy can opener before I realized the other end would open fine with a regular can opener...