Brew day fail stories?

[MmmBeer]

Had one yesterday, was curious why my Grainfather was struggling so much to reach 100°C on the display, despite the wort bubbling away vigourously. After the boil, when I tried to transfer the wort through the CFC to the FV, it barely managed a dribble and stopped completely after 3 litres, so I tipped the hot wort into the FV and instantly spotted the cause. The filter that slips over the pump inlet to protect the pump from clogging, was fitted on the thermowell, or temperature sensor pocket.

Removed and stripped pump, then cleared hop blockage from the inlet pipework, refitted filter, then was able to pour wort back into Grainfather and chill again. Beer now bubbling away like a good'un, just hope it's not infected.

 

[Mrhandsome]

Well I've just had my biggest fail yet.

So I've just got out the shower, and I decide to check my beers (the airing cupboard is my brew cupboard) before I go into the bedroom to get dressed. I have a 5l carboy which I'm using to make a mango beer at the minute, and I notice the little red top of the airlock has gone. On closer inspection the mango puree has risen from the bottom of the fv all the way up and into the airlock blocking it. I think to myself I'd better get this sorted out quick and go to move the beer.

EXPLOSION

The airlock shoots off as soon as I move the carboy, followed by a geyser of pureed mango and foam covering the entire cupboard, all of my beers, brewing equipment, and a very shocked (and freshly showered) naked me. Slightly too late I jam my thumb over the tiny hole which only temporarily stops it as the pressure keeps on forcing my brew out. Luckily my wife was in the bedroom and heard all of the ruckus. She screams 'WHAT DO YOU NEED? ' in a shrill voice to which I reply 'A F***ING TOWEL! She whips off her towel and I chuck it over the top of my brew preventing any further damage.

I spent a good hour and a half getting mango gunk off of the ceiling and walls and took another shower with all of my beers which are temporarily living in the bath whilst the cupboard dries.

Here's the little bugger that caused all the trouble.

The only saving grace is that it exploded whilst I was there to mitigate most of the damage. I don't appear to have lost more than one bottle's worth of beer but all of the mango is gone. I'll have to buy some more and stick it back in tomorrow.

 

[Horners]

Sounds like foreplay to me

 

[Mrhandsome]

Either way it'll end up with a sticky mess.

 

[Richie_asg1]

Carry-On Brewing

 

[Mrhandsome]

I added some more pureed mango this morning, I used a bit of pectolase to help break it down even further and hopefully prevent further explosions. It's also sitting lower in the carboy so more room for krausen. I have one bottle of beer from the pre mangoed beer (it wouldn't fit) I'll add that once the krausen has subsided and I'll have a full batch!

My brew cupboard has a lovely faint mango beer aroma now, hopefully this will air out otherwise I'm likely to be scalped by the Mrs.

This beer better be worth it!

 

[RichardM]

I got a ph meter for my birthday in May. I ordered some buffer powders on Amazon that took ages to arrive, then I took ages to buy a battery for it. Today I decided to have a play with it so decided to check the ph of my Star San solution. I followed the instructions to calibrate the instrument and then I poured some Star San in to a glass and tested it. It was 7. something. Then I remembered, I wanted to spray some water a few weeks back so I had emptied the Star San in to the bigger container that I mixed it in and put water in the spray bottle. I had forgotten to empty the water from the spray bottle after I finished with it. So it turns out that last brew day (Sunday), which was also a bottling day, saw a lot of kit "sanitised" with water. It remains to see how the two batches turn out.

 

[fury_tea]

I got a ph meter for my birthday in May. I ordered some buffer powders on Amazon that took ages to arrive, then I took ages to buy a battery for it. Today I decided to have a play wewith it so decided to check the ph of my Star San solution. I followed the instructions to calibrate the instrument and then I poured some Star San in to a glass and tested it. It was 7. something. Then I remembered, I wanted to spray some water a few weeks back so I had emptied the Star San in to the bigger container that I mixed it in and put water in the spray bottle. I had forgotten to empty the water from the spray bottle after I finished with it. So it turns out that last brew day (Sunday), which was also a bottling day, saw a lot of kit "sanitised" with water. It remains to see how the two batches turn out.

Hahahah

Hopefully the power of belief is still strong and finding out hasn't broken the magic

 

[fury_tea]

Resurrecting an old post for this one:

I was planning a Baltic Porter, weighed my ingredients last night, thought I would cold steep the roasted malts this time to see what effect that has.

Poured the water on, sat watching the telly for a few minutes and jumped out of my skin. I'd forgotten to mill the grain before I steeped it!

I drained the liquid off through a big sieve and thought... What's the worst that could happen? Just run it through the mill a bit wet. I'm sure it will be fine.

It was not fine.

It was a pain to get through the mil and when I inspected it, it didn't look like it had done much apart from the odd cracked husk, so I decided to run it through again through a slightly finer setting. This was my biggest mistake, should have called it quits. It got half way through and jammed, I reversed the drill and threw another hand full of dry crystal to see if that helped (because why not?). It jammed again causing my drill to start smoking . I had to empty the wet grain from the top, then when I looked at the rollers they were each caked in half an inch of compressed grain material. Impossible to remove.

I disassembled the mill and everything was covered in dark malt sludge, including me and every surface in garage. I put everything in to some hot water to soak, and scrubbed with a cleaning brush. Just need to reassemble it now...

I don't know what to do with the grain. I threw it back in the water and it's steeped overnight and seems to have done the job, although it's heavy on crystal because I threw that in too. Kind of don't want to waste a brew day on it because I'm not sure exactly what's going on with it. I have a wilco lager kit, I might add it to that...

 

[Oneflewover]

Resurrecting an old post for this one:

I was planning a Baltic Porter, weighed my ingredients last night, thought I would cold steep the roasted malts this time to see what effect that has.

Poured the water on, sat watching the telly for a few minutes and jumped out of my skin. I'd forgotten to mill the grain before I steeped it!

I drained the liquid off through a big sieve and thought... What's the worst that could happen? Just run it through the mill a bit wet. I'm sure it will be fine.

It was not fine.

It was a pain to get through the mil and when I inspected it, it didn't look like it had done much apart from the odd cracked husk, so I decided to run it through again through a slightly finer setting. This was my biggest mistake, should have called it quits. It got half way through and jammed, I reversed the drill and threw another hand full of dry crystal to see if that helped (because why not?). It jammed again causing my drill to start smoking . I had to empty the wet grain from the top, then when I looked at the rollers they were each caked in half an inch of compressed grain material. Impossible to remove.

I disassembled the mill and everything was covered in dark malt sludge, including me and every surface in garage. I put everything in to some hot water to soak, and scrubbed with a cleaning brush. Just need to reassemble it now...

I don't know what to do with the grain. I threw it back in the water and it's steeped overnight and seems to have done the job, although it's heavy on crystal because I threw that in too. Kind of don't want to waste a brew day on it because I'm not sure exactly what's going on with it. I have a wilco lager kit, I might add it to that...

You have my sympathy. My mill jammed yesterday too. I condition my grain, but was anxious to get on so didn't leave it long enough to absorb the water properly. I may have also over-wet it. I had the same caked roller / over stretched drill issue