Brewing mistakes you really wish you'd avoided...

[The-Engineer-That-Brews]

You know the kind of mistakes I'm talking about, right?
I'll kick off but please add your own favourites...

Number 1: Spilling beer into your box of 'essential random plumbing bits' so you have to wash and sterilise... The. Whole. Darn. Lot.

 

[The Baron]

Leaving the tap open on a Fermenter when filling from the kettle, not good hot wort on your feet

 

[The-Engineer-That-Brews]

Oh - and here's something else I managed to yesterday:

Number 3: cleaning and sterilising a Corny, then discovering that the edges of Cornies are quite sharp and realising you've dripped blood in it...

 

[The Baron]

Another one I have done several times is forget the Protofloc although it is not that bad just extra time to clear

 

[YeastFace]

Leaving valve open when transferring from kettle to fermenter.

Oh - and here's something else I managed to yesterday:

Number 3: cleaning and sterilising a Corny, then discovering that the edges of Cornies are quite sharp and realising you've dripped blood in it...

View attachment 68273

Works well in a Guinness clone though.

 

[Dutto]

How about spilling boiling hot wort over your foot …

… while wearing Crocs!


It took nearly a year before it started to look “normal”!
:hat:

 

[MickDundee]

wearing Crocs!

That’s your biggest mistake, right there!

 

[The Baron]

You sexy beast I bet they were fluorescent green crocs

 

[Agentgonzo]

Leaving valve open when transferring from kettle to fermenter.

My friend did this. I think about it _every_ time I brew and so far, so good.

However...


Forgetting to empty out the sanitiser before filing
(fortunately I bottle, rather than keg, so it was only about 400ml that was lost, not half a keg!)

 

[phildo79]

Being a bit lax when it comes to cleaning equipment and generally doing a half-assed job. Next thing you know, infection. And EVERYTHING has to be deep cleaned. Last time, I took me three days to clean everything. Eff that! Lesson has been learned.

 

[The Baron]

My friend did this. I think about it _every_ time I brew and so far, so good.

However...


Forgetting to empty out the sanitiser before filing

Friend of a Friend or Asking for a Friend :tinhat:

 

[marshbrewer]

I underlet all my mashes now. The amount of times in dutifully shut off the HLT tap, then disconnected the underlett pipe.......... without shutting off the mash tun tap, so hot mash water spills out everywhere...

Luckily, I've always had a jug or something to hand to catch it. So far!

 

[Agentgonzo]

One I'm fairly sure most people have done at one stage (myself included)....

Leaving the kettle for a bit "until it gets up to the boil". As soon as you turn your back... BOILOVER!

 

[Donegal john]

Doing a 8kg grain bill biab outside on the decking with the boiler on the patio table and then realising that you have to lift the grain bag out.
resulting in a broken table after having to stand on it to hoist the grain bag into a second fermenter to drain it. Hot wort everywhere and a large dip in the table that needed explaining to SWMBO

 

[Cheshire Cat]

Not cooling the wort with a immersion chiller. Had numerous spoiled batches before I made an immersion chiller in 2014 none since.

 

[jof]

Forgetting to add priming sugar / carbonation drops before bottling & having 40 bottles of flat beer

 

[samale]

Not cooling the wort with a immersion chiller. Had numerous spoiled batches before I made an immersion chiller in 2014 none since.

Just pitched the yeast on yesterday's double brew day. No chill is the way forward

 

[Donegal john]

Forgetting to add priming sugar / carbonation drops before bottling & having 40 bottles of flat beer

Oh dear. That’s a big “forget”

 

[DocAnna]

Ever thinking...oh you know a double brew day would be a good idea..... nope

Anything to do with brewing that starts with 'This won't take long...'
or 'I'm just going to keep it simple....'

and the best one for me personally....trying to carbonate in the bottle like a sodastream using a counterpressure filler....cue encompassing a 2 metre sphere of space (with me in the middle of it) with beer. That was most definitely not one of my good ideas!

Anna

 

[Redgrave_3]

I went years before my first “left a tap open moment” but I knew it would happen eventually from all the hours spent on youtube and reading forums. What no one prepares you for though is just how gutting it is when it happens.

Also +1 to @DocAnna the number of times I’ve mentally totalled up the time required and then found I’m chilling wort at 1am.