Hands up! who's done what wrong?

[Russ146]

Come on guys, put your hands up and dish the dirt on silly, dumb or just plain stupid mistakes weve all done at times

I'll start it off:

I wasted a week watching intently :wha: waiting for the brew to start fermenting but nothing was happening.

It was an 8th day revelation when i noticed a little packet of yeast still sat on the window ledge where i had placed it ready to sprinkle on the brew the week before.

and theres more

 

[MaltyMat]

My very first step into AG (using both grain and liquid extract), recipe called for pale malt and cracked crystal. Not knowing any better mashed to pale malt whole (uncracked)!

Wasn't the best brew, But not that bad either.

 

[Moley]

I hope your brew wasn't wasted after all that time, you should know something's wrong or start asking questions if there's no head of foam after 24 hours. Apart from that, a bucket of sweet wort or wine must is just screaming out for infection by airborne yeasts or bacteria, and the best way to prevent that is to get your own yeasties to work ASAP.

But, experience is something we all gain just after we needed it. The trick is to learn from mistakes and not repeat them in the hope of a different result.

There's already a topic running on homebrew cock-ups, see here.