Unforced Errors

[StJayJay]

I got a brand new CO2 cylinder last week, connected a regulator on Friday and didn’t tighten it up properly as I didn’t have my spanner to hand, purged a keg and forgot to shut it off. Gone in to the garage today and the tank is completely empty.
I’ve made a few errors in the last few years brewing but nothing that annoying. Anyone else have any spectacular ****-ups to make me feel better?

 

[Benfleet Brewery]

My best so far is when I did BIAB with a Peco. At the end of the mash I used my pulley to winch the bag out of the wort and tied it up, but clearly not well enough. I turned around only for the rope to slip and the bag to splash back down soaking me and the garden with sticky wort. Fortunately I only had a couple of small burns on me as I was well covered up but there was about 10 litres of sticky mess to clean up and only a half batch eventually into the fermenter.

 

[phettebs]

I lost 3 gallons of the best kolsch I've ever made due to keg malfunction. 3 gallons to clean out of the bottom of the kegerator. I knew the keg was questionable but was in a hurry to get something else done. Woke up to that mess the next morning. It happens.

 

[Brew_DD2]

I got a brand new CO2 cylinder last week, connected a regulator on Friday and didn’t tighten it up properly as I didn’t have my spanner to hand, purged a keg and forgot to shut it off. Gone in to the garage today and the tank is completely empty.
I’ve made a few errors in the last few years brewing but nothing that annoying. Anyone else have any spectacular ****-ups to make me feel better?

We've all been there. Get some PTFE tape for next time, and check all those joints.

 

[BlackRegent]

I wanted to increase the body of an ESB that over attenuated by adding some maltodextrin into the corny keg with the beer (which was already carbonated). I mixed it up with some boiling water and thought I can't be arsed waiting for it to cool and what harm would it do to pour it straight in. What happens when you pour hot liquid into an already carbonated cold liquid? All the CO2 comes out of solution = beer volcano. Hooray!

 

[AdeDunn]

Have you ever tried putting whole hops into a stainless steel hop spider? Don't.... lol

 

[Clint]

Running out of HB...

 

[UKSkydiver]

I'm sure I'm not the only one.

I keep clicking the pump switch on my brewzilla thinking it's the power switch.

Cue a nice fountain of water coming out of the re-circ pipe (that I haven't put the nozzley bit on to yet)

 

[-Bezza-]

Have you ever tried putting whole hops into a stainless steel hop spider? Don't.... lol

I do this and not sure I've had any issues with it.

 

[MmmBeer]

Starting to fill an FV, then leaving the room for a couple of minutes, only to find a large puddle of brown liquid on the floor when I returned and wondering why it appears to coming from the vicinity of the FV's tap.......Oh $#!£.

 

[AdeDunn]

I do this and not sure I've had any issues with it.

The one time I did it, they swelled up and overflowed it.... Thinking you possibly have something different.

 

[Horners]

I got a brand new CO2 cylinder last week, connected a regulator on Friday and didn’t tighten it up properly as I didn’t have my spanner to hand, purged a keg and forgot to shut it off. Gone in to the garage today and the tank is completely empty.
I’ve made a few errors in the last few years brewing but nothing that annoying. Anyone else have any spectacular ****-ups to make me feel better?

Just gone to connect my nitro to a keg of dry stout it being St Pats and nothing...must also have a loose reg.

 

[foxbat]

Tried poking the poppet of a pressurised corny keg's beer out post to see if it was stuck while standing over it.

It wasn't and it latched up under the post lip.

Beer shampoo!

 

[Brew_DD2]

Connected blow-off to liquid out post on my Fermzilla. Lost a few litres.

 

[An Ankoù]

Put the immersion chiller in a kettle-full of Gunness clone, turned on the water and went to walk the dog. Got back to discover that the tea-towels covering the lid were soaked with beer and it was beginning to run over the sides. It seems the chiller had developed a pin hole- well I had been using it for over 10 years. I ended up with 30 litres of mild at an OG of 1030 so all was not lost. Very nice mild it was, too. In fact it was probably this event that has meant that I've always got a mild on the go.

 

[StJayJay]

We've all been there. Get some PTFE tape for next time, and check all those joints.

Ordered some new tape today!

 

[cushyno]

Smashed a bottle while bench capping. Beer and shards of glass everywhere, including in the rest of the bottles arranged on the floor waiting for capping. Drinking that batch was a lottery, I'll tell you.

 

[Cptn_Needa]

Doing my second BIAB I tried to raise the mash temp. I'd wrapped the kettle up in a cheapo blanket and hadn't realised the flames from the hob were licking up round the side, caught the thing on fire and melted it (cheap polyester blanket) all over the hob. I grabbed it and flung it in the sink throwing flaming polyester up my arm and over the kitchen.
Suffice to say my wife was less than impressed or indeed sympathetic.
On the plus side it did help with justifying getting a Brewzilla. Every cloud!

 

[chopps]

Like @StJayJay I emptied an entire new cylinder of Co2 overnight due to bad connections.
Unfortunately the cylinder was attached to a full corny of Punk IPA and dispensed it all onto the floor of my shed. Every last drop.
When I opened the shed I nearly asphyxiated due to lack of oxygen and had to let the air circulate for a good 20 mins.

The loss of 20 litres of beer was bad enough, then within a few hours the slugs arrived and continued to invade my brewing shed for 4 solid weeks. Every day, I would open up the shed and pick slugs off the fridge, the walls, the floor, the lights and anything else they could find. Slugs like beer.

 

[Benfleet Brewery]

Oh yes, I remember another now, again when I did BIAB with a Peco. ‘Twas the day I plugged it in and turned it on before putting any water into it. That was a bad day too!