Unforced Errors

[dbuchanan]

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?

My first batch of cider made from apples picked from wild trees was lost when I unscrewed the container at the bottom to empty the yeast. The ball valve unscrewed with it an I lost the whole batch.

 

[MickDundee]

I did exactly the same as the OP. Didn’t have a spanner to fit, thought “it’ll be ok” then it wasn’t.

I obviously didn’t do too bad of a job because it took about a week and a half to leak out rather than overnight.

 

[Burtsbeets]

I was having a great brew day and was chatting on the phone with some heaphones in.

Went to switch on my recirculation for cooling only to realise, far too late, that i had not put the pipe back into the kettle.

I don't swear often in front of my parents, but my dad got to hear a few words from my vocabulary as wort was pouring off my kitchen counter

And it's things like this that make me thankful i brew when the SO is not in the house!

 

[Binkei Huckaback]

On more than one occasion, I'not closed the ball valve on ny conical fermenter before filling it.

Yesterday morning before dumping yeast from it, I removed the lid of the airlock and didn't realise I had forgotten to replace it until late evening. Goodness knows how I'll cope with kegs.

 

[-Bezza-]

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

I have the Mangrove Jacks one. I hook it over the edge of the Grainfather so that it's well above the top of the wort, then lower it by having it from a SS hook to drop it lower as the wort boils off.

 

[jeg3]

Loads of little silly mistakes that weren't too bad:

Leaving the FV tap open when filling (twice)
Cobbling a bit of tube from the FV tap to the bottling stick which falls off (twice)
Connecting the counterflow chiller to the GF only to find the hose (outside) has frozen
Aeriating wort with a spoon in a new, tall FV and dropping the spoon in
Lots of potential infection risks like having to stick arms in FVs and kegs when full, but thankfully no issues

 

[Crappyfish]

Left tap open on FV whilst filling it up that's annoying

 

[chopps]

Recently, a well known member of this forum when draining his boiled and chilled wort into the fermenter, noticed an entire wooden coat hanger sitting in the hops at the bottom of the vessel.

He shall remain nameless to avoid further embarrassment.

 

[moto748]

Can we include, realising, half an hour into the hop boil, that the hops are still sitting on the kitchen table?

Fortunately, I don't think that is the end of the world!

 

[clyne]

I think my worst so far was doing a brew in my Robobrew and after mashing in realising that I had forgot to put the malt pipe in. Doh!

 

[moto748]

Dropping a demi-john on the kitchen floor while washing, smashing it smithereens, anyone? It's amazing how long tiny fragments of broken glass can hang around, isn't it? I *think* I've got it all, but I shan't be walking barefoot in the kitchen for a while.

Fortunately (relatively), it *only* had a couple of pints of sterilising solution in it, not four pints of beer.

But as the old saying goes, slippery when wet!

 

[Random Badger]

Dropping a demi-john on the kitchen floor while washing, smashing it smithereens, anyone? It's amazing how long tiny fragments of broken glass can hang around, isn't it? I *think* I've got it all, but I shan't be walking barefoot in the kitchen for a while.

Fortunately (relatively), it *only* had a couple of pints of sterilising solution in it, not four pints of beer.

But as the old saying goes, slippery when wet!

I carried out an entirely deliberate and carefully controlled scientific experiment to test the resistance of a demijohn to thermal shock. In no way was I surprised when the thing spectacularly split as I gave it a quick sloosh around with some hot water...

 

[Bernie]

First rule of flowing liquid: don't leave it unattended. I've just lost a few litres of beer while transferring to a secondary on which the tap wasn't turned off properly.