When homebrew goes wrong

[PhilDusty89]

Hi all,

I'm new to both homebrew and the forum and wanted to hear any horror stories people might have had with past brews :electric:

I want to pick up tips on what to avoid doing and also for people to share experiences and hopefully have a laugh at the same time.

Thanks in advance!

 

[JamesMcS]

Welcome Phil - I've been lucky so far but I'm guessing the best way to ensure a lack of disasters is to keep your hygiene tip top - but even that's not difficult really.

When I started out I decided to get a big tub of no rinse sanitiser, everything gets a good soaking in that for a few minutes before going anywhere near the wort, and I've had no probs so far.

The only thing I would say is don't worry if things start smelling funky during fermentation - I nearly chucked 5 gallons of what turned out to be a really good attempt at shiraz, saved only by advice from this forum!

 

[beermaker]

Hi Phil, welcome to the forum! No major disasters that I can think of, had the usual issues of hoses blowing off, valves jamming, running out of propane half way through a boil, etc. Mind, I'm planning a top-to-bottom brewery rebuild so fingers crossed!

 

[YoungJames]

My best buy was Starsan. It is a bit pricey upfront but will last ages.

 

[ericmark]

I have had three brews go wrong all were Coopers Ginger Beer.
1) Followed instructions result was very sweet and the ginger bit on the strong side tasted OK but did not seem to have any effect on me.
2) Next brew I was a little more experienced and realised it just had not started so put some yeast out of another kit (bitter) in the brew which started it off. Since first one was a little to ginger added extra water but when it brewed it made it insipid.
3) Started before second one tasted so again insipid as too much water, again needed extra yeast to get it started with this one I made a mistake and bottled too early and had to empty bottles back into fermentor and give it another week.

With my Bitter the air lock told me when ready but with Ginger beer it needed a hydrometer plus the kit did not tell you what the final reading was likely to be. Instructions said week to 10 days actually took 3 weeks before bottling.

All was not lost as I found my cider very dry and 50/50 that ginger beer with my cider worked very well but it did alter some of the things I do.

1) I use a fermentor with screw lid and an electrical stuffing gland to seal the air lock into the lid so very well sealed this insures if there is gas still being produced I can see it with air lock bubbles.
2) I always use the hydrometer before I bottle just to check it's ready. Although with well sealed air lock I rarely get it wrong now normally when I remove lid it's ready to bottle this testing three days in a row just give a change for something to contaminate the beer.
3) I ensure plenty of stock so I can afford to give it an extra week just to be sure.
4) At least one plastic pop bottle on every brew so I can test without opening if too much pressure building up.

I did pour one bottle down the drain due to not being cleaned well enough first and also had a rather nice brew when I had not cleaned out a bottle which had contained Orange Juice well enough the orange did improve the beer but the bottle did not as most bottles release pressure first so on opening lost the lid.

To start with I used old sherry bottles but found the screw caps do not seal that well it does mean no exploding bottles but also means often no head on the beer. My move to pop bottles cured that. Only problem with pop bottles is they are too big so can't pour whole of bottle in one go.

To start with my siphon tube was too short. I find I need at least 9 inches between bottom of fermentor and top of bottle as when you siphon it causes a depression at top of tube. 5 foot was too short 2 meters is great. Also needs a tap on end to reduce flow so not too much froth in top of bottle.

I normally transfer into clean fermentor half way to reduce sediment in bottle when doing this both ends of siphon tube need to be under beer or it introduces air into brew which seems to reduce how much the yeast reduces before it stops.

Clean everything as soon as finished as otherwise tends to stick in bottles and fermentor.

Use stick on thermometer strips on fermentor so you know if lack of activity is due to being finished or too cold.

I am sure other will add more tips.

 

[Monte Cristo]

If using secondhand bottles make sure you give them a really good rinse then look inside each one to check for unwanted lurgy. Had a bunch of bottles i had given what i thought was a good wash out only to do a double take 10 minutes later as a snail was sitting on the top of one of them :sick::sick::sick:
A good bottle brush! :hat:

 

[Deejie]

Hi,
My disasters have fallen into the following two categories:
- cleanliness: unwanted flavours/tastes/smells from (i tend to assume) unclean equipment or ingredients, or
- taps/pressure: leaking taps/accidental 'glugging'

My whole strategy is about simplicity - I've been brewing simply from kits into barrels for a while now - and is informed by my belief that beer was first brewed by monks in buckets, in cellars. It probably tested better han mine (and is probably not true.)

Cheers
DJA

 

[Slid]

Pop bottles are fine but you need a a jug to decant into. Wilko will sell you a 2L plastic jug for £1. As most homebrew beers are a bit lively, I line up a pint glass, a 2L jug and a small tumbler and pour the first bit into the glass, the majority slowly into the Jug and last bit into the tumbler. You can then take a view on whether the tumbler-full is to make gravy or drink.

As others have pointed out, the downside to a 2L pop (or cider) bottle is that it's best drunk in one sitting.

 

[howyoubrewin]

Hi all,

I'm new to both homebrew and the forum and wanted to hear any horror stories people might have had with past brews :electric:

I want to pick up tips on what to avoid doing and also for people to share experiences and hopefully have a laugh at the same time.

Thanks in advance!

Hi Phil welcome to the forum. Fortunately to date I have avoided all major catastrophes bar the time I put my fermenter on top of the fridge and had a blow out through the airlock and messed the ceiling up a bit. Oops!

 

[mogger]

I had a strange soapy taste from the 'Hammer of Thor' that I'd bottled. Brand new bottles, sanitized using bottle tree and spray adaptor, not quite sure what went wrong. The 'St Peters Ruby Red' I did come out perfect using the same method.
I've got 2 Barons kits that I will be bottling soon and I'm praying I get them right.

:pray:

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