I suppose I can laugh now but I was brewing an IPA this past weekend, getting my first runnings, when my run-off hose running from my mash cooler popped loose.
Needless to say about 3 litres of hot sticky wort hit the kitchen floor (my wife was out of the house fortunately) and what a lovely mess it was.
I did get back on track and all was fine afterwards but it took a little elbow grease to scrub the kitchen floor clean
Anyone else willing to share a forgettable brewing moment?
Cheers,
J
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brewing accidents
You mean besides putting in 2 ounces of cinnamon instead of 2 teaspoons (lesson learned: do not drink while brewing)? 
I had a similar accident to yours and all I can say is make sure you got all of it cleaned up - I thought I did but apparently the mice found some I missed and decided to invite a lot of their friends over. Not good. Thankfully that was a number of years ago and only at rental - but it is pretty much the reason my wife wants me to do any brewing outside or down in the laundry room now in our house out here in Waterloo.
I had a similar accident to yours and all I can say is make sure you got all of it cleaned up - I thought I did but apparently the mice found some I missed and decided to invite a lot of their friends over. Not good. Thankfully that was a number of years ago and only at rental - but it is pretty much the reason my wife wants me to do any brewing outside or down in the laundry room now in our house out here in Waterloo.
I once washed a yeast cake & kept it for an extended amount of time...
I had a 500mL bottle about 2/3 full, with a centimeter of fermented beer on top, along with (what I thought was) a generous head space.
I capped it and put it in our kitchen fridge.
Now the beer had finished really dry & it was a Trappist ale yeast, so I really didn't expect much more activity in the cold fridge.
I was really lucky it didn't blow. When I removed that cap, it was like a yeast bomb.
There was a splatter mark on the ceiling, with a discernible outline of my head/body (I got a face full of yeast). That yeast was EVERYWHERE. I even found some dried residue when we moved out almost 2 years later.
I never capped any cakes after that.
I had a 500mL bottle about 2/3 full, with a centimeter of fermented beer on top, along with (what I thought was) a generous head space.
I capped it and put it in our kitchen fridge.
Now the beer had finished really dry & it was a Trappist ale yeast, so I really didn't expect much more activity in the cold fridge.
I was really lucky it didn't blow. When I removed that cap, it was like a yeast bomb.
There was a splatter mark on the ceiling, with a discernible outline of my head/body (I got a face full of yeast). That yeast was EVERYWHERE. I even found some dried residue when we moved out almost 2 years later.
I never capped any cakes after that.
I was brewing with Tupalev and another friend. Telemarketer calls mid-brew. I hear a commotion from the kitchen but can't see. I come back. "The good news is we put the fire out." After much sticky boil over clean up we got it going again. I then proceeded to mis-read something and added too much water to the carboy so it was less strong than planned. Couple days later I'm making a pizza and think "why does the kitchen smell like malt extract?" The boil over goop had gotten into the oven vent and down into the main part of the oven. I had to wait for it too cool off before cleaning up a sticky mess, all the while getting hungrier.
Lesson learned - Use a bigger pot!
Lesson learned - Use a bigger pot!
When I think back on the acidents I wonder how I even manage to brew decent beer.
Dumbest one would have been to transfer a running cold tap water hose over my whirlpool dunking bout a litre of unfiltered tap water into my beer.
Not noticing my boil had stopped when brewing a Dubbel for god-knows how long... breaker had jumped and electricity was cut off. Now I cant get my beer to go beyond 3.6 % alc. Its like a Dubbel Light.
Forgetting to turn on the water in my counter-flow chiller was not too bright also. Thank god it happened during winter and I could put my fermentor in the garage to cool down.
Oh wait! By far the dumbest one yet. I sanatize with diluted acetic acid. You have to dilute 5ml per litre otherwise its corrisive as hell.
I've never been to Chemistry class, I took music instead. So no one had ever told me not to use my mouth to syphon chemicals from one Pyrex tube to the next. So when I tried it the first time I used a volumetric pipette to suck it up from the jar. The level rose MUCH faster then I thought, and by the time my brain told my mouth to stop this stupidity the level of the acid had reached the top.
I freaked out and rinsed my mouth like there was no tomorrow, but turns out the acid had gotten 1mm away from the top, and I had been spared the consequences I deserved.
Lesson learned.... get a longer pipette
LOL.
Dumbest one would have been to transfer a running cold tap water hose over my whirlpool dunking bout a litre of unfiltered tap water into my beer.
Not noticing my boil had stopped when brewing a Dubbel for god-knows how long... breaker had jumped and electricity was cut off. Now I cant get my beer to go beyond 3.6 % alc. Its like a Dubbel Light.
Forgetting to turn on the water in my counter-flow chiller was not too bright also. Thank god it happened during winter and I could put my fermentor in the garage to cool down.
Oh wait! By far the dumbest one yet. I sanatize with diluted acetic acid. You have to dilute 5ml per litre otherwise its corrisive as hell.
I've never been to Chemistry class, I took music instead. So no one had ever told me not to use my mouth to syphon chemicals from one Pyrex tube to the next. So when I tried it the first time I used a volumetric pipette to suck it up from the jar. The level rose MUCH faster then I thought, and by the time my brain told my mouth to stop this stupidity the level of the acid had reached the top.
I freaked out and rinsed my mouth like there was no tomorrow, but turns out the acid had gotten 1mm away from the top, and I had been spared the consequences I deserved.
Lesson learned.... get a longer pipette
LOL.Ian Guénard
http://www.bieresetplaisirs.com/index.php
http://www.bieresetplaisirs.com/index.php
Hmm, I would be willing to bet that this lesson was not learned *entirely* during your 'fire-starter' brewing days... What about the time the pot boiled over and your 6-8% sweet stout turned into a 2% marinating ingredient?JerCraigs wrote:Lesson learned - Use a bigger pot!
Although, to be fair, it was quite partially my fault, my minding it on the stove by watching it boil over. Ahem.