Brew disaster stories

[ajt24]

Inspired by Tomdi86 and his hydrometer eating incident, I was wondering of other brewers tales of wo.

while transferring my punch to my Mr beer barrel for bottling, I placed my hydrometer laying across my jug, moved the table an it rolled off and samshed then didnt realise I had left the tap open on my mr beer barrel until I heard the punch splashing on the floor, but I couldnt work out what I had done and was just swearing and moving the table until the penny dropped.
only managed to get 2litre out of 5

 

[user 16195]

My 1st attempt at a pale ale didn't go to plan when I misread the instructions on the kit and put enough priming sugar for a 5 gallon keg into 3 5 litre kegs. Luckily, and quite by chance, I was told I'd created 3 beer bombs, which I was able to diffuse before they went off!

I've not had any cock-ups since then so I'm probably due one...

 

[Alexislife]

Left sanitiser in the FV (about 3 litres) and didn't realise halfway through transferring the work that I didn't remember emptying it

At the time I though "oh well it's too late now" where as I should have just ditched the half I'd transferred and been saved with what was left in the kettle. I still bottled the beer once it fermented as logic seemed to be that it was a no rinse sanitiser anyway and was heavily diluted, but the bottles I tried had a chemically taste to them so they ended up down the drain.

 

[BeerCat]

I was emptying my boiler into an FV sitting on a brick and managed to kick it over. All 20 liters of it over the garage floor. After that i had mice.

 

[ericmark]

Taking bike in and out of garage I pulled the sensor out of the fridge and the brew went to 40[FONT=&quot]°C. Still bottled but it did not get any pressure, so had to put a touch of y[FONT=&quot]east in every bottle. Beer drinkable as it happened ne[FONT=&quot]ar the end, but no head.[/FONT] [/FONT]
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[Dutto]

I kick stuff over, I knock stuff off benches, I regularly have to use a mop to clean up spilled water, wort or sanitising fluid and I watch in horrified anticipation as breakable things roll off perfectly flat surfaces.

I probably spend as much time cleaning up after myself as I spend brewing!

But when any of these things happen I think of my Dad who told me:

"There's only been one man who never made a mistake
and they crucified him!"

:thumb: :thumb: :thumb:​

 

[ericmark]

My Coopers Ginger beer was case where the first batch must have failed to ferment, everyone loved the brew, it was very sweet, with next two I did get it to ferment it was a problem, but got there in the end, but no one liked that brew. It was not sweet enough. Best was I was not really keen on Ginger beer so still have some two year old Ginger beer in the shed.

 

[Cqr]

I nocked a bottle of nail varnish remover from a shelf aboth my fv
Wile syphoning in to bottling bucket

 

[DoctorMick]

I've smashed a few things, made a mess by spilling things and burnt myself countless times but I've never had a major disaster thankfully.

 

[CraftyZA]

My second brew, I upscaled to make 50L of wort. To do this i had to work outside, and use the hosepipe for water. Left the spray fitting on. The spray fitting is one of my dog's favorite chew toys. Needless to say, this ended in an infection. It was only an extract beer, but still a loss.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[anders]

Not major but left the pressure release valve open on my corny keg. Went to pressurise and ended up painting the ceiling a nice brown colour...

 

[JapanBrew]

Never had major issues but I had always forgotten to attach my bazooka filter. But worked out in the end because it got me to trust whirlpooling.

 

[IronBlue]

My favourite is pushing the beer line into a pressurised corny before pushing it into the tap fitting - hits the ceiling no trouble... I've done it twice.

A friend (wasn't me honest) used one of those big flat sieves in the bottom of his kettle. A cheap 'stainless' one from Wilkos. When he drained the kettle (60 litre batch!), the sieve was a bright copper colour. The beer had the metallic tang of blood, and I named it 'metale' for him. Despite everyone telling him not to drink it, he got through 2 cornys before admitting defeat. He probably has about a year left to live....

 

[user 16195]

My 1st attempt at a pale ale didn't go to plan when I misread the instructions on the kit and put enough priming sugar for a 5 gallon keg into 3 5 litre kegs. Luckily, and quite by chance, I was told I'd created 3 beer bombs, which I was able to diffuse before they went off!

I've not had any cock-ups since then so I'm probably due one...

Update on that - I didn't quite diffuse 2 of them, as I found out on Friday night when I opened them! It was like dropping Mentos into bottles of coke! They didn't taste very good either