Brewing mistakes you really wish you'd avoided...

The pump was blocked on my brewzilla, used the tap to empty it the tried blowing through the silicon tube to clear it once it was empty like I usually do but it wasn't budging.

Attached a hose to the pipe to push it out that way, hose kept slipping off the silicon tube and water going everywhere but managed to hold it down long enough to get it moving.

This worked great but I didn't have the lid on and the hops that were blocking it shot out like a rocket all over the kitchen ceiling.

Not beer related but once I was syphoning 23l of wine from a bucket to a carboy and clipped the syphon to the bucket and left the room for few mins while it did it's thing. Wine emptied from the bucket in to the carboy but the clip pinged off and left one side of the syphon on the floor emptying the vast majority of the carboy on to the dining room carpet.

Overtightened the tap at the bottom of my brewing bucket, while trying to stop a slow leak. It snapped the inside (plastic) nut, causing the slow leak to become a very fast leak. Bucket and tap in the bin, and new bucket ordered. Now using 2 rubber seals: one on the outside and the other on the inside of my new bucket.

Bottled up 30 bottles of wine last summer which i stored in a wine rack in the garage, due to the heat the pressure being created was forcing the corks out the bottles and shooting corks and wine everywhere. Lesson learned.

@DocAnna - "This won't take long" ---> Brilliant! I'm going to get it printed on a T'Shirt

Caustic line cleaning using an old ecokeg inner. It rolled over towards me and disconnected the out. I looked at it and got a caustic eye wash. So painful, (fully recovered.) However, as you heal your eyeball sticks to the inner eyelid meaning you tear it apart when you open your eye.

I have goggles from specsavers - I look like a freakin mad scientist, but they work and I learned a lesson,,,,,,

moto748 said:

I have to say, in all honesty, but by avoiding spunding valves, filters, pumps, chillers, pipework etc etc, I've been able to avoid 95% of the problems on this thread. There's something to be said for low-tech!

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I'd usually agree with you, however I messed up once while syphoning 20L of IPA from the fv to my botteling bucket sitting on a stool that wasn't stable enough. At about two thirds of the way done the botteling bucket tipped over, split and broke the botteling wand. Leaving me with a mess on the floor. Not all was lost though, because what was left in the fv kept on fermenting for about a week until I could buy a new bucket and wand. I ended up with an 11% IPA instead of the intdended 7,5%!

Also not beer relaxed, but I've learned the hard way not to add sugar to a mix of elderberry and brandy for making an elderberryliquer.
It took me 7 coats of white paint to get rid of my purple ceiling!

Another brew day on the drive/Garden. Moments after taking this picture 100s of flying ants made an appearance from the edge of the path.

The following brewday was me running around with ant killer powder and waving a brush to stop them flying in to the boil.

Absolute disaster

White Rose Al said:

Another brew day on the drive/Garden. Moments after taking this picture 100s of flying ants made an appearance from the edge of the path.

The following brewday was me running around with ant killer powder and waving a brush to stop them flying in to the boil.

Absolute disaster

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I think I would prefer flying ants to cockroaches, at least they will drop the pH. I had a cockroach appear when flushing out the return pipe after a brew, it had been lodged somewhere throughout.

foxy said:

I think I would prefer flying ants to cockroaches, at least they will drop the pH. I had a cockroach appear when flushing out the return pipe after a brew, it had been lodged somewhere throughout.

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Actually, on a more serious note, (we are not short on cockroaches over here) I have often found cockroaches in the acidic water which the blow off tube feeds into. I used to think they were thirst and went in for a drink. Now I think they sense the sugar which the co2 carries out of the fermenting wort. One thing a cockroach is good at is locating sugar.

foxy said:

Actually, on a more serious note, (we are not short on cockroaches over here) I have often found cockroaches in the acidic water which the blow off tube feeds into. I used to think they were thirst and went in for a drink. Now I think they sense the sugar which the co2 carries out of the fermenting wort. One thing a cockroach is good at is locating sugar.

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I have seen similar with flies and often wondered if it's actually the co2 itself, perhaps mistaking for a breathing organism?

Another one that always puzzled me at work over the years, flies always congregate round leaking hydrocarbons.

Brewnaldo said:

I have seen similar with flies and often wondered if it's actually the co2 itself, perhaps mistaking for a breathing organism?

Another one that always puzzled me at work over the years, flies always congregate round leaking hydrocarbons.

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And glass. I think glass is toxic to flies. I always find them dead on the window sill.

foxy said:

And glass. I think glass is toxic to flies. I always find them dead on the window sill.

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I've always assumed that this is because they spend ages trying (unsuccessfully) to fly through the window pane, exhaust themselves and die.

Agentgonzo said:

I've always assumed that this is because they spend ages trying (unsuccessfully) to fly through the window pane, exhaust themselves and die.

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Of course it was tongue in cheek.

foxy said:

…. One thing a cockroach is good at is locating sugar.

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… and lunch!

One cockroach memory (of many) was when one joined me for lunch! I tried to swat it and failed! It then jumped to the deck where I tried and failed again, to stamp on it!

At this time I heard the Captain of the Drillship say “You’ll never make a Hindu you know!”
:hat:

Dutto said:

… and lunch!

One cockroach memory (of many) was when one joined me for lunch! I tried to swat it and failed! It then jumped to the deck where I tried and failed again, to stamp on it!

At this time I heard the Captain of the Drillship say “You’ll never make a Hindu you know!”
:hat:

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On a mine site in Indonesia, we had been on the beer, next morning I went to get my offsider up. He was still in his pit and had a open can of coke on the side table, took a big swig and started gagging loads of roach were coming out of his mouth his can must have been chockers with them.

@foxy I will let you guess what the Steward did to his Cabin mate after he had wet the top bunk!

It involved a steam cleaned “guzz-under”, a can of lager and a couple of smoked sausages!

Dutto said:

… and lunch!

One cockroach memory (of many) was when one joined me for lunch! I tried to swat it and failed! It then jumped to the deck where I tried and failed again, to stamp on it!

At this time I heard the Captain of the Drillship say “You’ll never make a Hindu you know!”
:hat:

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I read somewhere that you shouldn't stamp on roaches as they are born pregnant with eggs inside and that the eggs survive and are transported on your boot..

Clint said:

I read somewhere that you shouldn't stamp on roaches as they are born pregnant with eggs inside and that the eggs survive and are transported on your boot..

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That wouldn’t surprise me in the least as they infested every ship I sailed in!

In 1960, using a new product called “Shelltox”, my mate and I killed and collected 112 cockroaches in our cabin! They ranged from 3mm to 20mm in length.

Happy Days?!?!
:hat:

Clint said:

I read somewhere that you shouldn't stamp on roaches as they are born pregnant with eggs inside and that the eggs survive and are transported on your boot..

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I don't know if that is true, I was fishing on a lake here catching roach, strewth, just realised its the same name. Roach the fish a guy came along and said I hope you aren't returning those carp to the water? (Carp are a noxious species here) I explained that they weren't carp but roach and they are food for the English perch and trout which were in the lake. He went on to tell me if you catch a carp dig a hole and bury it at least 1 meter deep because their eggs can't be killed and with a good rainfall those eggs could hatch!

Dutto said:

That wouldn’t surprise me in the least as they infested every ship I sailed in!

In 1960, using a new product called “Shelltox”, my mate and I killed and collected 112 cockroaches in our cabin! They ranged from 3mm to 20mm in length.

Happy Days?!?!
:hat:

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They are tiny, though the ones in Indonesia were small about 2 cm we had to surface spray in the Donga's every week to keep them from getting into bed with you.
I don't mind the ones here, they would be about 5 cm long as long as they stay in the compost heap and don't come in the house. I did read that a roach could live without a head for a couple of days. Then there is the old joke about if you pull all their legs off they go deaf.

These are some of my favorites

Leving 20 liters of sherry on the side to slowly drip into a filter. It "came off".during the fall it took out the filtered bottle also. Sherry yeast and fermentor mulch every where. I had to empty the brewery and clean every thing. Needless to say I don't like sherry and can't stand the smell of it.

Failed spunding valve on a fermzilla when making turbo cider. It exploded Literally every where. It looked like a opened up boiled egg. Neighbour acctually came round the next day and said their was a very loud bang from in their yesterday. I'd imagen it was!! the sound of a high psi apple bomb going off certainly would draw you to its attention. Strip out brewery and clean every thing. Again.

Standing in brewery on brew day and wondering whats that hissing? HLT Element on water drained. Cooked Dead element on the water tank. 6 times to date.

Standing in brewery wondering what is that toast smell? MLT element on when to much water is in the basket not enough with the element. For example when you lift to sparge. Or your pumps on to high and has pumped all the recirc water in to the basket and the element has no water. Dead elements. 7 times to date. But I now manage this with a big note in the brew book , TURN ELEMENT OFF BEFORE SPARGE. I've also made an electrical cut out switch system . No water no electricity.

When cleaning my grainfather I used a cip that I made. it Works amazing. Except it needed a vacuum release valve. The vac crushed my grainfather.
Looks like a crushed beer can now. Beyond any kind of usage.

I've normal ones where I've spilt stuff , or lost stuff. I even went through a 7 month patch where I couldn't brew due to tcp taste.

When I get back to brewing I'm sure it'll all be fine and I will continue to destroy every thing.
I generally wait untill after brewery now before opening beers. I Need to watch every thing.

itry said:

These are some of my favorites

Leving 20 liters of sherry on the side to slowly drip into a filter. It "came off".during the fall it took out the filtered bottle also. Sherry yeast and fermentor mulch every where. I had to empty the brewery and clean every thing. Needless to say I don't like sherry and can't stand the smell of it.

Failed spunding valve on a fermzilla when making turbo cider. It exploded Literally every where. It looked like a opened up boiled egg. Neighbour acctually came round the next day and said their was a very loud bang from in their yesterday. I'd imagen it was!! the sound of a high psi apple bomb going off certainly would draw you to its attention. Strip out brewery and clean every thing. Again.

Standing in brewery on brew day and wondering whats that hissing? HLT Element on water drained. Cooked Dead element on the water tank. 6 times to date.

Standing in brewery wondering what is that toast smell? MLT element on when to much water is in the basket not enough with the element. For example when you lift to sparge. Or your pumps on to high and has pumped all the recirc water in to the basket and the element has no water. Dead elements. 7 times to date. But I now manage this with a big note in the brew book , TURN ELEMENT OFF BEFORE SPARGE. I've also made an electrical cut out switch system . No water no electricity.

When cleaning my grainfather I used a cip that I made. it Works amazing. Except it needed a vacuum release valve. The vac crushed my grainfather.
Looks like a crushed beer can now. Beyond any kind of usage.

I've normal ones where I've spilt stuff , or lost stuff. I even went through a 7 month patch where I couldn't brew due to tcp taste.

When I get back to brewing I'm sure it'll all be fine and I will continue to destroy every thing.
I generally wait untill after brewery now before opening beers. I Need to watch every thing.

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Can we be see photos of the CIP system and the Grainfather?