Died in service.

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dad_of_jon

dad_of_jon

Beer designer
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Joined
Jan 5, 2015
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From time to time we all lose equipment whilst brewing and whilst equipment can have no greater honour in giving itself up for HB usually it takes a lot of HB with it. :roll:

I was reasonable fortunate yesterday, my auto syphon clip broke and my auto bottle filler was dribbling quite a bit. I had a spare spring and push pin so only lost about 250 ml, but I sucked up a bit of trub into the bb as my hand wavered at bit whilst holding the syphon. :doh:

What kit have you lost in service, how much beer did you lose and did you have a cunning workaround? - It could be useful for those who find themselves in a similar state. :thumb:

I've also lost a capper previously, but had a spare so no worries there.
 
No beer, but lost a couple of digital thermometers before I had the sense to by a decent, fully waterproof one.

Sent from my E5823 using Tapatalk
 
My first boiler exploded 20mins into the boil. Beer actually turned out ok, although not very bitter.
 
Whilst using a little bottler, the end fell off into the bottle I was filling and before I managed to turn the tap off I had beer pouring out of the top of the bottle.
Not to worry though. After I licked the floor clean there must have been very little wastage...
 
Poured a magnetic stir bar out of a flask and down the plughole.
Poured a bottling wand spring and pin out of a washing bowl and down the plughole.

Now I put plug in t'ole.
 
dad_of_jon said:
I think I could do with one of those - thermapens are great to a point. What did you get?
Click to expand...
Picked a couple of second hand food inspection thermometers up from eBay. Both for around £15-20 each. Not pictured, but one came with a set of calibration fobs.

20170529_090631_HDR-01-01.jpeg


Sent from my E5823 using Tapatalk
 
I lost a nearly new hydrometer and glass trial jar. Somehow instead of picking them up I encourage them to perform a somersault instead... The trial jar was smashed to smithereens, and I never did find the hydrometer (or even bits of it)... I use a plastic trial jar these days... lol

Oh, and a grain mashing/filter bag. I used it to put hops in during the boil, put it to clean out and wash afterwards, then couldn't find it again for weeks. When I did find it the hops had gone incredibly mouldy, and I relegated the bag to the bin...
 
Whilst not dying as such, a leaking tap on a PB must be a fairly common occurrence leading to loss of beer. I took a hiatus from homebrewing after leaking about 15 pints into the carpet in the spare room and getting most frustrated with it all!
 
I've lost more than one hydrometer, and a couple of glass thermometers too. The latest victim was a nylon strainer I used to contain hops in the boil. It didn't like the heat when on my smaller stockpot, and a small hole grew into a bigger hole. Now its swimming in the big boil kettle in the sky, reunited with the hydrometers with which it once shared a shelf.
 
Whilst bottling last Friday, thankfully on the last bottle, the top half of the valve parted from the bottom half. It's a coopers FV I now use as a bottling bucket.

I meant to ask actually, has anyone ever blanked the hole for these valves on these fv's?
I'm thinking I'll blank it and fit a new ball valve somewhere below the 5 litre mark. I'm well fed up of contorting myself, resting the lip of the fv on my head or whatever just to get those last few litres.
 
I've had a cheapo digital thermometer die on me mid brew. On my last bottling day, my bottling stick went M.I.A. while I was sanitising the bottles, so I had to rush out and get a replacement. Guess what, it turned up the following day.
 
Like Mick, the original element on my Lidl boiler died (constant tripping of the house RCD) halfway through the boil (a porter). The workaround was just cooling shoving the lot in the FV with the yeast. As Mick says, not that bitter, but decent enough.
 
Got an ACE boiler mashed in it and started to heat the sparge water when the ACE boiler blew and tripped the RCD.. it was faulty.. I had to do a desperate resucue job on my stoves sacrificing 30% of the brew.. Sent it back and went gas route
 
Managed to part melt the plug on my Peco boiler on my previous brew! (12th brew} Got a new heavy duty plug from Clas Olson, wired that up and brewed again this morning, lagged the Peco with a £5 camping mat from Tesco also - I've just had the best rolling boil yet with it, and the plug only got a little warm!
 
dad_of_jon said:
From time to time we all lose equipment whilst brewing and whilst equipment can have no greater honour in giving itself up for HB usually it takes a lot of HB with it. :roll:

I was reasonable fortunate yesterday, my auto syphon clip broke and my auto bottle filler was dribbling quite a bit. I had a spare spring and push pin so only lost about 250 ml, but I sucked up a bit of trub into the bb as my hand wavered at bit whilst holding the syphon. :doh:

What kit have you lost in service, how much beer did you lose and did you have a cunning workaround? - It could be useful for those who find themselves in a similar state. :thumb:

I've also lost a capper previously, but had a spare so no worries there.
Click to expand...
What a fright mate, I thought you had maybe fallen into the boiling wort and your better half had posted this to let us know you were gone, I had half typed out my request for all your gear but I read on :thumb1:
 
pms67 said:
What a fright mate, I thought you had maybe fallen into the boiling wort and your better half had posted this to let us know you were gone, I had half typed out my request for all your gear but I read on :thumb1:
Click to expand...

oops! I'm saved the death by falling into boiling wort scenario as most of my brews are extract based with a reduced boil :laugh8:

as for my kit there's nothing of value there it's all plastic.... :blush2:

no wait I do have two bits of shiny ( 3 if you count my bottle capper) ;)
 

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