Any homebrew facepalm moments?

[Molineux]

I was just reading this interesting article earlier http://www.fermentarium.com/homebre...ng-you-know-about-potassium-sorbate-is-wrong/ when I started thinking about my own accidents and mishaps. My main one was when I was making wine from a kit. I added the sugar to the juice, filled to 25l and took a reading without stirring. My reading gave me a potential abv of 6% so I went out and brought some more sugar, added it and stirred. Obviously, after around 9 kilos of sugar my hydrometer pretty much hovered above the FV.

I was just wondering if anyone else has had any of these cock-ups..

 

[Moley]

I don't use Campden tablets, I mix up a strong solution of 2.5 tsps of SodMet in 250ml of water and then use 10ml of solution in place of 1 CT.

My SodMet powder is the only stuff I've got which comes in a white 500g tub ...... or so I thought.

I used to use a Harris cleaner/steriliser powder which came in a similar sized tub.

So I mixed up a new batch of strong SodMet solution, squirted 25ml into a large PET and racked 15 litres of WOW.

Then I had the horrible realisation that the label was red and black, not green and black, and it didn't attack my nostrils. :evil:

All cleaning products are now kept in their own cupboard, in a different room to anything which should ever be added to a wine.

 

[Gayle]

Only a minor thing, but yesterday I was sterilising stuff in an old FV, and put a smaller plastic FV in it, filled it up with solution, and left it as usual. I had set it on top of my racking cane (which I hadn't actually used properly yet, since I had to come on here and find out what it was for!) at a funny angle and bent it into uselessness

 

[Muddydisco]

Forgetting to put the false bottom into the mash tun, and only finding out once I had switched the pump on. Grain blocking every inch of pump and piping. Not a good mash schedule that day.

 

[Northern Brewer]

when i was a youth and brewing in the bedroom, i had a Geordie kit brewing in the FV, it stunk like satan's bottom, obviously had an infection in it. I somehow thought it would be a good idea to kill it by sprinkling in a couple of teaspoons of sodium met.

Stupid idea! the thing foamed up like a demented monster and i must have lost a gallon on the bedroom and landing carpet before dragging the bucket to the bog - thankfully nobody was on the throne

I had a bit of explaining to do, my mum wanted me to cease all brewing but my dada drunk most of it so I got away with it :thumb: and this was only a couple of weeks after ruining the dining room carpet while etching circuit boards with ferric chloride :whistle:

 

[Dieseljockey]

Years ago, not me but a mate who wanted me to show him how to have a go at making some wine. At the time the Elderberries where out so off we went, got it all done and finished and I told him to put it somewhere warm like the airing cupboard. He did on the top shelf, next morning all the kids white school stuff was a nice colour. :whistle:

 

[Vossy1]

:lol: ...mine, sanitising a fv with a litre of videne solution then racking the hot wort straight on top....only the volume alerted me at the end......doh

 

[rajboab]

I remembered too late that Better Bottle PET plastic fermenters are only rated to ~60C.
Imagine my surprise when I poured boiling water into one to get rid of some stubborn grime, only to find it reverting back to a shapeless plastic blob!

Stuart

 

[Hawks]

Going to run off the mash to look up and see filter sat on the side in pieces....( nice and clean though )

same thing with hop filter in the boiler

Worst one was putting the chiller into the boiling wort as usual, but all taps were turned off ( I have 2 coils and taps on the input and both outputs ). It clearly had some water in from last time and the resulting pressure change was enough for the input tap to shoot off, hit me in the chest - this was followed with a small amount ( but enough ) of scalding hot water..

 

[BigYin]

I invited a forum member over for a brew day, told him how easy it was, tried to look vaguely competent and at ease with the whole thing, only to forget to take the SG at the end, and then had to take it although I'd already added the yeast. Oh well. Maybe the real face-palm moment was because it was him who pointed it out to me, not me realising I'd missed that step. Doh!

What ever happened to Stevander anyway??

 

[Molineux]

DISASTER!

I have just finished and bottled some wine. I thought, as an experiment, I would try pasteurising some as I have never done this before. I added the finnings last night but it must not have been totally finished as there were a few bubbles in the centre of the FV (I had added sorbate and campden like 3-4 days ago?!). Due to moving house I was low on empty wine bottles so I just brought 12 pets but I managed to find 4 glass bottles. So, it's all bottled up, in the bath, I fill and constantly refill (Just leave it under the tap) a 25L FV with hot water around 60c. I added 3 pets and 4 bottles of wine and left the bathroom. About 30 minutes later, me and my new landlady are enjoying a glass of my latest wine when BANG! I run to the bathroom door and before I get in, BANG! BANG!

Jesus, I'm close to crying typing this

After crouching and holding my head for a good 30 seconds, I peek around the door. There's glass EVERYWHERE, the FV is splitt, there's wine EVERYWHERE and as I'm looking over it I realise one bottle hasn't gone yet! So I'm sitting here now, waiting for the last bottle to blow so that I can safely enter the bathroom. If it doesn't go soon I might put my motorcycle gear on, put my visor down and attempt to remove the lids... On top of it all I have a night of cleaning ahead and my next shift at work starts in 6 hours :-(

 

[critty]

I remembered too late that Better Bottle PET plastic fermenters are only rated to ~60C.
Imagine my surprise when I poured boiling water into one to get rid of some stubborn grime, only to find it reverting back to a shapeless plastic blob!

Stuart

I kind of did that. I was cleaning it and I left it near a kettle that was boilding some water for a cuppa. Turned away, turned back and woops it has started to lose it's shape from the steam. They really don't like heat.

 

[PD]

Hope the cleaning up went ok Molineax. and your landlady lets you stay there.

One of the reasons I don't like glass beer bottles for home brewing is the safety aspect especially when you have young kids around. I'm not saying you can't damage PETS but they are not as lethal.
I still use the occasional glass bottle and my top storage and conditioning shelf is near ceiling height in the garage where it keeps warm. I did drop one while placing it , and the bottle falling 9 feet onto concrete made a wonderful sound. It looked impressive from a height too.

 

[Hollow Legs]

About 25 years ago when I first dabbled in home brew I fermented and bottled my brew in Lucozade bottles ( my wifes a bit posh and drinks it even when she's not ill) :rofl: , now in those days they were glass and 1 litre in size. One night I brought a bottle down ready to pour it into my jug but I couldn't get the top off no matter what I tried so as a last attempt I went to the garage and got my mole grips and when I tried to open it there was a big bang and a lot of pain and blood, as I had shook the bottle so much the glass (non returnable bottles were not strong enough for home brew) had sheered and the top with the glass still inside it hit me in the eye.

I then spent 10 days in Paybody hospital in Coventry (bed bound) with a blood clot behind my eye and if I walked I risked loosing my eyesight in that eye

Could have been a blinding mistake to make .

 

[BigYin]

jaysus! :shock: :shock: :shock: :shock:

that's horrendous!!

 

[Andy.H]

Only one facepalm for me so far. Decided to give the wife's Magnum strawberry cider a bit of a strawberry kick using Ribena Strawberry cordial when it came to bottling. I could've sworn blind I picked up the sugar free one, but er... I didn't apparently :whistle:

So after a week of bleeding the excess pressure off every day, I'm left with this :lol: :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VDHRxv5y ... e=youtu.be

 

[abeyptfc]

I had two full cornies up in my spare room, one with my recent extract brew in it and the other full of starsan, I was brewing a new batch and went upstairs to get the starsan, or what I thought was starsan. I couldn't get the lid off the cornie so released the gas and poured it all out into an unsanitised fv, I paused for a minute and thought 'that smells odd, it smells like beer instead of starsan' and then it hit me I'd picked up the wrong fv. I obviously wouldn't have carbonated the cornie with starsan in it but I didn't think of that at the time. I then had to transfer all the beer back into the cornie,which took ages as it had all foamed up when pouring from the cornie. it was fine though, no infections. :rofl:

 

[Hollow Legs]

jaysus! :shock: :shock: :shock: :shock:

that's horrendous!!

I know Big Yin she won't drink owt else :rofl:

 

[PD]

Ha Haaaa.

 

[alanywiseman.]

Had a bit of a moment yeasterday. I have finally got round to attaching my little bottler to my FV so thought that the best way to sanatize it would be to use a spray bottle. looking in our cuboards I found we had to half used bottle of Fabreeze so emptied one into the other and started rinsing it out.

So it came time yesterday to bottle my christmas ale and set off with improved bottling bucket and spray bottle of starsan. For the sake of easy I also used the spray bottle to sanatise my bottle. bottling took about 80 mins but it was not till I got to my last few bottles I noticed a funny 'foam' on the beer as I was filling it. I smell of the bottles confirmed that there was Fabreeze present

I am :pray: that the beer tastes fine however it will probably be lacking aroma :lol: :lol: