Misadventures in Brewing

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Trial Member
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So during this my last brew session I made a total rookie mistake: I forgot to leave the hops in the kettle. I figure "No big deal, I'll just use a blow-off tube." It was a big deal. After I came home from work the next day I saw my carboy happily bubbling away, so I went out side to play with my dogs. I got maybe 10 feet out the door and hear a loud POP and my wife making her startled noise. I run back inside and apparently the hops clogged up the carboy cap, caused that to explode with enough force to get hops all over my ceiling and spew about a gallon of beer all over the room! :D I betI won't do that again for a long while.

Anyone else have any misadventures in brewing they would like to share?
 
Wowie that was a close call.
Sounds like you may need a bigger fermenter
 
I agree with Ben ;)
I move everything (hop/trub) to my fermenter without a problem. Maybe also look at a blow off tube instead of an airlock?
 
Anyone brewing for a measurable amount of time has some stories! :)
I'll come clean.
Like a lunkhead, I was tapping a keg once and forgot that I had left the picnic tap in the on position after cleaning and sanitizing. As soon as I pushed the disconnect onto the post, I shot a whole bunch of stout all over the basement and refrig floor. :eek: Better than the ceiling I suppose. ;)
 
IMG_20220109_055223.jpg
 
This was a little mishap when the blowoff blocked and blew the Fermentor apart at the seam.
 
OMG that looks like the Mentor Amber as well!

Holly cow that musta made some noise.
Just shows the bigger the brewing scale the bigger the clean up.
 
Yikes! Even at 15 PSI, the pressure is tremendous. It could amount to tons of pressure on the fermenters and 15 PSI isn't hard to produce with yeast. A home pressure cooker with a 12" cover at 15 PSI has 1700 pounds of pressure against the cover itself. Ka-BOOM!

That looks like a 30" fermenter. At 15 PSI a 30" fermenter has 10,600 pounds (4800 Kg) pushing against the top of it. Wow.
 
Last edited:
The above blowup happened on New years eve. It was an oatmeal stout ~
Trialben said:
OMG that looks like the Mentor Amber as well!

Holly cow that musta made some noise.
Just shows the bigger the brewing scale the bigger the clean up.
Click to expand...
It was a Foreign extra Oatmeal Stout.
Took 8 man hours to clean up.
 
Brewed on new years eve, eve.
32 gallons to the Fermentor @64°
OG 1.063
Pitched Apex London ale yeast 100 grams.
Checked new years eve morning, active fermenting @ 66°. Checked again before leaving for the day, still @ 66°.
That was Friday night. Staff was there until about 11pm.
Closed Saturday, new years day.
Business partner opens on Sunday 11 am and texts me... WTF!!!! And a picture!
I told him to leave it alone, I'd address it and clean up on Tuesday.
Told my staff winemaker to bring her cleaning clothes on Tuesday and sent her a picture.
We worked for 4 hours together to get it cleaned up.
There was beer (black stout) sprayed in every direction on the walls, ceiling etc.
 
It's amazing how clean the walls remain. Do you use Rain-X on them?
 
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