Worst spill, mess, or otherwise bonehead move?

[Nosybear]

But when the grandkids leave uneaten pieces of fruit around all over the house, it doesn't matter how quickly you wash the glasses, you get fruit flies. Traps, the only way to go....

 

[Clarkey35]

a great way to keep fruit flies away is to wash your glasses and bottles right after you drink one, it only takes 30 seconds

Always do. Doesn't help for them being attracted to the smell of fermenting apples bubbling out of about 50 litres' worth in the boiler cupboard though (which will be racked and bottled shortly, to make space for the next batch).

A few blasts of basic fly spray in the kitchen and cupboard, left overnight, sorted them right out.

Do many guys in the States do their own cider from fruit? I see a lot about "turbo cider" from supermarket apple juice. Proper cider was until quite recently mostly a South West thing in Britain, other than crap fizzy flavourless stuff on tap here and there. When you actually look around though, even up North in urban Manchester, there's so much free booze just growing on trees waiting to be grabbed

 

[jmcnamara]

The one time I tried to do a cider I had bought 2 gallons of unpasteurized apple juice from a local farmers. Just added yeast. Which is probably why it didn't turn out super good. Not bad though.
Ended up putting the little bucket in the freezer and scooping out the icy slush every day or so. Even that was pretty good

 

[UrbanSpaceman]

Feel free to file this under TLDR, no offense taken.

First off, I'd like to say I've made everything myself with hefty helpings of youtube, time and tenacity. Also, to understand my position you need to know I operate an electric, constant recirculation BIAB system. Having said that I launch into my greatest mishap yet. I made 55L of 'Dr. Smuto's Golden Ale' said to be the most brewed home-brew in Australia. My BIAB bag is ultra-fine, for a comparison makes a teabag look like expanded mesh for those in the building trade.

This particular mash schedule I experimented with a 45 deg C rest, widely recognized as unnecessary for mollified grains, which almost all from the LHBS are. Regardless I thought I'd try it for no really good reason. About 45 minutes into my mash, after i'd increased the recirc STC-1000 temp (which controls my element) to 65 deg, i opened the lid of my mash tun ( 58L keggle ) and noticed it was WAY too full. I gave it a bit- of-a stir, and realized there was a LOT less grain than I put in originally, floating about. Also, i noticed a rather off-putting unpleasant smell i hadn't experienced to date.

My first reaction was to stir the begeezus out of it, thinking the grain was somehow congealed and blocking exit from the bag. As mentioned above, there seemed to be WAY less grain than i'm very confident I put in 45 minutes or so earlier. My fears were realized when I heard a 'tssss... tsssss' sound after stirring (and reducing the recirculating flow rate). To understand my problem i have to futher explain the temperature of my element is controlled by the wort passing by the thermocouple as it flows out of the bottom of the keggle on it's way to the top. The grain had basically (nearly) liquefied, and had completely gummed up the exposed bag walls within my keggle. As no wort was being pumped through my system, the thermocouple was telling the element to heat up full bore as it was reading the ambient external temperature of about 28 deg C ( I live in the tropics, and it was winter) . Meanwhile, the element was duly responding to the instructions turning red hot in the 'open air' underneath a very full bag full of stuck wort. The 'tsss' sound referred to earlier was the sound of fresh wort dripping onto a red-hot 2500w, 240V element. Needless to say, the result was a distinct aroma of burnt wort.

After this depressing realisation, I admitted defeat and resigned myself to finishing the process. After thinking i'd possibly fixed the problem with continuous stirring I soldiered on. Sure it smelled odd, but dammit this was my brew and I was going to finish it. Despite my malodorous concoction I continued with my boil and hop schedule, naively hoping it would all just go away. In the final stages, after a bit of a challenging brew day I was waiting for the final stages of the boil, and was standing back appreciating the hard work I'd put in to date building my simple brewery. It was at this point I noticed my translucent silicon transfer tubing that was backlit by full sunlight was causing my momentary reprieve, Immediately I shaded the whole assembly, thinking... 'isn't sunlight bad for wort?' How long has it been in full sunlight? A quick calculation suggested the whole volume was exposed many times during the boil. Nevertheless I pressed on.

Unfortunately the result of nearly 90 minutes of recirculating my scorched wort in full sunlight is just about the worst beer I've ever experienced. Literally it smelled very strongly like raw sewage after fermentation. Yes, i continued to fermenting the (then) 44L of scorched, skunked wort, hoping (again naively) it would somehow fix itself with yeast. Should the same unfortunate circumstances confront you, I can advise that nothing, not time, temperature nor hops can alleviate the scorched flavor. As for the smell I have to admit one of the most disgusting [brave] things I've attempted as an adult is tasting the beer that smelled like raw sewage. Dammit I knew what I put in it, and it wasn't sewage. As it turns out, much to my relieve the smell didn't translate to the taste, which was ... refreshing. Not the actual taste mind you, just the fact that it didn't actually taste like raw sewage. Imagine if you dry hopped with 'raw sewage hops' to your beer. Aroma only.

In the end as alluded to above I tried many remedies. Over time the raw sewage smell dissipated to only the smell of walking by a water treatment plant... comparatively lovely. The beer never lost the burnt flavor though, right to the end. If I had a still I would have distilled it, but as it turned out I dumped a LOT of beer out. Also, as it turns out, you can convince yourself you meant to add the 'smoky' flavor to your golden ale, even that it's an acquired taste which, in the end, I almost appreciated. I wasn't however able to convince anybody else.

 

[Box of Rocks]

Posting here since it seems a fitting location. Last Tuesday, with the Thanksgiving meal requiring lots of food to serve lots of people, we were thinking through best cold storage options. Decided to put a platter into my cold box with the kegs. Put it on top of the kegs with a spacer. Returned a little later to see liquid on the floor of the garage. Since it was raining hard, thought it was a leak at first, and then realized it was a beer catastrophe. Platter had messed up the liquid out ball lock fitting, resulting in a fountain of beer. Long story short, had to mop up 3.5 gallons of my first-ever lager. Perfectly conditioned and at just the right carbonation level. Still in a bit of shock. Have a few pints left in the keg to help me wallow in my misery, thinking of what might have been. Not my first brewing mistake, but my most recent and feels like my worst.

 

[Herm brews]

Posting here since it seems a fitting location. Last Tuesday, with the Thanksgiving meal requiring lots of food to serve lots of people, we were thinking through best cold storage options. Decided to put a platter into my cold box with the kegs. Put it on top of the kegs with a spacer. Returned a little later to see liquid on the floor of the garage. Since it was raining hard, thought it was a leak at first, and then realized it was a beer catastrophe. Platter had messed up the liquid out ball lock fitting, resulting in a fountain of beer. Long story short, had to mop up 3.5 gallons of my first-ever lager. Perfectly conditioned and at just the right carbonation level. Still in a bit of shock. Have a few pints left in the keg to help me wallow in my misery, thinking of what might have been. Not my first brewing mistake, but my most recent and feels like my worst.

Cannot like your post. Damn the food! Learn, brew again.

 

[Tim Bulin]

When I was setting up the basement brewery, I decided to remove an old heating oil tank. The gauge sid it was empty, nothing came out when I opened the spigot to make sure...however, when I accidently busted the spigot off the bottom of the tank while hoisting it out the bilko door with a skid steer, about 15 gallons of "empty" poured out on the basement floor.

A wrecked shop vac, 100lbs of oil dry and a week of open air later and the mess was gone. Been 2-3 years since then and I've made others, but I doubt I'll ever top that mess.

 

[DarkVader2]

Last month I put the CO2 ball lock on my keg without checking the connection for a tight fitting, I now have to refill the tank and start over. No physical pain involved but the stupidity is killing me.

Ditto for me on loose fittings.

 

[Box of Rocks]

Ditto for me on loose fittings.

Been there, done that. In addition to tightening all connections, I've learned to listen for the hiss. Hiss stops, I'm happy and can walk away. Also - no metal to metal connections, need a nylon washer in there somewhere. Also, after years of brewing threw out my first Gas ball lock connection the other day for leaking even when tight, and after a rebuild. Live and learn, and I have learned a lot.

 

[Minbari]

mine is not nearly as epic as some. but I was filling my Herms pot with port at the bottom. I neglected to take off the lid to see how far it was filling. after a couple minutes it pushed up the lid and poured water all over my brew setup and the floor. couple gallons of water doesnt seeem like much until it is everywhere!

oh, did I mention I did this live on camera while I was streaming my brew day? lol. you can still see it on my facebook page for the brewery. >_>

 

[Sandy Feet]

After my first 5-gallon extract kit, I learned about taking my time after cutting my hand on the thermometer. That one got named "Redneck Blood". LOL

 

[Craigerrr]

After my first 5-gallon extract kit, I learned about taking my time after cutting my hand on the thermometer. That one got named "Redneck Blood". LOL

After an exploding glass carboy incident, I named the brew Bloody Finger"

 

[Zambi]

An almost bonehead move today.

I poured wort in the fermenter after no chill this morning. Diluted as normal with water.
Got the blow off on etc and proceeded to clean everything.
Then saw that little sachet lying around, marked Voss Kveik. Almost forgot to add the yeast !

 

[Hawkbox]

mine is not nearly as epic as some. but I was filling my Herms pot with port at the bottom. I neglected to take off the lid to see how far it was filling. after a couple minutes it pushed up the lid and poured water all over my brew setup and the floor. couple gallons of water doesnt seeem like much until it is everywhere!

oh, did I mention I did this live on camera while I was streaming my brew day? lol. you can still see it on my facebook page for the brewery. >_>

Yeah it's kind of wild how much water a gallon is when it's on the floor.

 

[BarbarianBrewer]

I bottled Ben's Bunyip 2.0 yesterday. All the bottles were cleaned and sanitized. Added priming solution to bottling bucket. Started transferring beer into bottling bucket. Began thinking about the great taste and aroma from the hops.....hops?...dry hops? .....oh s### forgot to add the damn dry hops!!!
At that moment I was faced with the dilemma of transferring the beer back into the fermenter and adding the dry hops or just proceed down the path I was already on and accept the less than stellar result. I chose the latter because I figured a beer that tasted OK was better than a beer that tasted oxidized. Now I'm second guessing my choice but, too late now. Since I don't dry hop often, I put dry hopping on my calendar so I don't forget. This time I didn't put it on my calendar and therefore forgot the dry hop addition. The hydrometer sample tasted good so I'm expecting a the beer to be good....just no where near it's potential.
#don't-tell-ben

 

[GFHomebrew]

I bottled Ben's Bunyip 2.0 yesterday. All the bottles were cleaned and sanitized. Added priming solution to bottling bucket. Started transferring beer into bottling bucket. Began thinking about the great taste and aroma from the hops.....hops?...dry hops? .....oh s### forgot to add the damn dry hops!!!
At that moment I was faced with the dilemma of transferring the beer back into the fermenter and adding the dry hops or just proceed down the path I was already on and accept the less than stellar result. I chose the latter because I figured a beer that tasted OK was better than a beer that tasted oxidized. Now I'm second guessing my choice but, too late now. Since I don't dry hop often, I put dry hopping on my calendar so I don't forget. This time I didn't put it on my calendar and therefore forgot the dry hop addition. The hydrometer sample tasted good so I'm expecting a the beer to be good....just no where near it's potential.
#don't-tell-ben

Haha that sux man it'll still taste great.
That beer has a great malty backbone so I figure it'll be a good beer for you man!
More like an English bitter now well sort of...
Now there's an idea brew that Bunyip English bunyip with EKG and Fuggles and call it Nessie

 

[Minbari]

Haha that sux man it'll still taste great.
That beer has a great malty backbone so I figure it'll be a good beer for you man!
More like an English bitter now well sort of...
Now there's an idea brew that Bunyip English bunyip with EKG and Fuggles and call it Nessie

I bet the English would take exception to using a Scottish monster for their English ale

 

[west1m]

The Bunyip is some good beer. I am down to about the last two glasses worth in my keg.

 

[GFHomebrew]

I bet the English would take exception to using a Scottish monster for their English ale

True that can't think of a mythical English being Lyon Maybe...

The welsh have heaps to draw from Dragons Merlion King Arthur Ect.

 

[Minbari]

True that can't think of a mythical English being Lyon Maybe...

The welsh have heaps to draw from Dragons Merlion King Arthur Ect.

depend on what part of england, they wouldnt want to be connected to the welsh either, lol