You know you did it wrong when...

Wheat beer fermentations... AMIRITE?

This was at a previous house, previous fermenter... but this one was particularly messy. After this, I grabbed a brick and put on top of the lid. That didn't work either, it clogged the airlock just like you see here, blew the lid off anyway, brick just fell beside the bucket. Channeling my best inner Wile E. Coyote, I put a cinder block on top of the lid. Partial success ! The lid didn't blow off, but did pop loose on one side, oozing out yeast all over the kitchen floor. The beer did finish out and wasn't too shabby.


View attachment 34065
Probably didn’t taste like brick at all.
 
When you connect your blow off to the liquid line on your fermenter. I went to check and see if the US-05 was starting to go to work and found this!
Thank goodness all the wort ended up in the veggie tray of the fridge. Only lost about 4-5 pints fortunately. This is after I switched the line and refilled the glass with starsan.
View attachment 34064
That’s why I got a yellow for gas. I sent wort through a spunding valve once.
 
Red hoses with gray fittings for gas, clear hoses with black fittings for liquid
 
So…what a shitty end to my brew day. Been below freezing here for 2 weeks. I hooked up my hose to chill the wort. Nothing. My faucet is fine. Water came out. Maybe the hose is frozen. I filled up sanitized gallon jugs that held my brewing water. Those are sitting outside in the 22 degree weather. Once they get cooled down in a few hours I’ll pour in the fermenter and hopefully have a good bath of Irish ale.
 
Okay so, Dumb, and Dumber
What do you think I did when I removed the lid to dry hop????
You guessed it, my 19L batch is now probably closer to a 12L batch.
I'm just glad I went back see if it got back to pressure or if it needed a little bump of Co2
Such an idiot...
20260207_093545.jpg
 
Okay so, Dumb, and Dumber
What do you think I did when I removed the lid to dry hop????
You guessed it, my 19L batch is now probably closer to a 12L batch.
I'm just glad I went back see if it got back to pressure or if it needed a little bump of Co2
Such an idiot...
View attachment 34085
I had to clean my beer fridge from a leak or a bunch of small drops from taking on and off hoses, nothing like cleaning stale ranched beer, good news fabulosa works great on plastic
 
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Okay so, Dumb, and Dumber
What do you think I did when I removed the lid to dry hop????
You guessed it, my 19L batch is now probably closer to a 12L batch.
I'm just glad I went back see if it got back to pressure or if it needed a little bump of Co2
Such an idiot...
View attachment 34085
Twice?
 
I was going to look for this thread today. Let's call this tale: "It sounded like a good idea at the time".

Yesterday... well, this weekend was clown show of problems, some I was prepared for, others, not so much.
Due to time constraints I decided to mash Saturday, get to pre-boil gravity & volume, then boil and finish Sunday.

Saturday I got a late start due to my wife's schedule, but I managed to mash a soon-to-be Vienna lager. It went relatively trouble free, but I did end up about 0.005 over target. It doesn't sound like much, but I'm shooting for a beer right around or just under 5%ABV. So, I figure I will dilute with my sparge water to the correct-ish gravity and resume Sunday. Late Saturday I set the temp to about 185 and timer to 11 hours, so when I wake up, I'll be ready to rock. I hadn't finally settled my hop schedule yet, but meh. what, 10 minutes to get them ready? I got this.

Sunday: After a night of thunderstorms, punctuated by hours of abject terror by our golden retriever, Henry Panicfur, I go out to the brewery to find the control panel on my Anvil 18 dark. She has power, but no control for the burner. breaker not tripped, temp sensor not tripped and that wouldn't cause this either, but checked anyway, unplugged 5 minutes and plugged in again- No joy. This is going to be a long day.
My anvil 10.5 died late last year, leaving me only the $149.99, 8 gallon Digiboil. I have 8.25 gallons of wort in the Anvil...

ok, it's still thunderstorming, so brewing with gas outside is a no-go. so, now I have to take my sparge water from the digiboil, thin out the wort, dump the sparge water, transfer the wort and get going. This part is slow, but the wife pitches in to help and we get it set. I set the kettle for about 180.

I realize at this point I need to be sure of my gravity as best I can, so I calibrate the refractometer using r/o water. it was slightly off. next I need to be sure the wort is actually 1.039 or close, as I expect. I chill some wort, get it to 60 and the hydrometer confirms. One down.

Oh wait, no brewing profile for the Digiboil. Let's hurry and set that up. add to the recipe and change the boil off from 1.75 for the Anvil to .5- a reasonable guess based on the wattage. Hmm... calculator still says I'll go from 1.039 to 1.049 with a half gallon boil off? Huh? <-- this is definitely wrong.
Not having time to fuss with this, I move on to the hops, which are now different, so I adjust the schedule to keep right around 30IBU.

On the way out I spy my Tilt and remember - "Oh sh!t... Red Tilt needs calibrating. Ugh". I opt to change the battery just in case, will do the recal when the temp in the kettle is stable. Hops now ready, I need some food, so let the wort sit covered, and hot. About this time, work calls. Not completely unexpected, but should be rare. My support guy wants me on a 45 person zoom. I should have said no thanks and didn't. I'd like those 2.5 hours back.
Fixed their issue, and fired up the boil. took some more gravity readings with the refractometer and started the hop schedule. At first it looked promising, but as expected my boil off was a few ounces more than .5 gallons, and gravity was only up about .0005 - not making the numbers at the end of the hop schedule. Not sure what to do here, and I was thinking it may be too thin ... I pulled the hops and continued the boil. got it to my target post boil gravity.
While the boil was going on I recalibrated the red tilt.

So the boil ends and then I remember, THE YEAST !!! it's in my fridge, harvested from a previous lager. Get that out and wait. Start the chiller to drop the temp. After warming the yeast and chilling the wort, i transfer to the fermenter. Miraculously, I didn't leave the dump valve open, got the fermenter connected to the chiller and cooled it, got the yeast ready and pitched it.

I wonder what it will come out like, and at the same time I'm surprised I got to the end of the brew day.
 
I was going to look for this thread today. Let's call this tale: "It sounded like a good idea at the time".

Yesterday... well, this weekend was clown show of problems, some I was prepared for, others, not so much.
Due to time constraints I decided to mash Saturday, get to pre-boil gravity & volume, then boil and finish Sunday.

Saturday I got a late start due to my wife's schedule, but I managed to mash a soon-to-be Vienna lager. It went relatively trouble free, but I did end up about 0.005 over target. It doesn't sound like much, but I'm shooting for a beer right around or just under 5%ABV. So, I figure I will dilute with my sparge water to the correct-ish gravity and resume Sunday. Late Saturday I set the temp to about 185 and timer to 11 hours, so when I wake up, I'll be ready to rock. I hadn't finally settled my hop schedule yet, but meh. what, 10 minutes to get them ready? I got this.

Sunday: After a night of thunderstorms, punctuated by hours of abject terror by our golden retriever, Henry Panicfur, I go out to the brewery to find the control panel on my Anvil 18 dark. She has power, but no control for the burner. breaker not tripped, temp sensor not tripped and that wouldn't cause this either, but checked anyway, unplugged 5 minutes and plugged in again- No joy. This is going to be a long day.
My anvil 10.5 died late last year, leaving me only the $149.99, 8 gallon Digiboil. I have 8.25 gallons of wort in the Anvil...

ok, it's still thunderstorming, so brewing with gas outside is a no-go. so, now I have to take my sparge water from the digiboil, thin out the wort, dump the sparge water, transfer the wort and get going. This part is slow, but the wife pitches in to help and we get it set. I set the kettle for about 180.

I realize at this point I need to be sure of my gravity as best I can, so I calibrate the refractometer using r/o water. it was slightly off. next I need to be sure the wort is actually 1.039 or close, as I expect. I chill some wort, get it to 60 and the hydrometer confirms. One down.

Oh wait, no brewing profile for the Digiboil. Let's hurry and set that up. add to the recipe and change the boil off from 1.75 for the Anvil to .5- a reasonable guess based on the wattage. Hmm... calculator still says I'll go from 1.039 to 1.049 with a half gallon boil off? Huh? <-- this is definitely wrong.
Not having time to fuss with this, I move on to the hops, which are now different, so I adjust the schedule to keep right around 30IBU.

On the way out I spy my Tilt and remember - "Oh sh!t... Red Tilt needs calibrating. Ugh". I opt to change the battery just in case, will do the recal when the temp in the kettle is stable. Hops now ready, I need some food, so let the wort sit covered, and hot. About this time, work calls. Not completely unexpected, but should be rare. My support guy wants me on a 45 person zoom. I should have said no thanks and didn't. I'd like those 2.5 hours back.
Fixed their issue, and fired up the boil. took some more gravity readings with the refractometer and started the hop schedule. At first it looked promising, but as expected my boil off was a few ounces more than .5 gallons, and gravity was only up about .0005 - not making the numbers at the end of the hop schedule. Not sure what to do here, and I was thinking it may be too thin ... I pulled the hops and continued the boil. got it to my target post boil gravity.
While the boil was going on I recalibrated the red tilt.

So the boil ends and then I remember, THE YEAST !!! it's in my fridge, harvested from a previous lager. Get that out and wait. Start the chiller to drop the temp. After warming the yeast and chilling the wort, i transfer to the fermenter. Miraculously, I didn't leave the dump valve open, got the fermenter connected to the chiller and cooled it, got the yeast ready and pitched it.

I wonder what it will come out like, and at the same time I'm surprised I got to the end of the brew day.
that is a long day. would have been faster with #VOSS #Beefin'

sometimes its just better to let it ride. as far as the grav goes.

i have def had brew days at my current spot and at the big spot where i have lost power for hours. more unusual i have lost water for hours at a time as well... big system was far far more stressful as i was in my boil but pre hop when i lost power for like 3 hours. shitty.
 
Yeah, I wonder if the main kettle would've gone out during the boil. That would have really messed up the day. I think I know what parts I need, but waiting to hear back.
 
Yeah, I wonder if the main kettle would've gone out during the boil. That would have really messed up the day. I think I know what parts I need, but waiting to hear back.
I wonder if wiring in some fuses(properly sized) would have protected the equipement. i assume you had a power surge and it popped the electronics.

did anything else get fried?
 
Wow, I'm tired and need a beer after only reading that post! Glad you survived!
 
I wonder if wiring in some fuses(properly sized) would have protected the equipement. i assume you had a power surge and it popped the electronics.

did anything else get fried?
I’m on a dedicated 220 circuit so possible but nothing else got hit that I could tell.

Wow, I'm tired and need a beer after only reading that post! Glad you survived!
#MeToo

Gotta check some readings with a multi meter but I suspect the control panel, possibly the switch.
 
Dizzy Miss Lizzy!
 
All the power and resistance readings check out, switch, breaker and overtemp sensor are clear. Looks like the control panel or circuit board.
That brew day .. Days? is among the top 3 most challenging I've had. in 29 years, I've never had to pitch a batch for a brew day fail; it's beer after all, plenty of folks have screwed up a lot worse than me so far.

But this one beat me up pretty good.
Did I mention I left the pressure relief valve open? :-/ tough to pressure ferment like that.
I got about 5psi now and a ways to go.

I'm hoping I can break down the kettle replace the panel and be done. I really don't want to mess with the gas burner and pot if I don't have to, but lager season will soon be gone here so, I need to get crackin' !
 
A minor mishap by comparison, checked my pressure this evening about 30 hours after pitching VOSS, it was roughly 25PSI. Cranked it down to 12PSI as soon as I noticed.
 

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