You know you did it wrong when...

When you install the top and bottom grain basket plates wrong making fly sparge absolutely miserable. I put the top plate on the bottom, and the bottom on top. They are very clearly different but still pulled it off and didn't notice till to late.
 
When you install the top and bottom grain basket plates wrong making fly sparge absolutely miserable. I put the top plate on the bottom, and the bottom on top. They are very clearly different but still pulled it off and didn't notice till to late.

Luckily, the Digiboil doesn't have a top plate. Otherwise I would have probably done that one too.
 
Luckily, the Digiboil doesn't have a top plate. Otherwise I would have probably done that one too.
It made for a frustrating mash that's for sure. Recirculating the mash was damn near miserable, and of course it finally settled in with about 7 minutes left. The sparge went on for days it seemed lol. I'll for sure be paying more attention next time! I think may have also been in a little foggy state after the rum last nighto_O
 
After carefully planning out bittering additions you reach for the 15.8%aa, 30-minute Columbus charge...but you then realize, that out of habit, you had already added it at the top of the boil. :oops:
 
After carefully planning out bittering additions you reach for the 15.8%aa, 30-minute Columbus charge...but you then realize, that out of habit, you had already added it at the top of the boil. :oops:
That'll make a IPA out of your pale ale, for sure....
 
I wish I could have seen the look on my face when I realized what I did. A big, "Oh Fuuuddggge!". Only I didn't say fudge. I said the word, the big one. The queen mother of dirty words, the F dash dash dash word. :)

Only saving grace is the original recipe kind of shot the middle for BTU's in a Rye IPA. The extra charge only pushed me to the top end, style-wise.

Another intersting thing was that the Columbus had a noticeable scallion/onion funk going on. Maybe it was a good thing I gave it an extra 30 to boil away. I was going to use more in a dry hop addition but I've changed my mind and switched that to Chinook.
 
I doubled up all hop additions on a batch last year (having had a few pints by the time I got to the boil...), woke up the next morning fearing that I had spoiled the batch. End result was so good, I have brewed it the same way ever since!
I hope you have a similar result to your fauxpas!
 
You know you did it wrong when your wife tells you that the biscuits you made were way too salty and you look at the recipe and realize that tsp does NOT mean TABLESPOON......

Lesson learned, drink more coffee before baking!
 
You know you did it wrong when your wife tells you that the biscuits you made were way too salty and you look at the recipe and realize that tsp does NOT mean TABLESPOON......

Lesson learned, drink more coffee before baking!

The corollary to that is "Tbl" <> "Cup"! I made that mistake with this year's Easter ham. Normally I make my own glaze but this year (with no one coming over) I got lazy and used the packet that came with the ham. I read the directions and mixed the powder with three cups of water. Then looked at the directions to see what the next step was and saw that I was only supposed to add 3 Tablespoons of water! Oh well, I made a basting sauce instead of a glaze.
 
When you turn your lovely clean new fermenter

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into this

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Moral of the story is, when you're fiddling around with spunding on your new pressure capable fermenter, don't completely close off the spunding valve and then think, while I'm waiting for this to hit pressure I can just knock off a few things for work and won't ever get distracted...
 
Holly Molly looks like you've lost 5 litres of beer there Mark.
Looks like your going to be getting up and personal with a sponge.
So you released the pressure too quick and it rose up out of the fermentor on you trying to figure out how it happened.

I know putting dry hops into a pressure vessel can cause that kinda eruption gee wizz!
 
Yes, it was a lovely two hours or so cleaning everything up. Fermentation is still going strong and the fermenter looks undamaged. Just a matter of how much of the dry hop got pushed out vs. stayed in.

The problem was I'd put on a spunding valve so the beer could carbonate in the fermenter. I was trying to get it up to 20psi, so I closed off the valve and started waiting. After a few minutes I thought I could knock off a few things for work, so went upstairs and got distracted. About twenty minutes later the pressure relief plug on the fermenter popped and around four litres of beer gushed out into the fridge.
 
Yes, it was a lovely two hours or so cleaning everything up. Fermentation is still going strong and the fermenter looks undamaged. Just a matter of how much of the dry hop got pushed out vs. stayed in.

The problem was I'd put on a spunding valve so the beer could carbonate in the fermenter. I was trying to get it up to 20psi, so I closed off the valve and started waiting. After a few minutes I thought I could knock off a few things for work, so went upstairs and got distracted. About twenty minutes later the pressure relief plug on the fermenter popped and around four litres of beer gushed out into the fridge.
Best lessons are learnt the ugly hard way I'm guessing that will never ever happen at your brewery Mark ha!
 
I was getting started on water for a wheat beer and cleaning 2 kegs for a lpa. Brewing partner was weighing and grinding grain and a clatter and a few choice words from storage room. The drill hooked to the mill is still running and they both are bouncing across the floor. She grabs the power cord and gives it a yank
More choice words. Then she undoes the twisty tie off of the drill trigger. I stood with jaw open and all i could come up with was "I thought I was the only one silly enough to try a stunt like that." Not a good choice of words but could have been worse i supose. Ended up tweaking the drive shaft where drill mounts but luckily no bodys were damaged. Mill still works well but drill wobbles a little on bent shaft. Lesson learned.
 

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