Post your brewing horror stories here!

Steven P · Post by **Steven P** » Mon Jul 08, 2013 1:29 pm

Yesterday, brewing a hoppy saison and just about every damn thing went wrong.

5.75lb Bel Pale
4lb GW pale
1lb Flaked Corn.

.75 Tradition at 60
1oz Citra at 10
.3 oz Crushed corainder at 5
1oz Citra for 10 min steep before chilling.

Missed mash temp by like 8 degrees high, then added water to go lower and missed temp like 5 degrees low and had a thin mash. I dumped the whole thing to my BK, heated and transferred back to the MLT at what I thought was 152.

Turns out that while I was wondering if my thermometer was maladjusted I found out later during the boil it actually was on its last legs and just broke. See photo.

Also, I forgot to add the corn to the grist until 5 min into the mash. Burner blew out twice as it got windy. 1 boil over.

Only God knows what that mash temp was but I missed my SG by like 5-7 points. That 1.055-57 wort I expected was actually 1.050

I ran out of muslin bags so I loaded my kettle with a straight 2 ounces of Citra whole leaf late additions. After chilling and whirlpool I clogged my ball valve, then the racking cane, then a straining funnel. I finally just did the pour straight from the BK into the fermenter and racked off the trub later in the evening before pitching 1.5L of 3711 at 70 F.

I'm certain it will be the best tasting Saison of all time.

bf514921 · Post by **bf514921** » Mon Jul 08, 2013 8:30 pm

was making a barley wine loaded up started mashing and realized I was looking at my false bottom, that was not under my grain in my mash tun. saved by making the mash alittle thin, got the bottom under the grain bed best I could, and then vorlafed the hell out of it, luckily I had plummed my mash tun with 3/4 stinless instead of 1/2, made all the diference.

krjamk · Post by **krjamk** » Mon Jul 08, 2013 9:21 pm

I recently did a lemon blonde Ale on a new all grain setup and missed my water calculations somewhere along the way so bad that I ended up with a beer measuring out at about 1.5-2.0% abv. I was really upset as I had about 6 gallons of really nice smelling,but super watery beer. I stuck with the fermentation and once complete put the whole thing in the deep freeze overnight. I then strained off the first 2.5 gallons of what melted off the ice. Surprisingly tasted not too bad. I have it carbonating and should be ready to serve by the weekend. I have since figured out my errors as well so hopefully can bypass the extra headaches going forward!

Post by **JimPotts** » Mon Jul 08, 2013 10:08 pm

There was my "Tastes Like Arm" porter. It was named after the running joke in the club, but only because I had to stick my (sanitized) arm down into the kettle to try to clear a bad clog (at Big Brew Day, nonetheless).
That was after I bounced a carboy onto the 3BB parking lot.
On the bright side, it turned into a fairly tasty Baltic. Because of my arm? Maybe.....

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Matt F · Post by **Matt F** » Tue Jul 09, 2013 12:03 am

Burnt my arm while brewing some saison a few months ago. I can show you the scar some time. Beer turned out good though.

Steven P · Post by **Steven P** » Tue Jul 09, 2013 8:33 am

Matt F wrote:Burnt my arm while brewing some saison a few months ago. I can show you the scar some time. Beer turned out good though.

I've seen that scar. War wounds sir. I'm sure you could impress a girl with that if were you single.

Post by **JimPotts** » Tue Jul 09, 2013 12:13 pm

I'm waiting for Clint to chime in with his story, which will forever top the rest of us, unless one of us manages to kill themselves while brewing.

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Matt F · Post by **Matt F** » Tue Jul 09, 2013 1:48 pm

Yeah, Clint's was BAD! Like Steve said, mine is just cool for impressing the chicks, which is totally useless to me.

CMLarrison · Post by **CMLarrison** » Wed Jul 10, 2013 6:54 am

I slipped and broke a fermenter once.

Post by **JimPotts** » Wed Jul 10, 2013 7:04 am

Matt: Have you seen my scar? Cammy: Umm, yeah....

On Jul 9, 2013 2:48 PM, "Matt F" <test@crbeernuts.org (test@crbeernuts.org)> wrote:

Yeah, Clint's was BAD! Like Steve said, mine is just cool for impressing the chicks, which is totally useless to me.

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Steven P · Post by **Steven P** » Wed Jul 10, 2013 7:05 am

Your sauce is weak sir.

Did you ever name that beer The Larrison Flambé?

jjbuck · Post by **jjbuck** » Wed Jul 10, 2013 10:07 pm

There is always some excitement when you forget to close a ball valve and then transfer wort onto your floor.