Fail thread (mistakes you’ve made 2021)

[jamiek86]

14 minutes ago, Greenyinthewestofsydney said:

Yeah mate. Cut off the plug and buy a new one at bunnings. Easy to wire up yourself. Just need a screwdriver and a Stanley knife to pare back the wires. Match the colours and your done.

thanks I was hoping that but because thinner than extension cord wasn't sure. really old thin one but probably same if find one with same thickness?

[Greenyinthewestofsydney]

38 minutes ago, jamiek86 said:

thanks I was hoping that but because thinner than extension cord wasn't sure. really old thin one but probably same if find one with same thickness?

Yeah just a 10A one like this would be fine. $3.60 is worth it just for the peace of mind.

[jamiek86]

@Greenyinthewestofsydney thanks I did have someone put a new plug on tradie extension cord but wasn't sure about the thinner fridge one.  Although the fridge is not good at running long enough to cold crash. For the price of a new plug it can be used to brew an ale then transfer to fridge next to it to cold crash

[iBooz2]

Second failure of my sourdough career occurred the other day.  At the last minute I thought I would use my newly acquired banneton liner so slipped in on the banneton and the dough in.  Of course it's second rise was perfect but when I went to get it out and onto the oven slide the SHTF.

Forgot to prepare and dust off the liner so the dough had stuck to it like STAB.  By the time it was extracted all I had left was a mess that would not even make a pizza.  Needless to say it was not up for a third rise so it ended up being eaten by my garbage bin.

[Aussiekraut]

I may have just ruined a batch of beer, simply by being an idiot. Went to dry hop it, picked up a hop sock, picked up the spray bottle with the sanitiser, sprayed the hop sock, the hop bag, the scissors, open the hops and pour them into the bag, tie it all up and into the FV it goes. Standard procedure. The problem was though it wasn't my sanitiser I sprayed things with but the spray bottle with stale, stagnant water we used to spray the mushroom kit with. Who knows what lived in that water. It's the second time I picked it up but last time I noticed it before doing something silly. 

[jamiek86]

@Aussiekraut hopefully for this one it's OK but maby from now on.different colour bottle? I once sprayed fly spray in pan instead of spray and cook

[iBooz2]

56 minutes ago, Aussiekraut said:

I may have just ruined a batch of beer, simply by being an idiot. Went to dry hop it, picked up a hop sock, picked up the spray bottle with the sanitiser, sprayed the hop sock, the hop bag, the scissors, open the hops and pour them into the bag, tie it all up and into the FV it goes. Standard procedure. The problem was though it wasn't my sanitiser I sprayed things with but the spray bottle with stale, stagnant water we used to spray the mushroom kit with. Who knows what lived in that water. It's the second time I picked it up but last time I noticed it before doing something silly. 

Sorry to hear about this trouble AK.

I learnt many many years ago to label all our spray bottles with a big fat texta.

My wife would just grab any spray bottle handy and put say weed killer in it.  When I went to fertilizer or mist seedlings or the ferns months later they all died.

I used to have different colored bottles for different purposes that still did not stop mix ups.  Now I hide the clean "good" bottles away keeping all marked brewing or baking bottles in safe places.

Edited December 23, 2021 by iBooz2

[Aussiekraut]

20 minutes ago, jamiek86 said:

@Aussiekraut hopefully for this one it's OK but maby from now on.different colour bottle? I once sprayed fly spray in pan instead of spray and cook

I did it with furniture polish  I have a brand new 2l pump spray bottle, so maybe it's an incentive to get it ready. There is a decent amount of hops in the beer and I just added another 150g and there is also alcohol, so maybe the anti-microbal properties of hops might come in handy and the alc might so its own part. 

[Aussiekraut]

2 minutes ago, iBooz2 said:

Sorry to hear about this trouble AK.

I learnt many many years ago to label all our spray bottles with a big fat texta.

My wife would just grab any spray bottle handy and put say weed killer in it.  When I went to fertilizer or mist seedlings or the ferns months later they all died.

I used to have different colored bottles for different purposes that still did not stop mix ups.  Now I hide the clean "good" bottles away keeping all marked brewing or baking bottles in safe places.

Funny you should mention it. It has in big letters H₂O written on it. And it lives in the kitchen, whereas the sanitiser lives in the brewery. But when I got the hops out of the freezer, I picked up the spray bottle and walked off with it.

 

[jamiek86]

@Aussiekraut I hope that's the way it works out for you considering the old days and what went on brewing beer hopefully your ok

[ben 10]

47 minutes ago, Aussiekraut said:

I picked up the spray bottle and walked off with it.

Maybe a sour?

[stquinto]

On 12/19/2021 at 4:11 AM, iBooz2 said:

Second failure of my sourdough career occurred the other day.  At the last minute I thought I would use my newly acquired banneton liner so slipped in on the banneton and the dough in.  Of course it's second rise was perfect but when I went to get it out and onto the oven slide the SHTF.

Forgot to prepare and dust off the liner so the dough had stuck to it like STAB.  By the time it was extracted all I had left was a mess that would not even make a pizza.  Needless to say it was not up for a third rise so it ended up being eaten by my garbage bin.

Bad luck mate, that happened to me with the banneton - although I've got liner I've never used them. Also rice flour is the best for the bannetons IMHO.

In the end I dried off the banneton in a not-too-warm oven and chipped the dough off when it got hard.

[iBooz2]

10 hours ago, stquinto said:

Bad luck mate, that happened to me with the banneton - although I've got liner I've never used them. Also rice flour is the best for the bannetons IMHO.

Thanks @stquinto , I did buy two packs of rice flour on your recommendations a while back.  I just missed an important step, rookie "banneton liner" user error.  Going to have another crack tomorrow or day after so will be more diligent this time.

[Space]

Just had an FV tap leak on new brew and now have several pints of malty liquid soaking onto my office carpet. 

 

 

 

[Pickles Jones]

4 hours ago, Space said:

Just had an FV tap leak on new brew and now have several pints of malty liquid soaking onto my office carpet. 

 

That's bad luck. That sticky sugar mix can take a bit to clean up

[Space]

13 hours ago, Pickles Jones said:

That's bad luck. That sticky sugar mix can take a bit to clean up

It got funnier.    I did an ermergency clean on my second FV (consisting of a 15 second swill with sanitizer) and poured the whole 5 gallons into that, only to discover that in my haste that the tap wasn't on properly on the other FV and that was leaking even worse.   So have do another emergency sluice out on the first FV and it took 5 attempts to get the tap back on so it wasn't leaking.

There was a trail of matly liquid from my office to the batchroom and I think I was wearing at least a pint of it on my clothes.

The 4.5 gallons that are left are now bubbling away but I've got my fingers crossed due to the emergency hygeine measures on the FVs.

 

I might see if I can find some better grommets for the taps.

[DavidM]

In my rush to fill my Brew cupboard, I didn't get around to cutting off the screw tips that came through the wood.

Pulled out one of the Plastic bottles from the corner and caught the screw....

Punched a hole.. Beer spraying all over the place..

Fixed now

 

[Stickers]

On 1/17/2022 at 12:05 AM, Space said:

It got funnier.    I did an ermergency clean on my second FV (consisting of a 15 second swill with sanitizer) and poured the whole 5 gallons into that, only to discover that in my haste that the tap wasn't on properly on the other FV and that was leaking even worse.   So have do another emergency sluice out on the first FV and it took 5 attempts to get the tap back on so it wasn't leaking.

There was a trail of matly liquid from my office to the batchroom and I think I was wearing at least a pint of it on my clothes.

The 4.5 gallons that are left are now bubbling away but I've got my fingers crossed due to the emergency hygeine measures on the FVs.

 

I might see if I can find some better grommets for the taps.

i had a leaky tap on one of my early batches, didn't get into carpet but was pretty nasty on lino and laminex/formica (love this early 80s kitchen). not sure what kind of sanitising thing you do before your brews but i always test my taps when i have no-rinse sanitiser in my FV. i make sure i run a litre or so out through the tap then close it - give it about 15 mins to test for drips, then empty the rest of the no-rinse sani and tip some 'live' ingredients in.

[iBooz2]

An almost yeast starter fail for me.  I had two Erlenmeyer flasks with extra wort from a big AG brew day.  One was a 3 L and the other 2.5 L.  I had re-boiled one of them with a stir bar en-situ and had it on the stir-plate for a couple of days in my wine cooler fridge at appropriate temps with reclaimed yeast mixed in.

Anyway I was not ready to pitch the starter into the wort just yet so chilled it down after it peaked along side the other Erlenmeyer flask which was already in the keg freezer at 2 C.  Pitch day came and I grabbed what I thought was the yeast starter as it had heaps of white sediment on the bottom and I started to swirl it up after tipping out most of the liquid.

It was then that I realized there was no stir bar in the bottom of the Erlenmeyer flask in hand which I normally capture in my strainer.  I had grabbed the pure wort flask instead of my starter.

Damn it, I had tipped out nearly a whole flask of good wort for nothing.  

Anyway after the mix-up, got to pitch my Copenhagen yeast babies into the latest Pilsner batch and all is going well.

Edited January 19, 2022 by iBooz2

[jamiek86]

@DavidM when you try to pull out fast you end up in trouble

[Malter White]

My kegging journey has hit another trough and I must say the peaks haven't been that high either.
In the name of hygiene I disassembled and cleaned the components of the PCO38 tap head for my plastic keg system.
Today I discovered my kegs were soft ie. no pressure in them. It appears I didn't re-seat the PRV on one keg correctly and it's emptied the contents of the CO2 tank.
It's only a 2.5kg tank and I had been using it for a few months now. I don't know how much gas was left in it but there's none now. I'm hoping it was close to empty anyway. Fortunately I have a second tank and this is now connected. Tomorrow I get to find out how much refills are.  

[Classic Brewing Co]

19 minutes ago, MUZZY said:

My kegging journey has hit another trough and I must say the peaks haven't been that high either.
In the name of hygiene I disassembled and cleaned the components of the PCO38 tap head for my plastic keg system.
Today I discovered my kegs were soft ie. no pressure in them. It appears I didn't re-seat the PRV on one keg correctly and it's emptied the contents of the CO2 tank.
It's only a 2.5kg tank and I had been using it for a few months now. I don't know how much gas was left in it but there's none now. I'm hoping it was close to empty anyway. Fortunately I have a second tank and this is now connected. Tomorrow I get to find out how much refills are.  

Sad news Muzzy, hope you get it sorted. I have a 2.6kg & a 6kg CO2 tank (Keg Land) & after gigantic research I have found Beer Belly to be the cheapest & they seem to be one of the few that will fill your bottles unlike the others who offer swap & go.

I am sure as hell not buying a shiny new bottle & when it comes to re-filling end up with a crappy banged up old bottle.

Phil from Country Brewer, Kilburn also refills but he is a bit dearer.

Cheers. 

[Malter White]

9 minutes ago, Classic Brewing Co said:

Sad news Muzzy, hope you get it sorted. I have a 2.6kg & a 6kg CO2 tank (Keg Land) & after gigantic research I have found Beer Belly to be the cheapest & they seem to be one of the few that will fill your bottles unlike the others who offer swap & go.

I am sure as hell not buying a shiny new bottle & when it comes to re-filling end up with a crappy banged up old bottle.

Phil from Country Brewer, Kilburn also refills but he is a bit dearer.

Cheers. 

Thanks for the tip, Phil. I was going to see the boys at Hines Hardware but it seems they are a swap and go outlet. Likewise, I don't want to give up my brand newie for a crappy replacement.

[Classic Brewing Co]

2 minutes ago, MUZZY said:

Thanks for the tip, Phil. I was going to see the boys at Hines Hardware but it seems they are a swap and go outlet. Likewise, I don't want to give up my brand newie for a crappy replacement.

Yeah & the other think is being a bit house proud or should I say Bar Room proud  I like new & shiny things as I feel one item compliments another. Others will say Swap & Go is fine but you normally wait for about 9.5 years for that don't you. 

[Malter White]

2 minutes ago, Classic Brewing Co said:

3 minutes ago, Classic Brewing Co said:

. Others will say Swap & Go is fine but you normally wait for about 9.5 years for that don't you. 

 

Hear, hear!