Brewing horror stories

[DavidP30]

There must be a few floating around out there.

 

Mine comes courtesy of my good mate Ted who was brewing up a batch for my brother's 21st. My brother and Ted were both poor students living in a share house with a couple of other people and owing to limits in funds Ted thought the best way he could kick in was to brew up a batch. Trouble is Ted was short on funds to buy brewing gear too and he didn't have any.

 

Ten days before the do and I'm over at their house sinking a few longnecks when I feel the call of nature, so I head off into the loo. I'm doing what has to be done and I notice a garbage bin standing in the bath. I look into it (it is completely uncovered) and I assume they are soaking some laundry.

 

But as you have guessed by now this is not soaking laundry, this open garbage bin in the share house toilet is in fact Ted's brew. He informs me he is using an "open fermentation method" and everything is above board. I know nothing at all about making beer at this point so alright, but I go and have a closer look anyway.

 

I come back to Ted with some bad news - some bugger has picked up the floor towel and chucked it in his brew! Well that's what it lools like to me ... Ted says "ey?" and rushes in to investigate. Yep there's some big white fluffy thing floating on top of his brew. Ted grabs the stick that they use for laundry and fishes out the towel ... it is thick and white and fluffy and stangely enough perfectly round. Ted and I are perplexed there for a couple of seconds looking at this round furry thing on the stick and it dawns on us both at the same time - what Ted has there on the stick is the biggest chunk of white fluffy mold either of us have ever seen.

 

I am laughing uncontrollably at Ted but he's gone into denial. The brew's not spoiled, it's perfectly good. He hides the evidence in the plants by the back door. No no - everything is progressing according to plan - there has been no setback.

 

At the 21st there is a lot to drink, and despite general warnings a few people do drink Ted's longnecks of brew. There were a lot of hangovers but the ones that drank Ted's brew had very special ones of extended duration and additional pain - nobody was sicker than them not even the lads who were finishing off the keg as dawn broke.

[Hairy]

Great Story! [biggrin]

 

At the 21st there is a lot to drink' date=' and despite general warnings a few people do drink Ted's longnecks of brew. There were a lot of hangovers but the ones that drank Ted's brew had very special ones of extended duration and additional pain - nobody was sicker than them not even the lads who were finishing off the keg as dawn broke.[/quote']

And that is how Tooheys Extra Dry (ie. Ted) came into existence.

[Guest]

lol yeah a great story.

 

Just remember though, whatever it was on top, if the brew smelt ok and tasted ok then it was ok. [rightful]

[SeanS4]

When I was a young lad, probably one of my first memories was a batch of dads stout...

 

We had moved into this old house and fixed it up a bit, it was 2 storey and had a weird small room half way up the stairs, with a big window on the sunny side of the house. This little room was not quite big enough for an adult to stand up in and maybe just long enough to lie down.

 

Well, before a summer weekend camping trip to the beach my dad bottled some stout. He was fairly new to brewing. I think this was his 4th and last batch...

 

We got back and there was a strange smell. Someone noticed that the odd window just above arms reach (half way up the stairs) was cloudy. Front door - right next to the stairs - would not open.

 

We eventually got in round the back. The bottles that had not dented the roof as the caps blew off had exploded, and a cocktail of glass and stout had made its way down the timber stairs, forming a sticky pool by the front door and into the lounge. The new carpet was not looking its best, and the door and frame had swelled up in the soup. We eventually moved out after visitors kept asking what the smell was.

 

Hopefully I've learned his lesson. My 6th brew (next week) is a stout... thanks to internet maps I have identified an unused paddock 4kms from the house that looks like a good place to put the bottles.

[*****]

the caps blew off had exploded' date=' and a cocktail of glass [/quote']

 

Hey Sean

 

This appears to be common place in home brewing and a bit of a stereotype (just watch any movie or TV show where home brew is involved)[crying] . I only just discovered that my Dad did some home brewing after I moved out, my younger brother was awoken one night by the sound of bottles exploding in his Wardrobe. My Wife\u2019s cousin was telling me the other day her memories of a chain reaction when her Father's brew exploded during the night.

For me this was my biggest fear in home brewing, luckily after bottling 11 brews I have not had a single mishap [cool] . Surely if fermentation has finished and bottles are correctly primed everything will be apples. However I guess a structural weakness in a bottle could cause an explosion due to the pressure build up during the carbonation phase [surprised .

 

[PB2]

Make sure the brew has finished fermenting and use the right kind of bottle (pressure vessel) [roll]

[SeanS4]

Thanks gents.

 

I have 3 big Coopers bottles collected so far. Sadly, it looks like I will need to empty another 27 bottles of Sparkling before the stout is ready. Just another one of lifes little challenges... [smile]

[AndrewDK]

Excellant stories gents, I like the origins of Tooheys Extra Dry Teds, that's brilliant stuff. There is nothing alcoholic students won't drink given half a chance.

 

As for exploding bottles this happened to my brother which turned him off the hobby, and was a fear of mine. From this site and others I've learnt his mistake was relying on the airlock bubbling having stopped. No hygro check over two days and no additional rest time, goes to show from the unfortunate we learn LMAO.