We’ve all made the occasional mistake on a brew day but we tell ourselves it’s fine, we’ll still make beer. But some mistakes are so egregious they will completely ruin a batch. I’ve asked members of The Brü Club to share their tales of woe and what they learned from those busted batches. These are 6 mistakes that will ruin your beer.
The Brülosophy Show: These 6 Mistakes Will Ruin Your Beer
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4 thoughts on “The Brülosophy Show: These 6 Mistakes Will Ruin Your Beer”
#1 (floating dip tube screwup) seems familiar somehow… but it happened in our guest bedroom. At least on one was sleeping there. Thanks for the laughs!
I was a new home-brewer and I wanted to get some experience in a real brewery. Innovation Brew Works is an on-campus craft brewery at Cal Poly Pomona and they offer cellarman training. Perfect, I thought. It wasn’t too long before I had my mishap. I was asked to remove a component held onto the side of the brite tank by a tri-clamp fitting. Well, there were two such fittings and I speedily removed the one that opened up the tank. I think I remember the instructor trying to say “not that one!” but too late. I was slammed in the chest by an icy cold jet of IPA that was so shocking I almost couldn’t breathe. The beer drenched ceiling, walls, everything and everyone in the vicinity and I was soon feverishly looking for the part while the instructor fought to close off the gushing beer with the palm of his hand. Must be like that for submariners when a rivet pops and there is no time to waste. I think we lost at least a keg and a half before the brite was sealed again. The group was great, they all got straight to work cleaning up. No accusations or bad vibes. I think everyone was just glad it wasn’t them. After that, the instructor watched me rather closely.
Lesson: think twice before you act!
One of my worst brewing disasters was during a closed transfer from a fermenter to a keg. I filled the keg with water and sanitizer, pushed it out through the tap. Hooked up the racking tube transfer system to the fermenter, hooked the gas line up to it at 3 psi and next thing I knew, beer was shooting out all over my basement! I turned the gas on BEFORE hooking the ball lock quick connection to the end of the beer line coming off the racking cane! I literally stood there for 5-6 seconds watching the beer spill out before my brain caught up to what I was seeing and pulled the CO2 QD off the racking system! Lost about 1.5 gallons of beer.
Good to see that even the best screw up. I am now sixty something, and I made my first beer when I was 13. Yep, I started young. That first beer was a liquid extract beer kit that I brewed according to the instructions, such as they were in those days. After fermenting I added some priming sugar and proceeded to bottle. That was my mistake. At 13 years of age I did not have much cash. So I bottled into recycled/scrounged/donated bottles from cheap wine with plastic friction fit corks. I then blissfully placed the bottles under the ping pong table in my parents basement feeling a sense of accomplishment and anticipation. The next night my mom woke me up at 3 a.m. with “I think there is something wrong with your beer”. Then I heard it. …bang, …bang, …bang! The sound of plastic corks hitting the underside of the table with considerable force. Thankfully they were in a bin that provided secondary containment of the beer fountains. That is how I learned the difference between wine and beer bottles. Sadly, I will never know how that beer tasted.