• Welcome to the new forum! We upgraded our forum software with a host of new boards, capabilities and features. It is also more secure.
    Jump in and join the conversation! You can learn more about the upgrade and new features here.

everybodys had em

  I was brewing a Brown sugar & Molasses concoction; I had gotten REALLY carried away with ingredient’s and encountered my first “stuck” fermentation.  My local home brew store recommended several things to no success.  The last cure was a carbon based yeast “energizer”  .  Within seconds I had a fountain of gray foam covering me, my desk, my keyboard.  The lid blew off the bucket so violently I had gray foam on the ceiling!! 
 
I tried to put 5 gals. of beer and 5 lbs. of raspberries into a 5 gal carboy during secondary fermentation on a heffeweizen, the raspberries acted like a cap building co2 pressure until it exploded 2 or 3 times a day what a mess.Making matters worse I am 1/2 french and stubbornly tried to keep it going instead of racking it off the damn berries.
 
Tried to mash overnight. Woke up to a frothy mess in the bucket.  Also being half French I trudged on and completed the brew.

Sour mash might make good bourbon, but that brew went down the drain.

Wasn't exactly messy, but it sure was nasty.
 
I have often woke up brewing its hard to seperate beer brewing from beer tasting
 
So far I have not had a major issue yet except a boil over here or there, but did have a head slapper this past weekend. Was siphoning wort from kettle to carboy after cooling when the two sections of tubing became separated and one of the tubes fell into the carboy! Stood there for a second going now what, but then recovered and just poured the rest of the wort through a funnel and filled it.  I assume a sanitized tube will not harm the beer at all?  But of course now I need to buy new tubing since I cannot siphon from carboy to bottling bucket without the tubing that is swimming in wort!  ::)
 
In ten years, I've been pretty lucky.  I think the very first time I boiled on the stove I had a small boilover..but, it was only a cup or two of wort.  I bought a full boil pot after my second batch...which obviously helps to prevent those.

Honestly, my "biggest" mess was my hefeweizen yeast starter.  WLP300 is a crazy aggressive yeast.  I split the starter into two 1L flasks with about 500ml in each.  Even still, after 6 hours it was spewing Krausen out the neck.  I had sticky goo all over the flask, both stir-plates, and the bar top.

I guess I need a bigger flask!!!
 
By far a "Skull Splitter" clone I made with double yeast, triple sugar, and yeast nutrient.  Blew off the airlock the first night and shot foam all over the closet walls and floor.  I cleaned up the mess and used a plastic hose in a bucket of water.  No problems with the batch though and 4 months later it was 12% knock you on your ass pretty damn good tasting beer/barley wine.  One 22oz and it was lights out for most people.  The hose and bucket saved the day.
 
Maine Homebrewer said:
Tried to mash overnight. Woke up to a frothy mess in the bucket.  Also being half French I trudged on and completed the brew.

Sour mash might make good bourbon, but that brew went down the drain.

Wasn't exactly messy, but it sure was nasty.
That's a good one!
 
Back
Top