Brewing Mistakes

My biggest screwup to date has been using Little Sumpin' Sumpin' and Centennial stubbies for bottling my beer. Apparently they don't seal very well when re-capping, because almost every one that I've opened has been flat. That's about 10 bottles from my latest batch that will end up going down the drain...

 

Interesting, I've never noticed that before. These fit nicely in the top level of my dishwasher so I always have a good amount I use if I ever bottle.

 

A few years back I used a rock from my back yard to weigh down the dry hop bag. I thought a quick rinse in the sink and dunk in the starsan jug would do the trick. That was the first and hopefully last batch I've ever had to dump

 

My biggest mistake was early on in the journey. I pitched a starter into wort that had not been cooled to a proper temperature; just had an idiot moment.

Pitched at 90 degrees F.

I decided just to go with it and see what would happen as I didn't realize until later that night and by then it was too late to do anything with the set up I had.

I tried to cool down with a towel fan and water but it was too late.

the beer was Terrible. only beer that I couldn't salvage and had to pour down the drain.

That was batch #6 or #7 and a good learning experience...

Latest mistake would be a few batches ago when I forgot to tighten my hose clamps onto my pump during hop backing and cooling post boil.

I I had a nice slow flow going but the input hose cAme off and I lost about 2 gallons of a 12 gallon batch before turning pump off and clamping hoses.

Hose clamps get double checked now; sometimes triple checked...

 

I'm glad you have a lid on that box. Most of mine are just 6 pack carrying cases.

 

I have noticed there is more than one stubby bottle out there. The ones I have gotten from founders work great for this reason and have the "normal" taper on the neck for the capper to grip. The ones I got from Lagunitas have a different neck, where the taper ends higher on the neck allowing less of a crimp on the caps. My last batch was the first on using these bottles and i was glad I sanatized way more bottles than i needed so i didn't have to use the lagunitas bottles as i was unsure of the seal. I did 3 test bottles though and the first 2 were fine, but were less than 4 weeks in the bottle when i opened them. I still have the last one to see how it holds up long term. So I think this problem is going to depend entirely on your capper, and I assume a bench capper would eliminate it entirely.

 

Could be, I just have a cheapo two-handed red plastic capper.

 

I have had a few, can't remember them all right now, but my biggest to date is hitting all of my number perfectly on a Gumballhead clone and then racking it into a Better Bottle with 1/2 gallon of StarSan in it. Added sugar to try to get the OG back in range and then it over attenuated. Had 6.5% ABV instead of 5.5% and it didn't taste right.

 

Using aspirin instead of Vitamin C after fucking up a rack (when I racked in a previous life)...forgetting maltodextrin the one time I've used it. hooking up my counter-flow chiller backwards...that is all

 

@redmaw is on to something. Sierra Nevada and Founders bottles are fine for my cheap capper. Lagunitas doesn't work so well, EXCEPT for the Sucks quarts. Another perk is that Sierra Nevada labels practically jump off the bottle when you get them wet, so it's nice and easy. I used to drink more Lagunitas than Sierra Nevada. That's changed.

 

I noticed this problem with the founders and lagunitas bottles aswell with my cheap capper. I was bottling yesterday and had a case of SN bottles with a few lagunitas and founders bottles mixed in. The first lagunitas and founders bottles i attempted to cap had the top of the bottles snap off. I only had to use 2 lagunitas bottles at the end and the caps seemed to go on real easy. I'll find out in a week if they actually sealed.

 

Get a bench capper, so much easier and better!

 

Just did this to an Oktoberfest I had lagering in my freezer. Didn't realize the probe fell out, freezer was running straight for 10 days before I noticed the light on the freezer was on every time I went downstairs. The thing was frozen solid. I'm not convinced the beer is ruined though, I plan to thaw it out and re-carbonate and drink as usual.

Another keg related mishap from just last week: poured a pint off a newly kegged IPA. Go down the next day to pull another, and see a lake of beer on the floor. Apparently I had a faulty picnic tap and it didn't close completely. Emptied the entire keg. Makes me think I should install some perlick faucets on my fridge, and get rid of those shitty picnic taps, lol.