…and it’s only going to have one thing on it, and I’m going to print it out in poster size, to make sure all of my d@mn valves (mash tun, hot liquor tank, and brew kettle) are closed before starting. >:(
That is all.
Been there, done that, just not recently!
I have ONE valve I need to close before I turn the water pressure on… It aims straight up, and the ceiling deflects it 360º.
Makes a heck of a mess when it happens. :-[ Cheers!!!
OK a little thread drift here…
A few decades ago I rehabbed a 100 year old house in Cleveland. Tore the entire cast iron soil stack out (basement to third floor roof) and replaced it with PVC. Building department wanted a leak check. This is accomplished by inserting an inflatable ball through the 4" clean out in the basement and inflating it. Then fill the system from the top with various smaller balls at outlets on the way up. No leaky, you get a sign of and the dude leaves.
So, this all done I go down to the basement and without thinking this through completely stick my hand in the clean out and pushed the air valve to release the pressure. The ball deflated and dislodged. It has a chain attached to it with a ring on the other end larger than the 4" of the clean out so it can’t get away and block the system somewhere on the way to the street.
So, it runs out of chain, but is now blocking the part of the pipe below the clean out…and 150 gallons of (clean) water, powered by gravity, now come out the clean out… into my face…
I learned from that…
life lessons! 
Mash tun on table
ball valve at crotch level
ball valve open with no hose attached
add mash water
not a pleasant experience
:o
Almost a candidate for the Darwin award. Ouch. :-X
Pics or it didn’t happen… ;D Cheers!!!
As an old freind once said to me “you win some and you lose some”.
Sometimes your the bug and other times your the windshield.
Hopefully we can all learn from each others mistakes and make our hobby that much better. 8)
Technically, this is a slip, not a mistake. See Human error (slips and mistakes) | The Glossary of Human Computer Interaction We know not to leave ball valves open. And yet…
There are a number of slips we repeatedly make as homebrewers that prompt design musings. I have more or less trained myself to always check the valve and so far have never left it open, but my day will come. I have thought about putting labels on the mash tun – maybe even on the lid as a prompt before I remove it and pour in water, since this slip happens so much that we obviously aren’t looking at the valve area when it happens. But I have also mulled over an “open by exception” design for valves. Except not being a valve designer I don’t know what it would look like. ;D
The other slip that comes up a lot is not pitching yeast (so far knock wood), which is one of those slips (10 things to do, you do 9) that happens in a busy part of the brewing sequence. I am a big believer in checklists and use one on my brew day, along with laying out all ingredients (except grain) in a sequence of pyrex cups with small slips of paper with the times on them, and setting my iPhone alarm to alert me. Sounds like overkill, except I multitask when I homebrew, and the one time I got lax with that sure enough, I messed up my hop schedule.
Not pitching yeast = blunder. ;D
Not drinking a whole lot of beer early in the process helps too…
My SOP: first beer after yeast is pitched. Guarantees that the yeast IS pitched. ;D
I’ll buy that…and a mug of beer.
That too. No BUIs!
Seriously?! I usually start with a Bloody Mary because it’s usually too early for beer. :
Good idea, I might have to start my day with a bloody tomorrow. Of course I’m not brewing, but that’s not really the point, is it?
Mead exam was that draining,eh?
Make a tag to hang on each valve.
Close each valve and collect the tags.
Got 4 valves? Don’t start until you have collected 4 tags.