After Denny’s thread on tips, maybe it would be interesting to share lessons learned from simple mistakes
On 12/1 I brewed a 1.040 Scottish and about 20 minutes into the boil I was looking at my work bench when I realized I used CaSO4 instead of CaCl in my mash/sparge water. Oh well, keep on trucking. I tapped it last night…
I really need to build my QD pressure checker, because its at about 2.8 volumes…
Even through the over carbonation I can really tell the difference between CaCl and CaSO4. I’m not liking it… obviously you can tell the difference between the two chemicals just by looking, but I need to put them in small tupperware bins clearly labeled so this doesn’t happen again. Its like when you take a drink from a half gallon carton, expecting milk, but its OJ. That moment of WTF!!!
Anyway, I wouldn’t normally intentionally brew with the wrong calcium just to see the difference. Accidentally doing it gave me a chance to learn the difference though. Also, its supported my mindset on WHY I add Cl or SO4. I do it to add calcium, and whether I add Cl or SO4 is based on the style. In other words, for me its less about trying to drive malt (Cl) or hops (SO4) its more about getting the adequate Calcium from a salt that doesn’t get in the way of the malt (SO4) or hops (Cl).
I keep leaving valves open on my fermenters and pumping over. Doesn’t seem to matter if it’s a conical or a Speidel, I have done this more times than I care to admit… and lost gallons of wort. Thinking a lock out - tag out system might be required… or a real brewer.
I’ve learned a lot of things the hard way. Pretty good way to remember the next time !
1/ Make sure your scale is set to ‘g’ not ‘oz’ when weighing out water salts. I jacked up a beer doing this once. It was an English bitter and was overmineralized like crazy (obviously), . Got dumped.
2/ When you have a freezer full of hops, be awake enough to weigh out the ones you actually want in the beer. I’ve had a couple of beers come out pretty ‘interesting’. I’ll say that Simcoe is a pretty crappy fit for kolsch. ;D
3/ When quick carbing, realize that your regulator has its limits. One of my regulators has ~ 48psi as its pressure relief dump. Emptied a tank that way.
I know there are others. I’ll post when I can think of them.
A minor mishap. I just bought one of those paint stirrers you put on a drill to aerate my wort.
It worked well but fell off the drill into the fermentor. I just left it in there to ferment along with the beer.
Just this morning, I poured water into my HLT with the valve open. I don’t drink (alcohol) while I brew, but I was going through the process without the master checklist I keep meaning to create, and before I had my coffee. (My mash tun valve was open too… at least I closed THAT.)
A master brewing checklist is on my to-do list, and “close all valves” is going on the top. There is no need to have an open valve before the process starts, and yet I (we!) do this over and over.
I do as well, for the same reason, and no doubt that is why so many of us leave valves open. I also take a bucket lid and stick it under the lid of my mash tun to keep it open a crack in between brew days.
But there is no need to have an open valve at the beginning of the brew day (the actual process).
I did exactly the same. Less chance of contamination leaving it in than trying to fish it out.
I also left a valve or two open. Not sure with the mash or kettle, but for sure on a bucket fermenter with a spigot.
This one time I put together 3 different recipes at the LHBS, then forgot to label the bags. I had the grain milled and bagged again. 1 batch was obvious what it was, but the other 2 were similar enough in weight and grains that I couldn’t tell them apart. Not sure, but to this day I think I mixed those up when I brewed them. lol
Honestly, one of the best ways to learn how to avoid mistakes is by sharing information in great forums like this one. The trick is remembering how to fix the error or to avoid it when the time comes. But, thank you to all who are constantly sharing ideas, recipes, tricks of the trade, and insight into our fabulous hobby. It has been a pleasure learning from everyone here.
+1 I have learned so much since joining and it hasnt even been very long. Things that are going to help bring my brewing up another knotch. Very glad I joined and love the experience here and that everyone is willing to share it.
All you guys that that leave valves open claim to not drink during the brew… I see why now
Most irritating mistake was the first time I added 10 lbs of tart cherries to the secondary…straight up and not bagged… We’ll just say that they get bagged now lol.
Most disastrous mistake was driving 4 kegs of beer from my uncle’s house (brew site) 30 minutes to my house and hook them up right away. I hooked the plumbing up before turning the gas on. Because they were shaken, they all ran back up through the gas lines and past the through the distributor before I quickly got the gas on to push it back to the keg. What a mess.
I left a hose disconnected from my whirlpool inlet once and when I started up the pump I accidentally dumped about a gallon of wort into a wast bucket instead of recirculating it! So frustrating when I do dumb stuff like that.
I have also left the valve open on my mash tun and let strike water run right out onto the floor!
I jacked up a beer doing this once. It was an English bitter and was overmineralized like crazy (obviously), . Got dumped.
