These stories always start with ‘I stepped away for just a minute…’
Sent from the future…
Wow! That’s a really big bottle of champagne! 
Yeah, pliny the elder flavored champagne!
Ouch! How much did you end up losing?
yikes.
Holy krausen batman!
This was from the aeration. I forgot about it while I was cleaning. Not sure how much was lost though. Not too much I guess. I guess I need to switch to O2 so I only have to aerate for a minute or so.
Sent from the future…
Bwahahaha! I’ve done that before. once I left an aquarium pump on in a bucket overnight. Lord almighty talk about a huge f’ing mess! I think I have a picture somewhere I’ll try to post it in the next couple days.
;D
I figure I can give people a laugh and let them learn from my mistakes by posting stuff like this.
Have you ever had a “cham-pliny”? O’Briens pub in San Diego does a blend of champagne and Pliny the elder. Surprisingly really, really good… Back to topic.
I made a Munich Helles this Morning, 95% Pils 5% munich. 7.5 gallons of 1.038 wort, wanted to get a 1.046 beer. I decided to boil" harder" to drive out DMS…well, I boiled too hard and ended with a 1.052 beer 
-Ton
The brew gremlins were everywhere this weekend. I and another club member did a demo brew at the local County Farmers Market on Saturday. First, while he was checking temp with my digital thermometer, I watched as I saw the thermometer slide from his grasp in slow mo and sink to the bottom of the boil kettle. Second, his ex drops off the 2 year old because she has some work issue and can’t find a sitter. You know 2 year olds are pretty curious and unbeknownst to me, she has cracked the valve open on the boil kettle. I’m busy talking to market patrons and notice something leaking underneath my truck (we were brewing on the tailgate)…what the hell is that I wonder. When it occurs to me how sticky it is, I holler “the valve is open.” Instead of closing the valve, my partner in comedy goes running for another kettle to catch it in. We end up sacrificing 3 gals of fist runnings to the asphalt gods. A much lengthened boil time later we end up with a 7 gal batch instead of 11, but did at least manage to hit the right OG.
Had an open valve incident myself this week. I apparently left the valve open after draining my pre-heat water from my mash tun. As I’m standing over my mash tun pouring in my strike water I noticed a burning sensation on my foot. I figured I just splashed a little water on my foot so I kept pouring. The burning continued to get worse, so I looked down and saw a stream of 164 degree water shooting on my foot. I tried my best not to scream so I wouldn’t attract my wife’s attention to the pool of hot water on the hardwoods.
That’s my new record for the earliest I’ve saturated my brewery towel on brewday.
A couple times I’ve been draining the wort off into the fermenter and and heard the pitter-patter of something on the floor only to discover that the spigot was wide open. ???
Not a time to be watching TV or anything like that. ;D And usually alcohol has a role in the whole mess anyway.
Okay…so this just comes in from another brew friend who has been soooo looking forward to this weekend. He has had life happen and has been unable to brew for about 6 months. All kinds of planning went into this brew day. He has teamed up with a brand new club member who is very enthusiastic to get going.
His email…
Oh my. What a day. Last night I discovered that my thermometer battery was dead and someone broke my hydrometer but didn’t tell me. Too late to go to harvest, couldn’t get ahold of Paul to borrow one. Went to town, couldn’t get ahold of Paul still, but got a battery. Told Craig later that he needed to go in early and buy me one. He agreed but failed to tell me about baseball practice in the morning. Ended up calling Paul W and told him to come an hour later for brewing. Seriously grumpy by now. Go get the hydrometer myself. Paul gets here, we start the mash water heating. I walk into the garage, hear a crash. My rolling cart I use to brew with that had shelves for all my gear went for a ride down the driveway and dumped on it’s side spilling everything out. I walked up fully expecting the new hydro to be broken. Somehow, it got hung up in the shelf and didn’t hit the ground. A miracle. It’s 10:15 now, and I have a facial twitch. I decide it’s time to start drinking. Give Paul a beer. I decide a beer isn’t strong enough to fix my facial twitch. Get my rye whiskey from the shop and have a couple good belts. Mmmmm! Much better… The brew proceeds. Beer is being drunk. Mash goes well, but discover the well is now dry and there’s no magic water left for the second running. Almost start crying. Briefly consider hari kari, but settle on more whiskey instead. This helps. I ask Paul, expert on all things water, how hard the river water is. He says its pretty hard by this time of year. I drink more rye to clear my mind. Screw it, I say. Let’s use river water. So we do, and things get considerably better from there on out in spite of having to send a kid to town for propane for the bbq’er. Burgers were great. Beer was cold. Got more gravity than I expected. Diluted a little. Hit my final gravity. Took forever to chill, but finally managed 75. Oh well. Like I really give a tinker’s damn about that anymore.
Relax, don’t worry, have a home brew. Or whiskey if you already have a good facial twitch going.
…
Gremlins I’m telling you! You all be careful out there…
Oh wow. So I guess the thermometer is ruined? I just got a thermapen (their open box sale) and I swear I guarded that thing with my life this weekend.
OMG I laughed so hard when I read that! :o ;D :o ;D
Picked up an 02 kit from Williams, highly recommend it. At least you know you hit your max 9 ppm 02 ;D
[quote] I apparently left the valve open after draining my pre-heat water from my mash tun. As I’m standing over my mash tun pouring in my strike water I noticed a burning sensation on my foot.
[/quote]
The good news is…you’ll only do that the one time.