Post your worst yeast-related disasters here! I had one yesterday…
I boiled up some wide-mouth quart jars to save some slurry. I had three nice quarts of slurry on my table, settling out. I walked past and noticed a little bit of brown liquid, and thought, “Now how could that have overflowed?” I picked up the jar, and BAM!! The bottom of the jar fell off and the quart of slurry went everywhere. Wasn’t expecting THAT!
No replies? Jeez, you guys must be careful yeast-ranchers.
A couple years ago, I was showing my mother-in-law how to activate the smack pack. I was holding it in front of her and smacked it, and the upper corner of the pack burst open, showering her with yeast. It was a total, “What the heck just happened?” moment - priceless.
“watch this!”
I boiled my yeast starter in my 1 L flask on my stove many years ago. I didn’t let it cool down enough before I added it to the sink with ice cubes. It cracked in the sink and that was the end of that flask and the yeast. I only boil in ss pots now.
I was cutting it close with only a smack-pack, no starter. Had already begun the brew. Smacked the pack and half the contents went flying across the kitchen. WTF! It is a smack-pack after all! And, at 165 lbs, I’m not exactly Arnold Swartzenegger!
I gave up Wyeast for a while after that. Now I’m mostly all dry yeast anyway, so it isn’t likely to happen again.
The biggest yeast “disaster” I’ve had was pitching the wrong yeasts. Brewed two batchs - imperial stout and Belgian something.
Reversed the yeasts when I pitched. The Belgian stout was not bad, but not what I planned. I have no recollection about the intended Belgian. I may have caught the problem before I pitched that one. Don’t remember.
Man was I angry.
Some people take the word “smack” too literally! 
Doing a double batch and pitching the wrong strain into the wrong wort. Expletives flew. Did it twice.
Not enough headspace in my first fermenter. I had porter and yeast goo all over my ceiling. Expletives flew.
Not always though. Since wyeast changed there packaging I’ve had 2 packages fail. For the record I don’t “smack” them either. I generally trap the bag in the package under my hand and apply enough steady pressure to pop it. It’s no fun when everything sprays out the side of the package when you’ve barely applied any pressure at all.
I’ve also pitched starters into the wrong beers on brew days. At least once, I think one of the beers was better. 8^)
Right now I have an overflowing blow off bucket that I need to clean up (and keep forgetting to). I decided to use a smaller container than usual which was apparently a mistake.
Sometimes yeast happens.
Paul
This made me laugh out loud. Absolutely hilarious. Would’ve loved to see the look on both your faces after that!
Thanks for cracking me up!
Yeah - I was holding back from saying this before - total yeast facial. And she was sitting at her computer, so it went all over the keyboard too. Smooth.
Canned air won’t clean that out!!
I had a glass carboy that I filled too full. The next day I checked on it to find yeast coming out of the air lock. I took the bung / air lock out of the carboy to watch the yeast flow out of the carboy like a Hawaiian volcano. I tried putting the bung / air lock back in so I could get a clean one. As soon as I let go of the bung it “blew up”. Yeast hit me in the face and the ceiling. Needless to say I had to mop the ceiling.
That is the image that exactly came to mind. Didn’t want to say it as it was your relative and not mine. Still hilarious!!