An entire batch down the drain... literally

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woozy

woozy

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So when you rack from one container to another and the container you are racking to has a spigot...

Make sure the spigot is in the off position.

M@@@@@ F#####!!!!

I can *NOT* believe I just did that. And you I have two empty fermenters indicating that I did...
 
Ouch man, sorry to hear that. I lost a little bit that way once, but luckily caught it pretty quickly.
 
I hear ya, left a sigot open but caught it before i lost much.
Sorry for your loss.
 
I once left the valve on my BK opened during the lauter.

Didn't loose too much, but I know how you feel.

Bet you won't do that again!
 
Sad thing is... I bet I *will* !!!ARRGH!!!!!
 
I did that once with an imperial red as I drained my first runnings into my boil kettle, ball valve wide open. Lost a solid gallon or two of first runnings. The imperial red became an improvised smallish IPA that sadly wasn't very good, but at least I had something to drink. Now I'm a ball valve nazi, and you will be too. Sorry for you loss, as well...
 
It was just .... so stupid!!!

If I had burnt it or over-aerated it or allowed my cat to pee in it or any of the other things that could have reasonable gone wrong through difficulty or poor skills but to simply ... toss it down the sink ... !*!*!*!*!

Did you sterilize everything?
--- Check.
Did you cool the wort quickly?
.... Check.
Did you adjust the quantity of ingredients include the alpha levels for the bittering hops?
.... Check.
Did you toss the entire batch down the garbage disposal?
.... Uh, gee. Was I not supposed to?
 
The problem I have is I can never remember which way is open and which way is closed on my spigot... then I can't remember if I closed it last time I drained sanitizer through it or if I left it open. hehehe
 
ChshreCat said:
The problem I have is I can never remember which way is open and which way is closed on my spigot... then I can't remember if I closed it last time I drained sanitizer through it or if I left it open. hehehe
Click to expand...

**!!**!!*EXACTLY*!!**!!**

... easy enough to test though .... ***IF*** I think of it!!!!!!! !ARGH! (I'm in mourning I think)
 
Who ever said I'd never make that mistake again obviously doesn't know me.

I did it again today, but as it was a 3/4 gallon batch and I caught it and salvaged a 6 pack I did okay.

I can't imagine myself not making this mistake *all* the time. Seriously I've done it at least six times when I wasn't handling anything important (just rinsing, and so so on).

I think I need to paint the on position with bright red paint.
 
woozy said:
I think I need to paint the on position with bright red paint.
Click to expand...

woozy, That's sorta what I did after losing about a pint of beer (and that was without having a single brew). I took a red sharpie and colored part of the handle of the spigots (I used a green sharpie to color the other end). Red showing - danger. Green means good to go. Every so often, I have to re-apply the sharpie.
 
I put PBW instead of 5.2 into a batch recently
didnt notice until the boil was over and chilling was done during clean up.
I dumped it and felt really stupid for a couple days and then I rebrewed and erased the mistake from my mind.
 
PastorofMuppets said:
I put PBW instead of 5.2 into a batch recently
didnt notice until the boil was over and chilling was done during clean up.
I dumped it and felt really stupid for a couple days and then I rebrewed and erased the mistake from my mind.
Click to expand...

Pastor of Muppets. Is that anything like a Hearder of Sheeple?

Appologies for the divert. But I had to ask.
 
Howiedw said:
Pastor of Muppets. Is that anything like a Hearder of Sheeple?

Appologies for the divert. But I had to ask.
Click to expand...



uhhhh Metallica Master of puppets.
Its a heavy metal CD from 1986.
my username is a play on words from that album.
ive been using it online since 1997
 
ChshreCat said:
The problem I have is I can never remember which way is open and which way is closed on my spigot... then I can't remember if I closed it last time I drained sanitizer through it or if I left it open. hehehe
Click to expand...

Get a sharpie and write open/closed on it. Saves guess work.
 
That's rough. I'm sorry for your loss. I once poured 185* water into my mash tun that immediately shot onto my foot.
 
I bought enamel paint and sharpies and painted the open position bright red and the closed position cool blue. And then, to revisit another of my threads I practiced siphoning with a new 5 foot hose I bought (meh, should have gotten six feet...). The siphoning worked fine and I didn't even knock a carboy down onto my head.... But I left the fermenter spigot in the bright red with black letters reading "ON" and spilled a half cup of water on the floor before I noticed!

Gad.. I'm not going to learn .... am I?
 
Just bought a spigot style fermenter that should be any day so thanks for the head up. I figure that you would be letting out your sanitizing solution just before you send in your wort so why are you not just closing it then. Walking away and letting it just poor down the drain? I save my sanitizing solution for reuse due to the large amount of brewing I do so it might just be me. Either way sorry for you loss.
 
The horror. How am i going to get to sleep tonight? Hopefully i'll just have nightmares about falling to my death, and not ones about pouring all my beer down the drain.
 
RoughandReadyRanch said:
...I figure that you would be letting out your sanitizing solution just before you send in your wort so why are you not just closing it then. ..
Click to expand...

Because I'm an IDIOT!

Actually, because I'm absent minded and it just gets worse the older I get. I open it to let the sanitation solution out. And then forget what I was doing and leave it open.

*sniff* cheshire cat and his gazillions dried up sharpies understands.

Also closed is turning the spigot to the right and open is to the left. Somehow it seems it should be the other way, doesn't it? After all, you read from left to right so shouldn't you turn spigots from left to right? How do taps work? Lefty-loosie righty-tightie... okay, they work like the spigots. Dunno, somehow the spigots seem backwords?
 
woozy said:
Because I'm an IDIOT!

Actually, because I'm absent minded and it just gets worse the older I get. I open it to let the sanitation solution out. And then forget what I was doing and leave it open.

*sniff* cheshire cat and his gazillions dried up sharpies understands.

Also closed is turning the spigot to the right and open is to the left. Somehow it seems it should be the other way, doesn't it? After all, you read from left to right so shouldn't you turn spigots from left to right? How do taps work? Lefty-loosie righty-tightie... okay, they work like the spigots. Dunno, somehow the spigots seem backwords?
Click to expand...


Sucks. Guess you better get some carboys then. I have two BB I am looking to get rid of if this knew fermenter works. I am looking forward to the spigot because I always seem to screw up siphoning and end up getting a bit of trub. Good luck and try not to get older I guess.;)
 
Oh, siphoning's a pain in the ass. Especially when bottling (which is when this is most likely to happen).

's okay though. It only happened badly once. The other time with beer I caught it quick and the last time was when I was practicing siphoning and it was just 2 or 3 ounces of water. Though it was discouraging because I had *just* painted the spigot.

Eventually I will learn but I'm kind of amazed at myself that I *keep* blowing it.
 

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