Home Brew Forum

So I am on my second brew day after 14 months of not brewing.

Guess what I forgot to put in the bottom of the malt pipe before filling to the brim with grain?

Emptying was a challenge but fortunately I figured it out! Drain then flip upside down into a bucket.

I'm making a checklist to follow until my brain is back in the swing of things.

What have you forgotten on a brew day?

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Brewedout wrote: ↑

Tue Sep 19, 2017 8:21 pm

What have you forgotten on a brew day?

Legion. Taps left open, forgot to switch on elements to heat strike water, went back to bed for an hour. Attaching kettle filter, protafloc, hops and invert sugar left on the side and noticed when clearing up. Water treatment salts and one that I now leave out all the time, Campden tablet. The latter I now call my homeopathy treatment, have not noticed any difference. The reason is probably threefold, first there is already very little chlorine and second I prepare my water the day before. That and heating the water is probably the reason.

To save me further embarrassment I've glossed over the list a little.

My main one was the protofloc during the last 10 mins of boil. I could remember the hops at 10 mins but not the protofloc

I have left a valve open when filling the mash tun with water...why is my foot getting wet!!!!

Not so much as a forget but when filling the grainfather i did not have the overflow pipe fully extended so i was wondering why the grain/mash liquer was to the top of the overflow pipe before i had mashed all the grain. Even though the grain stopper shows how much the overflow pipe can be extended i was still a bit nervous lifting it up incase it fell off

My other usual one was forgetting to put the sugar solution in my bottling bucket first before racking off the beer from the fermenter. Then having to gingerly stir in the sugar solution which is not how i like to do it.

I forgot the hop filter once. Luckily, I boil in two separate pots, so emptying one and replacing the hop filter is not too much of a problem.

Also had a power cut to the shed once, while beer fermenting, and I'd left it on a plugin RCD so it didn't come back on when the power was restored. I don't do that any more. Saw it in time though.

Like you I forgot the bottom filter and also put the top filters on in the reverse order even added the hops before the pump switched off at 86 degrees plus forgot to add the sugar to the boil and a few other things. Fortunately not all on the same day

I biab so forgetting the filter as the water go to 65 c and having to dunk my arm in
Brewing in flip flops/bare feet not big or clever
Not looking and spraying one self in face with boiling wort
Dropping one half of the boil kettle lid into boiling wort (It added a nice wood character )

Leaving the tap open is a rite of passage!

all of the above and more!! my #1 recurring issue was forgetting the no-roll boasts of the standard glass brewers thermometer as sold by every brewshop was a load of bollox. a countless number of them would simply roll off my less than perfectly level temporary patio brew platforms Until i discovered the nobble atop the thermometers for tying a loop of string too so they can be hung up between uses..

to heat the mash liquor before starting to mash in / going to the pub for the game while mashing and forgetting i was even brewing / taps open / mash manifold / hop filter / no bottom plate on bm / both plates at bottom on bm (that took a while to work out!) / archemides theory of displacement / protofloc / late hops / to rack the last beer out of the fv before brewing / that i was gonna wash out the grainbag "later" and finding it damp and mouldy a week after..

most of which can be avoided by staying off the homebrew until midboil

Glad it's not just me! I'm making a checklist for my next one!!!

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Completely off topic, but flushing the toilet when the bowl was not there !

How about removing a u bend and then tipping the gunk straight down the sink!! Lol

alexlark wrote: ↑

Sun Sep 24, 2017 10:14 am

How about removing a u bend and then tipping the gunk straight down the sink!! Lol

when de-clogging the waste disposal the g/f just had to have i passed a bowl of gunk for disposal out while my head was under the sink and no prizes for guesses where the lovely lass dropped it (ps it wasnt out the back or down the loo..!!

Fil wrote:

alexlark wrote: ↑

Sun Sep 24, 2017 10:14 am

How about removing a u bend and then tipping the gunk straight down the sink!! Lol

when de-clogging the waste disposal the g/f just had to have i passed a bowl of gunk for disposal out while my head was under the sink and no prizes for guesses where the lovely lass dropped it (ps it wasnt out the back or down the loo..!!

Nice! Bet a few choice words were shared?

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I did something similar, Brewedout. Both mesh filters were on the bottom plate. I didn’t realise until I’d mashed in. It was a messy PITA retrieving the mesh filter for the top plate.

I like to have a beer or two towards the end of brew day. Once it turned into a bit of a session. We eventually got the FV in the brew fridge. Checked the gravity a few days later. It hadn’t budged much. I was really confused, because I knew the yeast starter was top notch. Left it for a few more days. Not much change and it tasted awful. It was infected, so I decided it was best to pour it down the drain. When I removed it from the brew fridge, I noticed a flask containing the yeast starter hiding behind the FV. I forget to pitch the yeast.

Best of all, though, I forgot to take some basic precautions when I first brewed using a BM, in the kitchen. It was a cold day in November. I’d read it was fine to use the 20L model in a kitchen. So off I went with the kitchen window wide open. Couldn't see much after adding hops to the boil. The kitchen filled with a wonderful aromatic mist. At least I thought it was wonderful. It triggered all the synchronised alarms in the house. Kids were screaming, dog was barking and I think my wife was printing off divorce papers. But we all calmed down eventually and laughed about it. After the cold break the tap blocked with hops. I ended up siphoning the wort from the BM. Desperately in need of the toilet, I left it unattended. Upon returning, I noticed the kitchen floor looked odd. The syphon tube somehow escaped from the FV. I spent a whole day cleaning a sticky film off every surface in the kitchen, including the ceiling and walls. And another day replacing the flooring.