Biggest Mess?

[TheGinz]

What is the biggest mess you have personally made (or heard of if it's a good story) in your distilling hobby?

I had a whopper tonight. I have beenr running my potstill since about noon trying to get two runs done. I have a Still Spirits potstill where I connect one end of the water hose to the faucet in the kitchen and the outtake goes in the sink to cool the condenser. I also put down rugs under the still in case of any spills. Tonight I let the water run and since I figure I would be getting distillate in about 45 minutes or so, I set the timer to remind me to check and went to watch teevee.

About 15 minutes later I feel water under my feet in the living room. I get up and see that the living room and dining room and kitchen are all flooded. Somehow the outtake hosehad come out of the sink and was laying on the floor! I had a lake in my house. I sloshed over to the still and shut everything down and after a good cry I set to mopping all of this up. To my credit I managed to get it all taken care of and finish my run before the wife got home from class.

So, what messes have you made?

[stoker]

see also : http://homedistiller.org/forum/viewtopi ... ight=turbo

last month I charred the wooden roof of the place where I distill, and I still don't know how come. thought not for sure, I think the hot distillate came in contact with the wood. the PVC hoses melted and I had nice rain/mist. that caused maybe there was no fire. I leaved it for 30 minutes.
OOOPS

[stillman]

Fell asleep watching TV while the still was going on the stove. Catch bottle filled up and the rest ran off and bleached the industrial grade tiles in my appartment kitchen. A big Homer Simpson DOHHHHH for me. Now I have white patches on the floor in front of the stove.

[Swag]

Just kiddin'.

[stoker]

[Bujapat]

From an old post :
When I was yesterday (6 april) brewin' a pure corn mash, was distracted by my daughter (age 12) for an "urgent to solve by dad problem"... that took me at least 15 minutes.
So the mash burned on the bottom of the keg... You may not imagine : the wash was boilin' and a deep blue smoke came out of the bubbles!!!
I stoped the heater, putted some cold water in the mash, and get the keg empty... The vision of the bottom was awfull : 5 to 10 mm of black burned corn charcoal! It took me hours and hours to clean it.

[stillkickin]

Worst I've managed (so far) was foolishly pouring in a bunch more sugar to a wort half way through..... FOOM! haha, got a nice bread-colour foam all over my garage but luckily not over myself

[stoker]

same thing on a wooden floor

[Big J]

same thing on a carpet...with a molasses wash. Fortunately the carpet was dark.

-J

[Stangas]

the biggest mess i have made is with a UG Sour Mash

upon the second ferment, i placed the sugar, the sour mash ect in the fermenter, then put the lid and bubbler in.

Checked it 15 min later and she was bubblin like mad.. thought kewl

checked another 15min later and the bubblin was so furious that it had lost the water, and foam was comin out of the airlock.

I then removed the fermenter from my brew room onto the lawn, to which it continued to foam. Looking back i should have taken off the lid, but i didnt.

checked 15 mins later and the fermenter had ballooned to twice its size, and then exploded.. sending mash all over my verandah, outside table, bbq ect.. the back yard smelled like corn liquor for days.

[stoker]

why didn't you remove the lid?

[possum]

I did a second feeding on my molassis sugar wash. Starting volume of brew=5gallon. Size of container=6.5 gallon. Size of feeder=1gallon.
Size of foam= MUCH MORE THAN .5 gallon.

Even after mopping, the old wood floor was stickey for 2 weeks, and it smelled like the feedmill used to(they sweeten the animal food with molassis) .

[stoker]

I had once a bottle that exploded in my bedroom,
it was a closed sugar wash 0,75 l bottle of which I thought it stopped fermenting.
it exploded and still contained a lot of sugar. my entire room was sticky for some weeks.

[Stangas]

why didn't you remove the lid?

hindsight is a wonderful thing

[Uncle Jesse]

i did a cooked potato mash once. while it was fermenting (a very violent ferment, i might add) the plastic bubbler got clogged and was shot, quite violently, up to hit the ceiling and shatter. sticky, gooey potato mash everywhere...thankfully in a garage with cement floor.

[WooTeck]

good reading.

on my first Ag corn mash i poured from one fermenter to another. all the liquid went over nicely. the rest of the grian bill didnt. it dropped in hard coverd me and the kitchen. i smelt of the corny vomit smell most of the weekend

[HDNB]

I think mine is still in the making. walked into the shop yesterday and something has gone sour...got 3 different ferments going, so it will be interesting to open some lids tonite when i get back...

[WooTeck]

I think mine is still in the making. walked into the shop yesterday and something has gone sour...got 3 different ferments going, so it will be interesting to open some lids tonite when i get back...

sour bad? i allways rememder Lambic ales and feel everything may work out

[DAD300]

A long time ago...I bottled some red wine in glass bottles with screw on lids.

It wasn't done fermenting and two days later, all within a few minutes six bottles exploded. Glass shards and red wine all over the room.

[MyUncleMo]

On the steam and vinegar pre-run before the sacrificial run (potato vodka) I cracked my glass cooktop. To pieces!! Had to explain that to my wife who is wholly understanding but...
Cost $650 to replace. Booooooo! It left a shattered mess!
Clean as a whistle though :rolleyes:

[MoonBreath]

At the end of one particular run, collecting at 35% or so for feints, my outlet waterline on liebig popped off showering the whole shed with water ..Could've been a alot worse I guess. Killed the burner and halfway flooded the floor before I could shut the NG off and hit the breaker box.

[Johnny6]

So, first time using marbles in my column... kinda forgot they were in there when I started cleaning up. I pulled the joint apart and it sounded like I hit the slot machine jackpot. I think I found most of them. I thought you all would enjoy that image...

[rad14701]

So, first time using marbles in my column... kinda forgot they were in there when I started cleaning up. I pulled the joint apart and it sounded like I hit the slot machine jackpot. I think I found most of them. I thought you all would enjoy that image...

Been there... Done that...

[SoMo]

When I did my pawpaw wash along with smelling up the whole house like a salon full of women getting perms, it erupted a volcano of foam all over our bathroom floor, sticky stinky violently over flowing wash. I put it in our shower while I got another bucket and poured half into another bucket, the Mrs firmly directed me to get that shit outa my f-ing house now. It finished outside on our balcony porch.

[justsomeguy]

My biggest mess. So I had just fired the still up when the old lady calls and says I have to do something. So I reach for the off switch, but apparently dont hit it. Go in house and do whatever she says, have some dinner, watch some tv. Decided later I need to look at something on one of the Harleys. Garage is a steam cloud, liquid all over the floor. Plaster from the ceiling is all over. Apparently I didnt hit the off switch the whole way and left her running full tilt for a couple hours. blew the top off the column and the steam ate the plaster off the ceiling, put it all over the garage. had to squeegie the floor and all. The GFCI in the garage tripped but I never put one on my 220 outlet. I got lucky. So now I hit the switch and trip the breaker when I am done. I have way too much money in this house and in my garage to lose it all.

[cb_j]

I have a couple.
Transporting a finished SF wash through the house, put it down and someone kicked the tap on the fermenter. 25L of wash through the dining room.
I got the blame but I'm not the one who kicked it.
And they cleaned it up.