Tell us about your mistakes.

[NZChris]

I'm experimenting with using both.

Do tell...Have you used the spirit run backset yet and did you notice a difference?

I like the result, but it is difficult to organize for a pot still at hobby scale because it isn't available until after the first spirit run.

[shadylane]

Here's a new f#ckup I did.

The oxygen hose on my torch has been looking like it was ready to spring a leak for a year or two.
Right where the hose connects to the torch. The spot that gets bend the most.
I'm brazing away with high dollar silver rods when I noticed the flame turned rich.
A split second later I realized My coat sleave was afire.
It's amazing how fast shit burns in an oxygen rich environment.

No real damage done but I lost a little hide and hair.
Both will grow back.

[juana_b]

Here's a new f#ckup I did.

The oxygen hose on my torch has been looking like it was ready to spring a leak for a year or two.
Right where the hose connects to the torch. The spot that gets bend the most.
I'm brazing away with high dollar silver rods when I noticed the flame turned rich.
A split second later I realized My coat sleave was afire.
It's amazing how fast shit burns in an oxygen rich environment.

No real damage done but I lost a little hide and hair.
Both will grow back.

Replaced mine last year with this exact thought in mind. Glad you're ok shady.

[Old one-eye Joe]

Hah! I wondered if anyone else had tried to distill a wort without straining. I do think I have an idea to make straining easier. Put all the grain in a large cloth bag i.e. a king size pillowcase. Do everything as usual, just inside the bag. Water can flow in and out. When it comes time to ferment, just lift the bag out and squeeze. Right???

[Stonecutter]

Hah! I wondered if anyone else had tried to distill a wort without straining. I do think I have an idea to make straining easier. Put all the grain in a large cloth bag i.e. a king size pillowcase. Do everything as usual, just inside the bag. Water can flow in and out. When it comes time to ferment, just lift the bag out and squeeze. Right???

You could call it “Brew in a Bag”

[Brewfiend]

I used rainwater from my new tank in the backyard for fermenting and cutting spirits. I figured it'd be the cleanest, purest water i had access to.

About two months into my rum ageing i noticed strands of algae coming off a bottle i was about to give a friend, so i went and checked the aging flagons with oak sticks in em, and sure enough, two inch long strands of seaweed.

We'd been drinking it for over a month.....

I still use the tank water for my ferments, but never cut with anything but boiled town water anymore. I never woulda thought that green algae could grow in 65% alchohol, but there ya go...tougher than you think.



The upside is that my rum wasn't much good, too much mandarin taste and possibly poor cuts, once i put it back in and redistilled it all, did my cuts, aged it for a few weeks, it's turned out a far superior product.
I had put rum on the backburner for a while because of the quality, but now i'll putting some down as soon as i have a spare fermenter, and double distilling.

That's crazy. I never would have thought it could survive.

[Brewfiend]

Hah! I wondered if anyone else had tried to distill a wort without straining. I do think I have an idea to make straining easier. Put all the grain in a large cloth bag i.e. a king size pillowcase. Do everything as usual, just inside the bag. Water can flow in and out. When it comes time to ferment, just lift the bag out and squeeze. Right???

I'm going to try this with a sugar head, would be really good for picking out the spent grains

[harold01]

My biggest mistake was not doing this hobby until I was 63
Loving every minute, nearly as good as sex.

[Steve Broady]

I saved some sediment from a whiskey ferment, figuring I’d harvest the yeast. Put it in a 1 gallon carboy, added a little pinch of sugar just to give the yeast something to eat, loosely corked it, and put it away for later.

I remember thinking that this could make a nasty mess if it blows, but the cork is kinda loose, and there’s only a little pinch of sugar in there, so it should be fine…

Yeah. Nope.

That’s not even half the mess. The pantry where it was stored is 9’ tall, and I store the carboys on the top shelf. Every single shelf below had some beer and mash and mess on it. As well as the walls, ceiling, floor, and both inside and outside of both doors.

Fortunately, I built the pantry, and I made a point to seal EVERY surface. And after a minor weevil infestation some time ago, everything inside the pantry is in sealed containers. So aside from the work of cleaning up the mess, the only casualty was a container of dried buttermilk powder. But lesson learned. NEVER cork a carboy that contains live yeast if they have any chance at all of finding something to eat.

At least the pantry smells like beer. Could be worse.

[Wildcats]

Dang sorry to hear this. But looks like you took one for the team. If anyone else reads this I dought they will add any sugar to saved yeast. I usually (if I want to save any) just put it in a mason jar and put it in the fridge. At least it didn't break any of the jug's of low wines you had there with it. Thanks for sharing this Steve.

[Yummyrum]

Was using my compressor to empty my keg .
Now when its almost done , it causes the hose to bounce and jiggle . I’ve had the hose splash about in the sink and make a mess . So today I thought I would stand at the sink and hold hose .

Well fuck me dead if the hose didn’t shake off at the keg end and spray shit all over my clean floor.

I’ll get everything happening one day .

[harold01]

Looks like Saltys rum wash, should be fun trying to clean up without leaving a stain, but then again the new shed has been christened

[Yummyrum]

Looks like Saltys rum wash, should be fun trying to clean up without leaving a stain, but then again the new shed has been christened

Yup , spot in Harold
Ended up soaking most of it up with a few towels and then hosing and sweeping it out .
Last thing I need is Corrosive Dunder hanging around.

[shadylane]

Ended up soaking most of it up with a few towels and then hosing and sweeping it out .
Last thing I need is Corrosive Dunder hanging around.

Ya need a proper still house.
One that has a drain so a garden hose can clean up accidents.
Makes fuckups easier to clean.

[Salt Must Flow]

I finished a spirit run, drained and rinsed the boiler. I was looking around to see if anything else needed done and figured I'd pour 4 gal of 95% ABV into the boiler that I intended to re-run. While pouring I saw a puddle out the corner of my eye. Oh yeah ... I forgot to close the bottom drain valve

I just pushed it around the floor with a wide shop broom so it could evaporate with the doors wide open to ventilate. What a stupid bonehead move. There was probably 1-1/2 gal on the floor.

[Wildcats]

That sounds like something I'd do. Lol thanks for sharing this sir. I bet you double check the drain valve every time now.

[NormandieStill]

I finished a spirit run, drained and rinsed the boiler. I was looking around to see if anything else needed done and figured I'd pour 4 gal of 95% ABV into the boiler that I intended to re-run. While pouring I saw a puddle out the corner of my eye. Oh yeah ... I forgot to close the bottom drain valve

I think we've all done something like that at least once. I managed to trickle a good litre of wash out of the drain back when I first fitted it. Luckily I was siphoning so it wasn't filling too quickly.

[buchrob]

Decided to use an older 5 cu ft chest freezer as a fermentation chamber. Easily fits 2 x 5 gal buckets with aquarium heaters and tubing in the covers instead of bubblers to vent fumes out a window.

First 3 or 4 ferments went like magic... stable temperature, almost no fumes on site, and very few flies in the neighbourhood.

However, since it's essentially a sealed system, any fumes that escape the tubing accumulate within the confines. Slowly, but surely, the freezer sealing gasket deteriorated: severely rippled. Still works, but couldn't hope to sell that freezer as is.

Replaced the gasket with easily replaceable stick-on weatherstripping and now leave the drain vent at the bottom open.

I now don't need any more schooling on alcohol vs rubber/synthetics etc. even at lower concentrations.

[Bolverk]

Its a little embarrassing to admit i did something this stupid, but when I just getting started the drain valve on my boiler was positioned in a weird angle. i was cleaning up some water i spilled, while I was wiping up under the still I bumped the valve and hot wash poured down my arm. Yeah, I won't be doing that again...

Yes, I fixed the valve.

[The Baker]

buchrob said, 'Replaced the gasket with easily replaceable stick-on weather-stripping'

Thanks for that. Simple and obvious but...
That's what I will do with my shed freezer!

Geoff

[NZChris]

However, since it's essentially a sealed system, any fumes that escape the tubing accumulate within the confines. Slowly, but surely, the freezer sealing gasket deteriorated: severely rippled. Still works, but couldn't hope to sell that freezer as is.

Are you sure that was the problem?

Where was the thermocouple placed?

I've seen a refrigerator door seal damaged because a newbie had put the sensor in the product instead of in the refrigerator. If the sensor is measuring the product temperature rather than the temperature in the refrigerator, the element keeps heating until the product reaches the set point, regardless of how hot the refrigerator is.

[jek]

Different kind of mistake but this one happened to me over the weekend so I figured I would share. Last week I picked up about $60 of used wine barrel staves and left them in the trunk of the car. On Friday we let my brother-in-law take the car camping... He must have thought they were firewood...

[shadylane]

Here's my latest mistake.
Picture this, started a sugar wash with minimum headspace.
Didn't have all the sugar availed at first nor the crushed oyster shell.
Next day, dumped in the extra sugar and CC all at once.

Big friggen overflowing mess.

[MooseMan]

Haha can't beat a good old unexpected nucleation reaction shady!
I may, or may not, have also done this...

[shadylane]

Haha can't beat a good old unexpected nucleation reaction shady!
I may, or may not, have also done this...

"unexpected nucleation reaction "
Sounds like a scientific description of a big fucking foam up.
Other folks that never done it, would think even worst.

[Saltbush Bill]

unexpected nucleation reaction shady!

big fucking foam up.

Just gotta stand there and look on in awe, nothing going to stop that thing once it starts.

[shadylane]

There was another mistake made, I was picking up the empty 8lb sugar bags and there were 4 of them.
I screwed up there should have been only 3.
Can't add water to an already over filled fermenter. So had to remove some of the wash in order to dilute it with 25% more water.

[shadylane]

Damn another mistake.
Used my DIY drill powered stirrer, forgot to remove the bag of oyster grit and the stirrer ate the bag.

[Bradster68]

unexpected nucleation reaction shady!

big fucking foam up.

Just gotta stand there and look on in awe, nothing going to stop that thing once it starts.

My all oat whiskey taught me a lesson in volcanic eruption.

[Bradster68]

Damn another mistake.
Used my DIY drill powered stirrer, forgot to remove the bag of oyster grit and the stirrer ate the bag.

Bad things happen in 3's I thought. You should be done by now.