Tell us about your mistakes.

[cuginosgrizzo]

I got married to my ex wife...does that count as a mistake?

been there, done that. (of course in my case it wasn't your ex wife but mine)

[Pikey]

I got married to my ex wife...does that count as a mistake?

been there, done that. (of course in my case it wasn't your ex wife but mine)

See yours and raise you 2 ex-wives !

It's enough to drive a lad to drink !

[jonnys_spirit]

I got married to my ex wife...does that count as a mistake?

Now that's a loaded question and I've become very close friends again with my ex-wife over the past year (and after a bitter separation / divorce five years prior).... This has turned out well for us and I feel that it's best to let go of anger and grudges in pretty much all cases... We did not jump right into romantic activity although we sorta felt like it at the time and that's all I'm going to say for now...

Who knows what the future holds and maybe becoming ex's in the first place was the real mistake or even marrying the first time... You know what's been said about love and war and all being fair..

Ciao!
-j

EDIT: 2x Ex wives here too and single is fun with the right company and a 750 of panty-dropper!

[The Baker]

Vive l'amour.

Geoff

[6 Row Joe]

Just a quick one, I got in a hurry and poured hot backset in my sour mash mix and probably killed the yeast. I did have a gallon of room temp water and what liquid was left in the corn. I will add the sugar, a little yeast and aerate tomorrow and watch for action in the next day or so. It's one of those slap the forehead deals. Dang, I can't believe I did that!

Well I mixed the sugar, a tablespoon of started yeast and had bubbling in 5 hours. All is well.

[morethenaname]

my biggest mistake so far is i was in the shed just starting a run and my son ask if i wanted him to bring back lunch. Messed up and said sure. TACO BELL way way wrong within 2 hours there a monster forming inside me. Needless to say many trips to restroom to which 1 i was gone a ltl longer then exspected and the floor of my entire shed was covered in product. Prob a 1/2 gal. Luckily the hose is always close so my floor got a good cleansing.

[CatCrap]

WOw At first i thought you were just going to say eating taco bell was a huge mistake. And yeh, that can be mistake, you pay a price for it. But.. that got much more interesting. Man, lucky it didnt get WAY more interesting, like us reading about it in the news how you blew your shed up. Scary man.. only takes one mistake in this hobby to have serious consequences. Of course, that's part of why i love it. As i like to say.... any good hobby has a bit of danger involved!

[ShineonCrazyDiamond]

You can burn your house down if you walk away from your stove when you're frying chicken.

It's not the hobby. It's the idiot walking around in this world.

[CatCrap]

Well duh.. you could get hit by a bus crossing the street. But youre more likely to be hit crossing a 10 lane highway than a tiny street in some village.

[ShineonCrazyDiamond]

Yes, and my point is it is the idiot crossing it, not the highway. This hobby is not going to be any easier to legalize if we portray it as something that is too dangerous for the common man.

So I exclaim again, this hobby is no more dangerous than cooking, as long as you're not an idiot. Or looking for danger.

[Truckinbutch]

my biggest mistake so far is i was in the shed just starting a run and my son ask if i wanted him to bring back lunch. Messed up and said sure. TACO BELL way way wrong within 2 hours there a monster forming inside me. Needless to say many trips to restroom to which 1 i was gone a ltl longer then exspected and the floor of my entire shed was covered in product. Prob a 1/2 gal. Luckily the hose is always close so my floor got a good cleansing.

Once I light a fire I am never more than three steps and direct line of sight from my still . A 5 gallon bucket , garbage bag liner , and a roll of paper towels will cover gastric and bladder emergencies .
This can be a rough damn game if you don't adhere to the safety rules .

[HDNB]

Yes, and my point is it is the idiot crossing it, not the highway. This hobby is not going to be any easier to legalize if we portray it as something that is too dangerous for the common man.

So I exclaim again, this hobby is no more dangerous than cooking, as long as you're not an idiot. Or looking for danger.

reminds me of one day downtown...i was preoccupied about work the way a 20-something guy is....walking down the street I stopped at the corner for the red light.
shuffling my feet around and looking down at whatever was in my hands (pre cell phone days) i did a 1/4 turn shuffle, glanced up and saw a green light...
stepped off the curb in the direction i was heading, right in front of a '77 ford LTD.
At least one of us had some presence of mind, the guy piled on the brakes and swerved around me, or i wouldn't be writing this.

i will take credit for being the special kind of stupid...the lucky kind!

[morethenaname]

Yea it wasnt a great day for sure. I sent my son out to turn down the heat and empty jar but he didnt turn it down enough and forgot to empty jat as he was in the same boat as i was. Usually i am just sitting around watching the drips maybe playing a game of age of empires but that day i had my bell rang.

[ShineonCrazyDiamond]

Hey, we all make mistakes. And this thread is a safe haven for honest mistakes. We ain't here to beat you up. Just learn from your experience, and a fool you will not be. I myself may be an idiot at times, but a fool a refuse to be.

Go safe and create the elixir of life

[Truckinbutch]

Hey, we all make mistakes. And this thread is a safe haven for honest mistakes. We ain't here to beat you up. Just learn from your experience, and a fool you will not be. I myself may be an idiot at times, but a fool a refuse to be.

Go safe and create the elixir of life

Absolutely ! Keep Murphy in mind . He is always lurking in the wings looking for a chance to fuck you . I'm not flaming you either . It's one of life's lessons that you learned cheaply .
Planning for contingencies can , sometimes , be crude . Still necessary .

[CatCrap]

SCD, you are not wrong per se.. there are lots of ways to hurt yourself in the kitchen, no doubt about that. One of my cooks is epileptic. She wasn't good about taking her meds, as she didn't have seizures very often. But, one day, she was changing the fryer oil (not in my Kitchen, at her other job), and just happened at that moment to have a seizure, fall over, right into the giant pot of screeching hot fryer oil. Was in the hospital for 3 months, that was a year ago, and she still has to see doctors for skin grafts and therapy. That's a freak accident, more or less. Freak accidents, well, we can't really prepare for those exactly. In a way, you can, by having all your emergency equipment at hand, and having a friend or loved one at least somehow within reach.
One kitchen i worked in, we had a band saw. Only used it for two tasks. Cutting through bones in meat, rarely, and cutting whole wheels of parmigiano or Grana into halfs and quarters. That thing was straight terrifying. If you're using it, and you slip, or someone bumps into you, something verrrry bad could happen.

Most kitchens aren't like that. Yep.. we have 100s of ways to get injured every day. The chance is always there. But, to be professional and smart, you are aware and keep in mind this danger. Just like stilling. We recognize the task at hand has some danger and serious consequences at hand. So we pay attention and are careful. If this was HomeCrochet.com, hey, this might be another story. You are trying to equalize all hobbies and all levels of risk and danger, and i simply don't agree.

Pal, i Could not support the legalization of home distilling more. I absolutely believe we should be allowed to practice this hobby legally in our own homes. But, i do believe that safety should be accompanied with any home distilling instructions. The idea that it should be free and open and anyone can do it any time is great. But not everyone is too bright or careful, and while i don't believe this hobby to be over the top risky,or that you are taking life in your hands every time you fire up the still. I don't believe that. It's not crazy dangerous or easy to blow yourself up. I guess i just meant that skydiving and soccer are not equal. They should not, and do not, just let anyone go up in a plane and jump the hell out. There are certain instructions and requirements that you need to hear before attempting this. Not the case with all hobbies. When you join a pine car derby club ( i dunno?), there's not a lot of risk inherent in that hobby.

I'm a little tipsy, and my point isn't well made. Cluttered post. But i'm still going to post it. I def don't mean any offense, I just wanted to try to express the fact that i do not fully agree with your statements. Seems like you are trying to paint the world, the hobby, and RISK itself, black and white. There are many many shades of gray in between. And again, it would be my dream to legally distill someday. But to say that there is NO MORE RISK or DANGER, or Requirement of more safety, education, attention, or need for understanding, in crossing the street, than their is for distilling spirits, well, i just flat out, totally completely do not agree with that statement. I'm not out here splitting hairs, IMHO, this is not a hair to be split, this is a giant chasm of difference between those two actions, and they should be described as such.
Oy.. i''m tired n a lil tipsy. Not my best post.. hopefully somehow i got my point across. Yep.

[bilgriss]

Biggest mistake I've made lately is to not have anything fermenting. I've been deep in other projects, and the only part of distilling going on is some aging in the basement.

[fizzix]

Biggest mistake I've made lately is to not have anything fermenting. I've been deep in other projects, and the only part of distilling going on is some aging in the basement.

Lord, man, get your shit together!

[Swedish Pride]

I looked in the mirror.... don't do it lads, there is an ogre living in there

[bilgriss]

I'm trying to get it together. Step one; I admitted I have a problem.

[Truckinbutch]

Biggest mistake I've made lately is to not have anything fermenting. I've been deep in other projects, and the only part of distilling going on is some aging in the basement.

You're not alone in that . Spring farm work and a broke foot got me down to 'jar store whisky' while 2 carboys of low wines languish and all the fermentors are empty .
This , too , shall pass .

[fizzix]

Had used the recirculating cooler to go camping.
With the trip over and cooler back next to still, I reinserted the cooler drain plug so as not to have a flood and have an OH SHIT moment.
Made sure plug was back in.

A glorious strip run of Honey Bear done, I killed the hot plate and let the recirc water continue to cool the tail vapor.
Two minutes later I'm SPLISH SPLASH ---oh no! The plug popped out???

No. The recirc hose return had wormed its way out of the cooler and happily cascaded onto the basement floor.

Minor clean up. But DAMN-- good thing I was there. Could've been 20 gallons, a dry pump, and vapor escape!

Don't do what I did. Secure that return hose!

[tonofsteel]

Not doing anything with what I have learned here sooner

[Pikey]

Decided to make a trial run of Odin's Cornflake Whiskey. Got the missus to pick me up a box of "Kelloggs" and thought "I'll cook it in the pan part of teh pressure cooker then dilute after".

Meanwhile I'm clearing out the fermenter, adding the sugar et al, sweeping the yard etc and keeping an eye on the pan. Soon it's up to heat and an occasional stir confirms the flakes are mushing up nicely, so a final couple of minutes outside and I'm back in again, everything is looking ok and I'm thinking how easy this is going to be ! Then I think "Oh I ought to give it a stir" - sure enough there is a thick layer stuck hard to the bottom of the pan !

SO decided to cut the cook there and then and just use what I can get out easily without dislodging the burnt on layer.

So that's where we are now. Undercooked and not the full amount of cornflakes in the wash. Not only that, I was so p*ssed off I forgot to aereate the wash and haven't put any nutrient in ! - so the ferment is pretty slow.

By now I'm pretty despondent with it, so I decide to have a fag and sit down, on the fermenter to smoke it, which has been standing outside and the UV has got to it ! - The top cracks, not enough to leak the contents, but enough to mean it is no longer any good for any more ferments.

It'll make SOMETHING ok - but not nearly close enough to the original recipe for me to know what it should taste like, so I'll have to just "take what it gives" and put another down !

[fizzix]

Holy hell, Pikey.
That's the kind of day where I GOTTA make something work right before I go to bed, or I feel cursed.

[Pikey]

Holy hell, Pikey.
That's the kind of day where I GOTTA make something work right before I go to bed, or I feel cursed.

That was a few days ago now fizzix, so I don't remember what I did next. Usually I just don't do anything critical like writing a contractual letter or making big financial decisions, or play Poker - on such a day.

What I most likely did was some more cleaning of non-breakables then set to sampling some of my previous stuff. Probably to the stage of not really caring at all by bedtime !

[shadylane]

I looked in the mirror.... don't do it lads, there is an ogre living in there

All I see in the mirror is an is a gorrilla sized orangutan

[The Baker]

fizzix wrote:
Holy hell, Pikey.
That's the kind of day where I GOTTA make something work right before I go to bed, or I feel cursed.


Just got to hope something goes right AFTER you go to bed.

Geoff

[yupiteru]

I'm new, I state that I'm very happy with my newly built equipment and it worked very well right from the start,
I can confirm that those who heat up with propane must pay much more attention,
the "most serious" incident and that without realizing it in time, a large quantity of liquid came out of the upper part of the column (almost 1.5 meters high) of my boka,
the day before yesterday things were not going as usual the distiller made noises that I had never heard (boil inside the column) of course I was there that I looked closely, and everything seemed ok,
 cooling water flowed and the distillate came out regularly but with ABV lower than usual,
I quickly closed the propane
and fortunately the damage was the alcoholometer dropped on the ground and the distillation to be redone.
ALMOST CERTAINLY THE CAUSE OF EVERYTHING HAS BEEN THE EXCESSIVE HEAT,
so I advise not to keep pots of alcohol near them, in case of nervousness they could be bumped and knocked over on the ground, if something seems unusual to turn it off and check and find the cause,
attention to the possible "chain accidents"
a small fire could damage the gas pipe which is usually made of rubber,
a scare could provoke excessive reactions

ps
a "symptom" to be taken into consideration and the condensation around the propane cylinder,
the propane tank gets wet from the level of propane down,
means that you are taking an excessive amount of propane

[Pikey]

[quote="yupiteru"]I'm new,

Yes we can see that

ALMOST CERTAINLY THE CAUSE OF EVERYTHING HAS BEEN THE EXCESSIVE HEAT,
.................e[/quote

The thing you did RIGHT - was to NOT leave your still unattended - so you were There to attend to the issues - THAT is number one priority.

And you clearly learned a lot !