[dhacker]

My first ever brew . . not knowing better and leaving the lid on during the boil.

[ryang]

you all make me sound like a genius.  i think the worst I've done is a couple boil overs.  i brewed on friday however only to realize that in order to have somewhere to put the wort, I had to bottle a dubbel...

[denny]

Like dunngood, using carboys was the dumbest thing I've ever done while brewing.

Oh c'mon, man!  The dumbest thing was you used the carboys incorrectly.  

Filling them with wort and picking them up is incorrect?  Cleaning them in a sink is incorrect?  All when I was completely sober?  Tell me, Jim, how do you use them?  

[Slowbrew]

My worst day was a list of stupid Paul tricks.

I was making two 5 gallon batches as always.  First I used the grain for one beer, the mash schedule for the other beer, half the hops went in the wrong beers and of course I pitched the wrong yeast in each beer.  The worst part was that both beers were awesome and I have no idea how I made either one.   

And all of this was done completely sober but not, necessarily, awake.  I usually brew really early in the morning so I never drink anything but coffee and water until I'm done.

Paul

[euge]

Lautering 14 gallons of wort into the brand-new 80qt kettle sitting on the floor, then realizing I had no way/strength/ability to dead-lift it up to the kitchen stove- which wouldn't boil it anyway.

And leaving the spigot open in the fermenter when filling it. Yup pulled that one and various others a few times. Found out the hard way to leave off drinking until the brewday is done.

[tankdeer]

Besides running off into a kettle that the spigot was turned to the "open postion" at least a million times.....

Been there, done that. That's how I learned not to brew barefoot. 

Lautering 14 gallons of wort into the brand-new 80qt kettle sitting on the floor, then realizing I had no way/strength/ability to dead-lift it up to the kitchen stove- which wouldn't boil it anyway

Yeah, done that one too - just not in the kutchen.

Surprisingly, I haven't done that much stupid stuff - which is surprising for a guy like myself. Although I still use carboys, so Denny might say otherwise. 

[blatz]

on a december morning years ago, when I still used glass carboys and a plate chiller, I promptly hooked up said plate chiller and hose, opened the ball valve onto my kettle and walked away, quickly turning around to hear a sound similar to ice cracking as I realized I never actually turned the hose 'on'

[roguejim]

Like dunngood, using carboys was the dumbest thing I've ever done while brewing.

Oh c'mon, man!  The dumbest thing was you used the carboys incorrectly.  

Filling them with wort and picking them up is incorrect?  Cleaning them in a sink is incorrect?  All when I was completely sober?  Tell me, Jim, how do you use them?  

I thought you had told me you dropped a carboy full of a pils.  That would be incorrect handling procedure.  Having said that, I will admit that a carboy is a dangerous thing, and frankly, I don't really trust them for strength. 

[denny]

I thought you had told me you dropped a carboy full of a pils.  That would be incorrect handling procedure.  Having said that, I will admit that a carboy is a dangerous thing, and frankly, I don't really trust them for strength. 

Yeah, I did, but I doubt I'm the only one who's picked up a full carboy.  Of course, I'm certainly not saying I didn't or wouldn't do something dumb!

[scruffymmh]

Stupidest thing I did happened 3 days ago, my most recent batch:

1. Put half my grain in, then rice hulls, then baked pumpkin; added strike water, stirred till hit mash temp (154), let sit 10 mins before realizing the other half of my grain was still sitting on the table
2. Added the other half of grain  -> mash temp down to 149
3. Quickly boiled some water (amt. I didn't measure), added to tun -> only brought to 151
4. Quickly boiled some more water (again not measured but more than last time) -> way too much and way too hot -> mash temp to 165
5. 15 mins of constant stirring and feeling like an idiot, mash temp finally down to 156; figured that's fine
6. First running went well. batch sparge -> went to drain second runnings -> stuck sparge
7. Reached into tun to check clog -> scorched my arm
8. didn't end up sparging b/c of clog -> didn't hit target gravity (compensated a bit by decreasing volume though)
8. During ferment, also realized 7 degree difference between ambient air and fermenting beer temp -> explains the fruit esters and fusel alcohols in my beer; now using water bath

BUT, I'm actually glad all that went wrong b/c at least I learned from it

[a10t2]

Carboys are fine, unless you don't know what you're doing. might one day make a mistake.

Fixed that for you.

My worst brewday mistake to date was actually my most recent brew. I measured out 3.75 gal of strike water instead of 4.75, so needless to say I massively undershot my mash temp. That 1.051 APA got down to 1.005...

[tschmidlin]

BUT, I'm actually glad all that went wrong b/c at least I learned from it

Definitely the right attitude

And you never know, the beer could still be drinkable.  Ish.

[euge]

BUT, I'm actually glad all that went wrong b/c at least I learned from it

Definitely the right attitude

And you never know, the beer could still be drinkable.  Ish.

Sounds like an eventful and "interesting" brew session.

Just like an amalgam of some of my early efforts. Don't worry- one's own brew is almost always drinkable. You know you've reached some sort of new low when you end up with a dumper.

[rabid_dingo]

Besides running off into a kettle that the spigot was turned to the "open postion" at least a million times.....

Been there, done that. That's how I learned not to brew barefoot. 

Shoeless Brew Jackson!

[tschmidlin]

Besides running off into a kettle that the spigot was turned to the "open postion" at least a million times.....

Been there, done that. That's how I learned not to brew barefoot. 

Shoeless Brew Jackson!

I still haven't learned that one . . . I brew barefoot whenever the ground is warm enough.