[tankdeer]

Leaned over the kettle to get a steamy wiff, only to watch the glasses slide off my nose into the boil.

Then on one of the next couple of brews did the very same thing again.I suppose the second time was the stupidest.

Ha ha ha. I'm sorry but that is just too funny.

^ I do the same thing when letting bread dough rise. Unfortunately, last time I also forgot about it when turning the oven on.

I hear ya. I still have plastic wrap burnt onto my nice stainless mixing bowl the dough was in.

I've done that, but I also had a good thermometer in the oven as well.

[bluesman]

I would say the dumbest thing I have done was trying to move my brewstand by grabbing the burner frame with my bare hands  right after a 90 minute boil.   

It was like being shocked to death.  Luckily, I reacted quick enough and rinsed my hands in cold water for ten minutes to mitigate the burns.

[blorvak]

My worst brewday offence is a starter day offence.  Turns out that if you put a smack pack in an oven, and then forget about it and turn on the oven, it goes POP!

Hey Look! Someone dumber than me! 

Hey, the theory was fine!  The practice, well...

The silver lining was that the yeast didn't get all over the oven.  The smack pack exploded on the top, leaving a huge hole, but kept all the yeast neatly inside.

And no, I didn't use it.

[tschmidlin]

And no, I didn't use it.

Too bad, you could have thrown it in at the end of the boil and had some nice yeast nutrient in there

[tubercle]

 If the pot is on the burner and is stable, leave it alone. Once, after a full boil was going, it appeared that the kettle wasn't centered good enough so Tubercle tried to adjust it. Of course, it toppled over when I set it back down too far to one side and 6-1/2 gallons of boiling wort came crashing down. Tubercle may have been drinking at the time. No injuries thankfully.

  Have you ever heard the sound of boiling wort hitting the ground? It sounds a lot like OH! F^@&!!! but a whole lot louder and a much higher pitch...

  And Tubercle needs to add a second one...

 Threw a handful of pine needles in the boil just to see what would happen.  Too bad it wasn't the one that got spilled.

[tankdeer]

Well, I got a new one to add from today. Not the dumbest, but pretty dumb still. Started filling the kettle with strike water and had the burner on - went inside for a couple minutes to put shoes on (ground was cold , got distracted, came back outside to an overflowing kettle and the burner snuffed.

So then I overshot my strike temp a little - no biggie, just add some cold water to bring it back down. Well I did that, but then didn't think and just doughed in with the entire volume, instead of just what I needed. Not that it was a big deal as I easily adjusted, but still pretty dumb.

Oh well, that's today. Next brew is probably monday or tuesday. We'll see what I can add then. 

[saberhagen]

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...

A boil over isn't bad. Letting all the hop fibers and high gravity wort from an extract boil cook into the range for 60 minutes 'cause you don't want to stop boiling and ruin your first batch of beer ever; that's bad!
Just ask my Landlord!

[beveragebob]

Started drinking after the mash was done. Bob's Evil Twin was born on that day. Brewed a Barleywine where the wife had to administer the hop bill and turn off the flame. I was passed out on the couch! New rules for brew day.... no beer until the chillers are cooling down the wort!

[skyler]

4 words: hops in garbage disposal.

[benjammin]

when i was transferring from my secondary into my bottling bucket and using my mouth to start the siphon. once the beer got to my mouth it kind of startled me and i spit a mouthful of wort into my bottling bucket. that batch was dubbed "a little bit of Ben in every bottle."

[chezteth]

Another one I have from awhile ago.  I was using my immersion chiller.  I didn't have the hose clamp tight enough and my wort ended up getting diluted.  Fortunately, I realized it before the gravity dropped too low.

[saberhagen]

4 words: hops in garbage disposal.

So true! That should be on the first page of every beginning brewer's book! I had to let the oven cleaner soak in to the range which I had scorched while I went to Home Depot to exchange my 25' pipe-snake for a 50 footer. Hops for miles!!!

[euge]

4 words: hops in garbage disposal.

So true! That should be on the first page of every beginning brewer's book! I had to let the oven cleaner soak in to the range which I had scorched while I went to Home Depot to exchange my 25' pipe-snake for a 50 footer. Hops for miles!!!

How about tonight!?

Doing a concentrated steep batch. After placing kettle in tub totally and forgetting about it- stupidly left the tap on and the kettle overturns.

Bathtub full of wort!

[a10t2]

I had to resurrect this thread for my new personal "best". I forgot to switch my thermostat from cool to heat and plugged in a space heater to get a quadrupel up to temperature. Woke up this morning and the beer was at 101°F.

[tschmidlin]

I had to resurrect this thread for my new personal "best". I forgot to switch my thermostat from cool to heat and plugged in a space heater to get a quadrupel up to temperature. Woke up this morning and the beer was at 101°F.

Cool it and pitch some new yeast.  It might be ok . . .