Starting a thread about mishaps and mistakes. Rien ne se passe jamais parfaitement dans le brassage maison. Parfois, il vaut mieux en rire.
Woke up this morning to a soggy case. Bottled this hefeweizen last week. Either it was not finished fermenting or I had a damaged Grolsch bottle. I am thinking the first. I’m going to transfer to keg just in case, but its going to suck when my Hefe becomes clear.
Was gonna like your post but couldn’t bring myself to. Was it only that one bottle? Honestly kinda surprising grolsch bottles are so thick I’ve always told myself the swingtop would go before anything else in a situation where it was strictly pressure-related.
I drank another beer last night. Slightly over-carbed, but that might be my fault for carbing high, but definitely not a gusher and not infected. Looking around on the net it could be bottle shock. Not to take a chance I burped all my Grolsch this morning and carefully recapped all the crown cap bottles to reduce a bit of the pressure. I’ll test again in a week and repeat if necessary.
Riccardo, f you are looking for mistakes, I will share one (3). I have a couple Spike CF5s that I use to ferment. I have a valve underneath and a sight glass bellow that. My normal practice is to fill the fermenter from my grainfather and let it sit while I clean to settle out any trub or protein that made it through, then dumping before I add the yeast. (thinking about it now I’m wondering if removing this might have a negative effect, any comments?) Also, after fermentation has appeared to stop I close the valve so the beer isn’t sitting on the yeast cake and normally I empty right away. Twice I have left it and once the pressure built up enough to blow out the sight glass seals and shower my shed in yeast. Saturday I had left it for a couple of days and when I took it apart I got a yeast shower. At least the shed didn’t get hit too bad.
While taking about this process I might as well tell you about the time that I took off the triclamp above the valve and not the one below. I dropped a 2 1/2 gallon batch into the unsanitized container I had below. I lost that batch.
I will make changes before the next ferment.
I’d like to add another valve below the sight glass but it is then too long. I should probably use the elbow that comes with it.
At least you managed to shield the shed I find I make a lot of mistakes too when there are specific sequences to follow, like the one you decribed. I’ve left my share of bottom valves open while transfering, though I only lost a few hunded mls. Dumping a whole batch by accident definitely sucks but I am sure you are not alone.