Best mistake

[BackO'Th'Shed]

Just brewed for the first time on my new setup in the new house (now brewing in the garage rather than the shed at the old place) and messed up like never before. Got my mash on and wondered why it was thicker than usual, only to notice as I was about to drain the mash tun into the copper 90 minutes later that the tap was already open and I had drained my mash at the start. Doh. Luckily my sparge water wasn't quite up to temp so managed to mash in with my sparge water and re-use the runnings from my first attempted mash as sparge water for my second mash. Led to a longer brew day, but hopefully should produce a good (if not, better than planned) beer. I was originally contemplating a decoction as I was brewing a Belgian dubbel, but decided against it due to the hassle. I'm hoping that the first attempted mash may have added something akin to a protein rest and wondered what mistakes others have made that turned out to produce a better beer?

Would anyone like to share any cock ups that ultimately led to a better brew?

[jaroporter]

sounds like good fortune / planning already having the boiler in place! bet the final beer is great, even if it's just 'cause the near miss makes you appreciate it twice as much

for me, this one sticks in the mind.. viewtopic.php?f=24&t=62805&hilit=+citra+pale

[BenB]

My scales switched off when I was half way through weighing my black malt for my Moose Drool and I was being lazy and just tare'ing it between additions. So I had to guess the black malt. Pretty sure it's too much for style but I love the smokey end to the beer!

[Piscator]

My scales switched off when I was half way through weighing my black malt for my Moose Drool and I was being lazy and just tare'ing it between additions. So I had to guess the black malt. Pretty sure it's too much for style but I love the smokey end to the beer!

Ah yes, been there, done that

On my first ever AG brew I got to the end of the boil only to notice the hop filter sitting on the counter next to the boiler
It was over 10 years ago and I still remember that moment like it was yesterday - I only made the mistake once though

Cheers
Steve

[MTW]

On my first ever AG brew I got to the end of the boil only to notice the hop filter sitting on the counter next to the boiler
It was over 10 years ago and I still remember that moment like it was yesterday - I only made the mistake once though

Cheers
Steve

I've done that!

Not quite my 'best' mistake, but I was once cooling some finings in a jug within another jug of cold water, lifted it out, put it down, took the lid off the barrel, turned back, picked up the wrong jug and emptied the (unsanitised) water into the beer.

[Piscator]

I've done that!

Not quite my 'best' mistake, but I was once cooling some finings in a jug within another jug of cold water, lifted it out, put it down, took the lid off the barrel, turned back, picked up the wrong jug and emptied the (unsanitised) water into the beer.

Now that made me laugh

[Fil]

On my first ever AG brew I got to the end of the boil only to notice the hop filter sitting on the counter next to the boiler
It was over 10 years ago and I still remember that moment like it was yesterday - I only made the mistake once though

Cheers
Steve

did similar some time ago but your post brought it back in full technicolour, That "Oh Fek" moment as spotted the hop filter (braid hose) hung over the washing line as i added the 1st hops.. So i chilled as usual then sat a nylon seive over the 4" neck of the FV and gently poured the chilled wort over the seive onto the patio etc ended up with about 17l in the FV from the expected 23-25,
It was a very sticky experience thankfully i was a patio brewer at the time so when capped i could simply hose off all the sticky sweet wort that had run down the FV's sides..

cant say it improved the beer but i did manage to ferment most of it..

[BackO'Th'Shed]

Not sure it was good fortune already having the boiler in place... had it not been in place, I would have noticed immediately and saved about 1 1/2 hours on my brew day. Resulted in a much higher OG than anticipated though (1.080 rather than 1.068, although I did yield 22 litres rather than the planned 23) so sounds a bit like your experience jaroporter.

[BackO'Th'Shed]

Finally put this in the keg over the weekend after fermenting for 3 weeks then 1 week crash cool. Finished at 1.008, so 9.4% abv. Much higher than the planned 6.6%. Cropped some of the yeast (Trappist High Gravity) to use on a Brewdog Tokyo clone that I have planned for next weekend.

Planning to do a reiterated mash to get the high abv without a long boil or adding extract. Has anyone tried this before? I was going to do the first mash at my usual 2.5l/kg then sparge and use all of the runnings for the second mash (adding just base malt to the first mash then the remainder of the grain bill to the second mash). A few questions that I have are: Should I leave the first mash overnight, or get this done as quickly as possible (one article I read suggested around 20 minutes for the first mash)? Should I keep the second mash at the same thickness as the first and sparge with the remaining wort or use all of the wort from the off with the second mash?

Thanks in advance for any replies!

[Clibit]

I once used double the hops I intended cos I was using scales that had imperial weights and for some daft reason used the half ounce weight to weigh out 7 grams, which was 14g, rather than 7 grams, which is half of half an ounce! I had several 7g additions in the recipe in a 10 or 12 litre batch.

Anyway, the beer was a very malty red ale and the hops were Chinook and Columbus. The IBUs went through the roof. After a month in the bottle I was struggling to drink it, and I like high bitterness. So I left it alone. Months later I tried one it was like "wow!" It became one of my favourite beers ever. Rich, resinous, flavoursome, lush. Great mistake.

[Kohoutec]

Don't try putting boiling water in your bottling bucket if your bottling wand is in there...

Thankfully some more boiling water and gentle bending coaxed it back into reasonable shape!

[Clibit]

Not your best mistake, perhaps.