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mcarlson74
04-14-2003, 07:21 PM
I know (at least I hope) that everyone has one of these stories. So if you need something to brighten your day read on and post your story. This one just happened to me yesterday. I thank that they are sainting my wife this weekend for putting up with it.

Ok the story starts out with our young brewer (that's me) going out to his local brew supply store to pick up some supplies for a barley wine, his first one ever. Everything goes off without a hitch and he goes home to brew up his first batch of barley wine for this winter. Well our hero usually brews out doors on a cajun cooker and a 5 gallon pot, but if you have ever been in North Carolina during this time of year you know that everything is covered with a nice thick yellow layer of pollen, so he decides to brew indoors.

He gets everything boiling and bubbling away without any problems, a couple of almost boilovers but he catches them in time to avoid the mess. Then comes the point that our brewer adds the flavoring hops and it is all down hill from there.

After the flavoring hops are added he turns around to wash something in the sink when he hears that fimilar sound. Every brewer knows it, it's the sound of a boil over. So quickly he removes the beer from the element and tries to mop up the beer as much as possible. Now keep in mind that this is a barley wine recipe so everything is absolutly sticky and burned onto the stove (our hero has just bought his wife a new flat top stove about 5 monthes ago). So after cleaning up the monstorous boil over as best as possible he notices that some beer has spilled behind the glass on the oven, not inside the oven mind you but that outer peice of glass. So our brewer decides that he will unscrew the peice of glass and clean it before his wife comes home. He cleans it up no problem, but then has to put the glass back on. To make a long story short our hero end up chipping a corner of the glass, loses a screw, breaks a peice of molding on the side of the stove, and can't put it back together. So he has to call Sears and have them come out this weekend to put his stove door back together.

Now to top it all off the young brewers wife comes home today and the beer has spilled out through the air lock and is all over the counter and floor. So the barley wine has now gone to a partial open fermentation. I still have the lid on the bucket but no air lock. The thing is still over flowing.

Sorry for the length of this post but I hope you all got a good laugh out of this. Please feel free to post some of your disasters. PLEASE!!

YamahaXS
04-14-2003, 08:41 PM
heheh sounds pretty BAD! you will need that barley wine when your wife kicks you to the curb!

hehehehe


you might want to look at these (http://fox302.com/index.pl?s=vg&user=YamahaXS) for my recent adventures in kitchen work... not really beer related but i will be brewing some beer on our new gas range pretty soon... god forbid i have a boil over!


cheers and good luck!

ps. you might want to name that barleywine something like Kenmore's or Pissed Off Wife Barley Wine

lol

shughes600
04-15-2003, 12:27 AM
Our hero in this story brewed his first batch in his Moms brand new kitchen. She awoke to a spraying noise and dripping.
The dripping was that of the beer from the ceiling to the floor. I now use a blow-off until liquid does not come out, and I am a little more conservative in the level I top up to in the primary.

paul84043
04-15-2003, 06:56 AM
Yamaha....that was you in the carseat wasn't it!!

Nice pics, I would definitely be cooking in the garage, you boil over on that stove and you're a dead man. :D

Shughes600,
If you are using a carboy, I would definitely consider switching to a 6.5 gallon for primary fermentation and then rack over to a 5.
My last batch of porter "blew off" almost 3/4 gallon of good beer, and still made a mess when it completely filled the gallon milk jug I was using to catch.
I have also heard some opinions that you blow off alot of good, viable yeast when you do primary in a 5 gallon, since ale yeast rises to the top initially. Not so much an issue with lager yeast, though it still rises to the top initially, but sinks down quickly.
I only have one 6.5, but you can bet that after two messes and that much lost beer, another (couple maybe) 6.5's are on order.

mcarlson74
04-15-2003, 05:30 PM
One more thing I forgot to mention is that our hero's wife is also 3 mo pregnant with their first baby ;). Yamaha I think that I might have to use one of those names.