As part of Fermentation Friday, I’ll be answering the following question: “”What is the craziest concoction you ever came up with, on the fly or prepped, to brew with?
I have to say I don’t have much that really qualifies as crazy. I once used a tea towel as a grain sack, a chip clip for a racking cane holder, and the usual assortment of Pyrex and other kitchen gear or garden hoses in a pinch. Nothing too elaborate though.
I think one of the worst mid-process “hacks” I made was during one of my first bottlings. I misread the instructions on adding priming sugar, so instead of adding sterilized water with sugar in solution to the bottling bucket, I added sugar in individual measurements to each bottle. As if this wasn’t inexact enough, I didn’t have a funnel at the time (college) so I used a sheet of paper from the middle of the ream (seemed the cleanest). The beer turned out awful and in some cases insanely carbonated. I didn’t have a single explosion though.