Daydream Playbook Entry #11
At Dogfish Head, we firmly believe that, “the status quo sucks,” which has led us to become the boundary-pushing brewery and distillery that we are today. But our adventurous efforts haven’t been without some pretty memorable mistakes. In this entry, coworkers from across Dogfish Head share their most epic fails and what they learned from each.
Stories from Dan Weber, Assistant Manager of Brewing:
When cilantro turns into cilantr-ewww –
When we were brewing Positive Contact, there was lots of fresh cilantro that was used for it. At the time, the standard was to bring out ingredients for the day of brewing and have them sit out on a pallet in the brewhouse until use. We didn't have as much access to cold storage at the time. But anyway, we set out the cilantro, had some other brewing delays, and then by the time we wanted to use it, it had wilted. It had turned into a gross pile of gooey cilantro. We had to destroy the brew that day and order a whole other pallet of cilantro. Setting out the herbs too early was definitely a, "well duh," moment for any chefs among us, but something we just weren't thinking about because we were so busy in production mode.
What we learned: Remember what's important. Beer quality is the #1 thing we're after and that means sometimes you'll have to do things that are a pain, especially with ingredients. We should have kept the cilantro cold until the very last second. If you try to take the easy way out with ingredients, either the beer quality will suffer or you'll make a big monetary mistake like we made that day.
The not-so-mysterious tale of “Sticky Pete” –
One time, one of our newer brewers was readying a tank for cleaning and popped off a sample port, which is one of the first things you do to get ready for hooking up the tank. The major problem, of course, was that he did this to the wrong tank, one that was pressurized and full of beer. Beer started spraying across the cellars and he ran to find me as a Brewing Supervisor at the time. I had never seen this in-person before, but I did know what he needed to do ...
In a case like this, you have to hold an open valve in front of the beer stream shooting out, and carefully clamp it down with the beer streaming through it. It can then be closed to shut off the flow. The new brewer was able to do it, albeit he “ate” probably 100 gallons of beer along the way, so much so that his shirt pocket was full of beer when he got it closed. That coined him the name "Sticky Pete.”
What we learned: Always, always open a valve first before disconnecting it. This is a double check for both beer quality and also for personal safety. If he simply would have opened the sample port, he would have quickly seen that beer was flowing out of it. There are times when an individual valve is the only thing holding back an entire tank of beer from the drain, and that understanding needs to be thought about every time something is done.
Toe-may-to, toe-mah-to, right? Not this time –
We were brewing a collaboration at our Rehoboth brewpub with another famous collaborating brewery. For the brew, we had asked ingredient handling folks to send down 3 gallons of peach puree to the pub brewery. Well, this person mixed up peach puree with peach flavoring and sent down 3 gallons of peach flavoring in a bucket. For context, that is an obscenely large amount of flavoring; and amount that would be used for probably 600 barrels of product, not 10 barrels. The beer was disgusting and I believe our Brewmaster rebrewed it secretly to the correct flavor profile after the fact.
What we learned: Don't make any assumptions. It seemed obvious to us that people would know the difference between puree and flavoring, but you just never know. Lack of communication or a miscommunication seems to be a common thread in many mistakes. If things are double checked and communication is direct from the start, this issue would have been avoided.
Stories from Seth, Manager of Brewing:
When you really “put your foot in it” … literally –
A few years back, we made a beer/wine hybrid called Noble Rot that was a coworker favorite. The star ingredient in this beer was Viognier grape juice, which we partnered with a West-Coast winery to acquire. This came to us frozen in 300-gallon plastic totes which we would thaw in our refrigerated warehouse. That day, to check if the totes were indeed thawing, I decided that kicking the side and watching the liquid slosh around inside would suffice. When my foot went through the cold, brittle plastic and that beautiful juice began to pour out on to the floor, I felt my soul leave my body. From above, I watched myself frantically tear apart a hop box and press it against the broken tote in a desperate effort to save the precious Viognier, but the sticky juice flowed and spread out all over that warehouse floor until another brewer came in and helped me get the remainder transferred to another tote.
What we learned: Don’t do something so dumb and lazy as kicking plastic. But if you do, make sure you do it within 100’ of a floor drain.
Quick, but unforgettable lessons that practically speak for themselves –
Learned this one when brewing Rosabi – don’t try to hydrate a bucket of horseradish powder without wearing a respirator unless you want your sinuses to feel the burn of a thousand suns.
And from brewing Costumes & Karaoke it was … don’t hydrate a bucket of turmeric by spraying it with a hose unless you want to dye all the clothes you're wearing and all your exposed skin and hair yellow. Thanks, Costumes & Karaoke.