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Brew day from hell

Northern Brewer General
#1

I started to make this post, and realized it was going to be obscenely long, and nobody would really want to read it. Key points:

  1. I installed new stuff in my system.
  2. Old stuff in my system failed as a direct result of new stuff installed.
  3. I dumped 26 lb of grain and about 15 gallons water from failed attempt.
  4. I started the whole process over thinking i had fixed the problem.
  5. I had misdiagnosed, and didn’t fix the problem.
  6. I spent 11 hours on 10 gallons. I also accumulated a few burns, and drew blood twice.
  7. I busted my ass to mash way thinner, 2 degrees below where I wanted, and missed my OG target by .009
  8. It’s still gonna be a good beer, i solved problems that wont be problems in the future, and I’m ready to brew again tomorrow.

To be honest, it was my turn. I’ve never had a rough brew day before, and you can’t avoid them forever. Hope ya’ll had smoother brewing than I did today!

#2

There are two kinds of brewers. Those that have had a bad brew day, and those that are going to have a bad brew day. Hope your next one is gravy. :cheers:

#3

Here’s to hoping your next brew day is smooth as glass!! :cheers:

#4

We have all had those days. The silver lining is you can learn form the mistakes to smooth out future brews. :cheers: here is to the next one being easy.

#5

Happy to report today’s brew has been as smooth as they come. All problems fixed, and rocking out 10 gallons of a great Centennial IPA. Thx for the encouraging words all, brew on!

#6

My experience has told me that the brew day right after the worst one, is usually the smoothest one you’d ever have.

#7

Today I went down to the basement to rinse my immersion chiller while my mash tun was draining into the boil kettle in the garage. Guess who forgot to close the valve on the BK? Yeah I was pretty pissed when I walked back into the garage.

Lost some precious first runnings on the APA I was brewing, luckily not too much still walked away with a 1.052 OG after the boil.

#8

Cleaned a 5 gallon carboy this evening that had a 9 month old barley wine in it. Transferred the beer to a keg and soaked the carboy overnight in oxyclean. Got around to finishing the cleaning job tonight but ran into an issue when the carboy slipped from my hands just off the ground and shattered. 3 stitches later in one of my toes and I’m still good. We all have bag days. Some are just worse than others!

#9

Mine wasn’t too peachy yesterday either. After retooling my mashtun (went to stainless braid over bazooka screen and added thread tape to EVERYTHING) I still have the same flow issues. Then when i was cleaning up, i put my spent grains in a garbage bag and was carrying it to the garbage can when the bag split open at the bottom and about 10lbs of grain water went all over my driveway and my wifes car. :oops:

#10

[quote=“Hades”]Today I went down to the basement to rinse my immersion chiller while my mash tun was draining into the boil kettle in the garage. Guess who forgot to close the valve on the BK? Yeah I was pretty pissed when I walked back into the garage.

Lost some precious first runnings on the APA I was brewing, luckily not too much still walked away with a 1.052 OG after the boil.[/quote]

Oh man, I’ve left the BK valve open before, but been lucky enough to still be present! Good to hear you came out alight on OG.

#11

Well that certainly puts things into perspective. I didn’t run into anything that will leave a scar… good to hear you’re okay though. Broken carboys sure can wreak havoc!

#12

Flow issues suck. That was the genesis of my crappy brew day too. What kind of flow issues are you having?

At least the bag didn’t break inside!

#13

Flow issues suck. That was the genesis of my crappy brew day too. What kind of flow issues are you having?

At least the bag didn’t break inside![/quote]

Here is the thread I started a while back with an update of yesterdays brew day.
http://forum.northernbrewer.com/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=122227
I’m starting to think it might be my mill gap. I have it adjusted smaller than it was shipped but still a bit wider than a lot of people. I have a Cereal Killer adjusted to about 0.26. I might open it up to 0.38 which is the factory default.

#14

I am glad to have a forum like this to share our mishaps and failures. It sometimes helps to know, others have had the same, or worse experiences.
Like, dropping a glass carboy ! That sucks ! Been there, I was lucky, no stitches !
Enjoy that Centennial IPA !

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