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One of THOSE brew days

Northern Brewer General
#1

Decided to brew another batch of my centennial IPA this morning. Got the strike water going and milled my grain, when I tried to brush off the rollers with the rollers spinning the brush got caught and yanked the grain mill off the top of the bucket sending flour flying around the room. OK that could’ve been worse…no grain lost.

Got doughed in without mishap and realized I desperately needed propane. Put my second cup of coffee in the car and loaded the propane tanks in the back only to return to a coffee cup that had emptied into the center console…luckily it’s water tight.

Returned with the propane…mash temp holding, pH 5.5…check

Pulled the bag and sparged…cranked up the burner to bring to boil…plugging data into BS2…glanced over at the rig and there’s a nice boil over going!!!

Got the boil over under control with maybe a quart lost…boil went fine…no issues…

Started to chill…hmmm…101…wth…AHH…so it does matter which way the wort travels through the plate chiller…Another pint or so lost switching the hoses on the plate chiller…

Got it chilled to 75…could be worse…actually managed to end up with 5 gallons in the fermenter and OG only a couple points higher than planned…put it in the swamp cooler with a couple 1L frozen bottles to get it to pitching temp…spent a while cleaning up the nasty kettle.

Boiled a couple gallons to run through the pump and plate chiller to clean them and as I opened the valve the output hose slipped off the brew rig splashing boiling water on my bare feet…eh…only 1st degree burns no biggy…

All cleaned up gear put away…12:15!!! 4+ hours…well at least it’s after noon and I can start drinking!!!

I guess if you do something long enough you’ll have a bad day at it occasionally.

Here’s to the next brew day! It’s gotta be better than his one was! :cheers:

#2

I wish my brew days went that smoothly!

Just kidding… but that’s about typical for me. Glad I’m not the only one!

#3

A bad day of brewing still beats a good day at work…

#4

Are you sure your coffee wasn’t spiked? :wink:

No matter how much you plan, some days just don’t go well. At least the wort made it to the fermenter. :cheers:

#5

I never brew early in the morning just in case I need beer. But like the song goes, Its 5:00 o’clock Somewhere.

:cheers:

#6

Bare feet near anything boiling is a bad idea. Learned the hard way making maple syrup. Lost some skin on that mistake.

#7

Even with some problems, 4 1/2 hours aint bad, and time well spent.

#8

This reminds me… I need to fill my propane tanks… :mrgreen:

On a more serious note, I’ve had a brew day or two a lot like the one described. Here’s to everyone’s next brew day being a good one!! :cheers:

#9

I have done fine until the time I decided I could brew an extract kit and bottle another one at the same time. I figured most of the time is sitting around watching the pot, making sure it didn’t boil over. why not use that time to bottle a finished batch.

it sounds like it shouldn’t of been that hard, but with all the various buckets, funnels, who knows what else, it was actually a pain in the ass. including the time I dumped my priming sugar out for I am still not sure for what reason.

#10

We have all had those disasters. It sounds like you rolled all of yours into one day though :shock: I almost always brew wearing flip flops and no burns yet. Have had hoses pop off but must be lucky. Just filled three 20lb LP tanks so it is time to brew!

#11

I wasn’t going to post because I felt what I did was stupid and embarrassing. 5 wks ago I just had shut my burner off and grabbed my keg to move it. As I turned around I tripped so I pitched the keg forward. The boiling wort went forward on the concrete but I was still falling and fell in it. I ended up with 2nd and 3rd degree burns from my elbows to my wrists. I wore bandages for 3 wks plus medicated crème and antibiotics. No fun at all. This Sat. will be my next brew day. Crazy and dangerous things are very present to our hobby. This was the first time in 25+ years I was injured. Danny, I think you were very lucky. I believe safety has to be thought thru when we go thru our procedures. I really learned my lesson the hard way. Please be careful guys…B.C.

#12

Shoot, the worst I’ve had was when I was running off my mash (no hose, just letting it drain from countertop into a kettle on the floor). Of course, it splashed, and I had sticky wort all over the kitchen. Grabbed a sponge to wipe it off and naturally fumbled the filthy sponge right into the kettle. No injuries, though… (knock on wood)

#13

Yea Mark. I wear flip flops too. Makes it easy to slip em off when I make a trip back inside so I don’t track water/wort/whatever all over.

WOW BC… I do feel lucky now. I figure we all have those days so if anyone can learn from our mistakes I don’t mind looking like a goof. And the coffee was straight up black. I just didn’t have enough of it!

#14

You guys should wear turnout gear when brewing

#15

Nah…I’d sweat too much and sweat dripping in he kettle is not cool.

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