I just had an awful brew day. I kept forgetting things and it went at least two hours over because of the mistakes. After all of that, the airlock blew off and the yeast “boiled over” and the beer was exposed to oxygen for two days before I noticed it.
What has been your worst brew day? What happened?
My first brew day was probably my smoothest. I had almost no idea what I was doing and neither did my brother who was helping, but with both of us working on it, things went quite well. All my brew days since I’ve been doing it by myself and it’s often a bit of crazy scurrying about the kitchen.
My last brew day was probably my worst so far. I did a partial mash with about 8.5# of grain via BIAB and discovered that a strainer to fit the top of my pot would have made life a LOT easier. I also discovered that the pot I use for a quick “dunk” sparge is not large enough to handle that much grain. To compound matters, my efficiency was lower than it’s been in the past, by a lot. I had got most of the grain from a somewhat local LHBS and had it ground there instead of ordering through NB and I think that may have had something to do with efficiency. While I was at the LHBS I thought about getting a pound or two of light DME but decided against it since I was already stretching my budget. So while I got the boil going, I tried to re-mash the grains in hopes of squeezing another couple points out.
When I had the boil done and chilling, I bottled the beer in my secondary, racked my primary to the secondary, partially cleaned the primary, split the yeast cake and did a 10 minute boil on the water that I re-mashed with. Got it all in the primary and managed to come close to my anticipated original gravity. Made for a 9-hour marathon plus I still had to clean everything up. I called it a night around 1am.
Shark, I think to not worry about the airlock as this is when the beer is at it’s strongest, it’s putting out so much carbon dioxide nothing could get inside to make trouble. My best guess from experience.
Don’t worry about the air lock being off that early in fermentation. There are breweries that open ferment and their beers come out fine. They are under controlled conditions but the opening in your airlock or stoppers is pretty small with the CO2 pressure out for anything to get in.
I remember reading a post about a man that was had his brew pot outside in full boil a heard a loud pop. I can’t remember the explanation but a frog had jumped in the brew pot and exploded. So his question was he scoped out all he could so is the beer still good?
I think my worst was dropping a carboy in the house and watching a wave of Sweet Stout splash against the couch.
Or it might be my first attempt at making wine. This was before brewing stores and we had to make everything. So when my cork did not fit the jug I used duck tape. Well a grape must have stuck in the air tube.
When I got home my white German shepherd bolted from the house with a red colored back side. He was sleeping next to the jug when it detonated.
Or maybe when I dumped off about 10 pounds of spent grain at the bird feeder and my Irish Setter puppy must of ate half of it. I think see tried to wake me but in the morning there was grain was sprayed on the walls at the same height as her fanny.
[quote=“DUNNGOOD”]I remember reading a post about a man that was had his brew pot outside in full boil a heard a loud pop. I can’t remember the explanation but a frog had jumped in the brew pot and exploded. So his question was he scoped out all he could so is the beer still good?
I think my worst was dropping a carboy in the house and watching a wave of Sweet Stout splash against the couch.
Or it might be my first attempt at making wine. This was before brewing stores and we had to make everything. So when my cork did not fit the jug I used duck tape. Well a grape must have stuck in the air tube.
When I got home my white German shepherd bolted from the house with a red colored back side. He was sleeping next to the jug when it detonated.
Or maybe when I dumped off about 10 pounds of spent grain at the bird feeder and my Irish Setter puppy must of ate half of it. I think see tried to wake me but in the morning there was grain was sprayed on the walls at the same height as her fanny.[/quote]
:shock:
I have to say though, I like your choice in dogs! German Shepherds and Irish Setters have always been my favorites. My 110# GSD is laying next to me right now.
