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Copperpots_Brewing · 10-18-2012, 11:17 PM

This was the single worst brew day of my brewing career...
So i brewed my holiday ale yesterday, well I attempted to at least... I just bought a hop rocket, and I was stoked to use it to spice my holiday ale. I used my hop rocket for the first time, and did a couple upgrades to my HERMS single tier system on top of that, which all should have been figured out before i actually brewed... not mid-brew. I upgraded all of the hoses I'm using from 3/8" to 1/2". Including the dip tubes and such. I figured it would help move liquids faster. So while i was mashing, i was trying to remove dip-tubes and such and solder new ones together, which ultimately didn't go as smoothly as i would have liked. It didnt help that my wife had her friend over, and i didnt know her husband was coming too, so i was trying to entertain while brewing which always ends in disaster.
So I ended up having to mash a bit longer becuase i didnt have my hardware ready, which isnt a big deal, it just made the day longer. So after i got it all together, I put my 1/2 hoses on my pump, but i didnt have hose clamps big enough to clamp them on. I kept having troubles with my pump not pumping, from what i thought was due to my mash tun having a 3/8 dip tube and 1/2 hoses, i thought there was too much air getting in, so i kept having to screw with it to get it moving. Then, I was about a gallon of water under my total boil volume. I did my boil while i was playing darts, and when i ran out to put my honey and molasses and whatnot in at the last 10 min mark, i looked and realized i had run out of propane because i didnt put my new tank on, instead i tried to stretch my old tank out. So who knows when it stopped boiling. So packed the hopback with hops and spices, but then i had the same issue again of my pump not pumping, but this time it didnt make any sense because all of the tubes and hosing was 1/2". So i tried to rely on gravity to help me out. I put my old 5gal pot upside down on my brew stand and set the keg on top of it. But the keg has a domed bottom so it was wabbly, but i had it sitting still and everything was moving just fine. I was trying to get stuff cleaned up, and then i heard a giant CRASH! I turned around and the whole boil kettle had fallen off and about 3gallons of beer just spread across the driveway. I was so unbelievably pissed.

What i'm pretty sure happened was, since i didnt have the hose clamps, air was getting in the lines and the pump wasnt able to create enough suction to pull the wort through.
So needless to say, i have a 3gallon batch that i am less than confident in. So i will be rebrewing next week... during the day, not the night.

ugh.

**BBL_Brewer** · 10-18-2012, 11:41 PM

Been there. Well, I've never dumped half a batch on the ground, but I had a brewday from hell myself last winter. Sorry for your loss BTW.

**rgarry** · 10-18-2012, 11:48 PM

I brew early in am so nobody can bother me. I lay out my equipment the night before so I have no surprises . With that said we have all had bad days but we usually can recover. Can't recover from the drive way. Sorry dude, it's the time and the money and the expectations that piss me off.

Fantastical · 10-20-2012, 07:14 AM

Wow that definitely sounds like a terrible day! Here's hoping the next one is better!

**Darkness** · 10-20-2012, 12:52 PM

Yep feel yo pain man! I had brew buds come over for a brew day month back and before they got there I broke my hose bib off my sink, then in the middle of last mash turned off wrong pump and burnt up heating element. One beer finished two gal short anyone Finnished 2 1/2 gal over so we blended. But we still did 57gal that day just a little rocky.

**VegasJ** · 10-20-2012, 01:11 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Copperpots_Brewing

I was trying to get stuff cleaned up, and then i heard a giant CRASH! I turned around and the whole boil kettle had fallen off and about 3gallons of beer just spread across the driveway.

I would have sat down, lit a smoke, & cried.

kh54s10 · 10-20-2012, 01:41 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by VegasJ

I would have sat down, lit a smoke, & cried.

I would have probably punched a wall, breaking my hand, spending the night in the ER, missing work.... and not able to brew with the broken hand...

RandomBeerGuy · 10-20-2012, 02:03 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kh54s10

I would have probably punched a wall, breaking my hand, spending the night in the ER, missing work.... and not able to brew with the broken hand...

+1