Why should I stick with this frustrating hobby?!

Today I attempted to brew my fourth batch ever. It was am imperial hefiwietsen or however you spell it.. Everything was going perfectly until I had to pour my wort into my brew bucket. I had my brew bucket filter on to filter out the hops. I've done this twice before and I've never had a problem. But today the stupid filter comes undone and splashes wort all over my kitchen. So then I dump half of the wort that is now in the brew bucket back into the boiler pot to try it again. Probably contaminating the $@"! out of it as I'm doing this. I try it again being as slow as possible and it does it again!!! Wort everywhere, it's a mess. I'm guessing I lost about anywhere from 1/2 to a full gallon of wort. So I say screw this and I just filter what I can and dump the wort in fill it up to 5 gallons and pitch the yeast. Probably a $:;- tone of hops that weren't filtered out. To make maters worse, I was sold less liquid yeast that I needed for this kit. So I was forced to pitch with one dry yeast packet and one large liquid packet of wyeast. I pour the liquid yeast in and then I notice the little packet inside was never ruptured!!! I swear I smacked the crap out of it and no, I didn't make starter.

I have been working on beer related stuff since 10:30am it's now 4:30! This sucks so hard to put so much freaking work in and was a perfectly beautiful day outside. Not to mention the close $70 I spent on this stupid kit! I'm sorry if I sound angry but this is so frustrating!

There's rough days, there's good days. I'm not gonna lie - brewing beer isn't for everyone. It is a lot of work, and there is a lot of things that can go wrong. But, in the end, something so good can come out of it - delicious beer. If it feels frustrating, I say try it with a friend (even better if they're more experienced) and see how it goes. If it's still frustrating, let it go.

Hate to say it, but sometimes saying goodbye is best.

First off, no big deal to have the hops in your primary. If you're worried about clarity or something, you can always rack it to a secondary to get away from the sediment. Or, if you have a steeping bag, muslin bag, paint strainer bag, start putting your hops in there and it won't get in your wort at all. I don't you contaminated anything if everything was properly taken care of beforehand. With two packs of yeast, you'll probably be ok, it may just take a little longer to get going. If it's not fermenting in 72 hours, you may have an issue, but don't freak out before then. You are sure to have good and bad days, but learn from your issues and know how to fix them next time, pretty simple solutions for you. RDWHAHB or commercial, if necessary

According to Wyeast, it's not critical that that packet gets ruptured. It's helpful, but not critical.

+1 on the not worrying about the sediment. Some folks strain, some rack off of it, some (like myself) just dump the whole thing in. I've noticed no difference between beers I strained it out and beers I didn't.

Don't give up yet. Some brews go as planned, others don't. This weekend I had one of the smoothest brewdays ever. The weekend before, I had one of my worst (thanks to multiple issues it ended up being a 10 hour brewday).

My advice is to go out and buy a 6 pack, 12 pack, or case of your favorite beer. After drinking several repeat the next day. If brewing still sounds like it could be fun to you buy the easiest kit you can find and brew it, if not continue to drink and buy good beer from the store. If you do continue to brew you might want to look for a homebrew club in your area where you can find people who can help you out.

Thank you for the kind words. I feel like I cooked for Thanksgiving all day only to have burned the turkey. I have the other dry packet of yeast that came with the kit. Does it make sense to dump that in?

Not if you've already put in two, you'd potentially be wasting money. Give it 72 hours to work and if it doesn't then you can look to pitch the other one.

james138 said:

Today I attempted to brew my fourth batch ever. It was am imperial hefiwietsen or however you spell it.. Everything was going perfectly until I had to pour my wort into my brew bucket. I had my brew bucket filter on to filter out the hops. I've done this twice before and I've never had a problem. But today the stupid filter comes undone and splashes wort all over my kitchen. So then I dump half of the wort that is now in the brew bucket back into the boiler pot to try it again. Probably contaminating the $@"! out of it as I'm doing this. I try it again being as slow as possible and it does it again!!! Wort everywhere, it's a mess. I'm guessing I lost about anywhere from 1/2 to a full gallon of wort. So I say screw this and I just filter what I can and dump the wort in fill it up to 5 gallons and pitch the yeast. Probably a $:;- tone of hops that weren't filtered out. To make maters worse, I was sold less liquid yeast that I needed for this kit. So I was forced to pitch with one dry yeast packet and one large liquid packet of wyeast. I pour the liquid yeast in and then I notice the little packet inside was never ruptured!!! I swear I smacked the crap out of it and no, I didn't make starter.

I have been working on beer related stuff since 10:30am it's now 4:30! This sucks so hard to put so much freaking work in and was a perfectly beautiful day outside. Not to mention the close $70 I spent on this stupid kit! I'm sorry if I sound angry but this is so frustrating!

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I think you may be making things more complicated than they need to be. I don't really see a reason to filter when draining from the kettle to the fermenter. If you've properly cooled, then there should have been enough time for most of the junk to settle to the bottom. Use a racking cane to siphon the wort from the kettle, and you can leave much of the trub behind. If you do get more than you want, then no need to worry. The majority of it will settle, and if it's not as clear as you'd like it to be after fermentation if complete, transfer to a secondary and let it sit for a little longer. If you have a way to cold crash, that's even better.

If you aren't doing a starter, a good rule of thumb that I've used (and that has worked for me): anything under 1.060, generally you only need 1 vial, or packet of liquid yeast. Anything over 1.060, use 2. This assumes you're not doing anything crazy like over 1.100. That should (generally) work.

What types of recipes have you tried, and do you have anyone around you that is experienced that can help you on your brew days? Doing a simple recipe and having someone more experienced that can look over you shoulder should really help. This hobby can be frustrating, but it really isn't that difficult. Only tedious and time consuming.

I hope this helps, I really hate to see people leave the hobby because of bad experiences. I guess I'm really lucky to have a number of experienced guys around me that have been there to help since day one. Their advice has been absolutely priceless.

I would suggest getting a simple kit. Maybe a nut brown ale or something and try it. Starting out simple keeps the anxiety down as well as is more of a guarantee of having a great beer the first few times. Second I suggest not worrying so much about the small stuff. Make your process the simplest as possible until you are consistently making good beers. First beers I made were extract with steeping grains and dry yeast. Steep grains, boil extract and hop, cool, dump in fermenter, pitch yeast, relax. Its really that simple to start. If you dont enjoy the process then maybe its not for you.

Relax...This is a hobby and supposed to be relaxing and enjoyable.

It is actually pretty difficult to really mess up a brew.

A lot of us just dump everything into the fermenter. It all drops out after fermentation. The yeast packet does not need to be smacked, it will still work. Just let the fermenter sit for a few weeks and it will make beer.

Go buy some craft brews to drink and begin thinking about your next brew. Everything will be fine.

Relax and step away from the fermenter! This is supposed to be fun. Some of my most catastrophic brew days have resulted in yummy kegs of beer. Your job is to get sugary wort in a vessel - the yeast take care of the rest. You are getting hung up on details that just don't matter much - yeast can work around hops and slightly over pitching or under pitching is minuscule difference. Find a place to ferment it at the right temperature and RDWHAHB!!

Trust me, we've all had bad brew days and things go terribly wrong! Don't give up if you seriously want to brew beer, just take it in stride. Definitely agree with either finding a brew club to hook up with or find another bud that might be interested in helping out on brew days and learning with you. I find brewing a lot more enjoyable when there are friends around helping out and drinking along with me

It is a time consuming process but the rewards are awesome! Try and plan out your brew day in advance, get everything cleaned and sanitized an laid out in preparation. Make a list of things that need to be done and the steps to follow that you can check off as you go and stay organized. It was only your fourth batch so there is still learning going on. After several batches your system will fall in to place and things will get smoother as you become more familiar with everything that goes on.

It may also pay to take a short break, do more reading and learning and getting more comfortable with how to do things and then try again. As mentioned there are a lot of things you are doing that can be simplified that would make your day easier and more efficient, lots of advice to be had here, take advantage of it before you spend the money, you'll waste a lot less Cheers!

I think everyone has a few (or many) "f*** this I'm done" moments in this hobby. "Relax don't worry have home brew" are words to live by. I've done just about every stupid, messy, or frustrating thing possible.

3 weeks ago I went to bottle a mead that i'd been conditioning for 7 months. An absolute labor of love that I put waaaayyy too much time and money into. I started racking from secondary (actually tertiary at that point) to the bottling bucket and left the room to finish cleaning bottles. I walk back in after 5 minutes to find mead EVERYWHERE. I left the valve on the bottling bucket on 'open' instead of 'closed' and as soon as it went in the bucket it was back on the floor. F***ing sticky mess from hell all over (like, i cannot stress how everywhere the mess was), not to mention I lost about 1.5 gallons of delicious, expensive mead. I raged for a full evening over it, but having a nearly endless supply of amazing (imho) homebrew in the fridge.

Check out this thread: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f39/what-some-mistakes-you-made-where-your-beer-still-turned-out-great-96780/. Everyone has terrible brew days but most of the time the beer turns out okay. Sometimes it doesn't, but we all mess up and learn in the process.

I agree with everyone's advice so far. Try to find a brew partner or club, try a simple kit, and don't take it too hard if you mess up or if thing don't turn out amazing right away.

My advice would be to keep reading and learning, hone in your process, and wait till you get that first 'Aha!' beer. If you really hate it and find it's not for you, there's no shaming in being a great appreciator of beer and not making it yourself. However, I think with a little more experience you may find that you never want to stop.

Most of all have fun!

duboman said:

Try and plan out your brew day in advance, get everything cleaned and sanitized an laid out in preparation. Make a list of things that need to be done and the steps to follow that you can check off as you go and stay organized. It was only your fourth batch so there is still learning going on. After several batches your system will fall in to place and things will get smoother as you become more familiar with everything that goes on.

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+1! I was typing my response when this was posted but organization and good prep make brew day go so much more smoothly!

Bad brew days make the good brew days all the more sweet. I look back on all of those problematic brew days my brew buddies and I had, and how we learned from the problems, refined our technique and equipment and now our brew days are pretty darn smooth. Hang in there.

Im a a new brewer (5 batches in) and my second was a dark ale extract kit that turned out bad! I couldn't drink it even after it was left for 6 weeks. It really frustrated me and I almost gave up. Luckily my bro in law is experienced in brewing and talked me back into it, and I'm glad he did. Im now looking to get into AG but starting out with doing partial mash. My bro in law is coming round to over look things on brew day. Maybe if you can, ask a pal round to help. I think it will ease the frustration.
Hope you don't give up. And hopefully this brew you have just done turns out great!
I've read stories on here that the brew days that went well turned out bad, and the brew days they went bad turned out great! So all is not lost yet.

Def keep at it if you enjoy it at all. My worst brew day has produced my best beer. The propane manifold started leaking, we cut it off to prevent an explosion, and I had to do my boil on the propane grill in the backyard. Made for a nice long 10 hour brewday, but damn it was good beer, and now I can laugh about it. Once you get a good pipeline of hombrew to drink on its all worth it.

James if I sound like I'm lecturing I apologize but you're being to hard on yourself and this hobby. If ever the RDWHAHB cliché is relevant - This is the time!

To be honest I have no idea why people worry about filtering their wort, to me there are two reasons not to do it and no reasons to filter. #1 - It is an unnecessary frustrating messy PITA. #2 The gunk in the wort, the proteins, hops, yeast or whatever will settle out just fine in little time. Let your beer ferment and clear out 3 weeks and you'll stop worrying about how to make clear beer; it will happen in time and doesn't really make much difference what it starts out looking like.

Their are more important aspects of making good beer like temperature control and sanitation and proper yeast pitch. You worry about that stuff (but not to an extreme) and everything else will fall into place.

Hang in there James! Making beer is a bit time consuming but doesn't have to be frustrating. BTW $70 for a kit? Is that the equipment or just a recipe? If it's both then that's not bad but if it's just a recipe I suggest you shop elsewhere. Seriously.

Glad you posted your frustrations here. It's the right place to do that. Hang in there brewer and you'll laugh about this experience someday.
__________________

james138 said:

I have been working on beer related stuff since 10:30am it's now 4:30! This sucks so hard to put so much freaking work in and was a perfectly beautiful day outside. I'm sorry if I sound angry but this is so frustrating!

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I know how you feel. I brewed today too. I started at 9:00 am and ended at 4:30.

And I liked it.

But maybe brewing isn't for you. Have you tried the hobby of chicken soup? It's my second favorite (almost as time consuming but harder to mess up, quite frankly). Or have you tried not having a hobby? My wife enjoys that, though I don't understand how.

It's easy to let my inner anal perfectionist get in the way of fun. When "he" starts to mess with me by turning this hobby into a stressor, I drown him in a bomber of fine ale and music. Yeast and wort want to become beer!!!

Well thank you everybody for your kind words. I really mean it. I had a good work out and am on my second beer (I know that's counter productive but...) and am a little calmer. The thing that's frustrating is that I do take my time with it and try to plan as best as I can. I like to cook too so I was always have the brew makers version of mise en place. I'm just doing kits, so technically and in theory, this should be pretty easy for me. I guess that why I got so upset because I felt I was prepared, I try to learn from my mistakes and I thought I had accounted for all of them in this batch.

I mean everything was going so well! I was almost done. It was like fumbling on the goal line. I bought a more expensive kit with a higher gravity because I felt I was ready for it. The kit cost around $50 I think and then I bought the wyeast which was like another $7 and like $6 for the stupid filter that failed. The SG of the kit is 1083 and the FG is 1020.

Reading some of your of your advice and anecdotes have helped. I will have to say that out of all the hobbies I have be involved with, this is by far has the best support community behind it. Everybody is so cool and nice and never condescending. This a really nice community to apart of! And no, I'm not drunk! Thanks again and now I plan on getting drunk and listening to the Clash.

Thanks again and now I plan on getting drunk and listening to the Clash

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And dreaming about your next beer stash! Glad you're feeling better James. Brewing beer is suppose to be fun, not some hard game. You are correct about HBT and the people who post here. We're always thinking about our next beer. We brew and talk to each other.. it's a good crowd, I'm not kidding you brother.

Cheers my friend, there is no end. To the things you can do with brew. A lifetime of fun just awaiting. To this - I'm not overstating.

just relax and enjoy the process. ive poured the trub into every beer iv ever made and all my beers came out good. after its formented for a week or two just rack it to a secondary if it needs to clear more or bottling bucket and bottle away just make sure its done fermenting.

james138 said:

Well thank you everybody for your kind words. I really mean it. I had a good work out and am on my second beer (I know that's counter productive but...) and am a little calmer. The thing that's frustrating is that I do take my time with it and try to plan as best as I can. I like to cook too so I was always have the brew makers version of mise en place. I'm just doing kits, so technically and in theory, this should be pretty easy for me. I guess that why I got so upset because I felt I was prepared, I try to learn from my mistakes and I thought I had accounted for all of them in this batch.

I mean everything was going so well! I was almost done. It was like fumbling on the goal line. I bought a more expensive kit with a higher gravity because I felt I was ready for it. The kit cost around $50 I think and then I bought the wyeast which was like another $7 and like $6 for the stupid filter that failed. The SG of the kit is 1083 and the FG is 1020.

Reading some of your of your advice and anecdotes have helped. I will have to say that out of all the hobbies I have be involved with, this is by far has the best support community behind it. Everybody is so cool and nice and never condescending. This a really nice community to apart of! And no, I'm not drunk! Thanks again and now I plan on getting drunk and listening to the Clash.

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sometimes **** happens today i did an all grain wheat. everything was going fairly well to plans. i was all done and i was cooling it down with the wort chiller when i looked over at the table and saw a pre-portioned bag of hops i for got to add. so you know what i did. i laughed at myself and tossed em in. then i went an had a beer.

an imperial heifeveissen (incorrectly spelled on purpose) is a big beer and i am sure you spent a good amount on it. it sucks that it went bad for you. i would suggest a brewing buddy for the bigger brews (friend, bro, SWMBO, etc.) just to give a hand. it took me at least 10 brew-with-a-buddy batches to try one on my own and even then i screwed the pooch when i needed an extra hand.

I'd like to add that after a while you'll start to develop a sort of rythm to your brew day, which will make things go a lot smoother.

Well about 4 hrs after pitching the yeast I'm seeing about 2-3 bubbles a minute, so I hope that's a good sign!

james138 said:

I had a good work out and am on my second beer (I know that's counter productive but...) and am a little calmer.

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Sounds productive to me. It calmed you down, and you're researching future batches.

Glynn said:

sometimes **** happens today i did an all grain wheat. everything was going fairly well to plans. i was all done and i was cooling it down with the wort chiller when i looked over at the table and saw a pre-portioned bag of hops i for got to add. so you know what i did. i laughed at myself and tossed em in. then i went an had a beer.

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Do you know what Glynn?
Your post made me grin!
WE all making brewing mistakes,
It's part of the process we sometimes take.
In brewing adventures we might make a mistake,
We're just brewing a beer that others will take.
To that we do have much fun
Brewing under the big old sun.
Brewers are very clever
I couldn't of said that better.
So who cares if you forgot the hops
Cause you made beer...that means alot!
It happens sometimes,
That are beer is not perfectly happy
Don't let me getting all sappy.
You beer my friend will be quite alright.
I'm quite sure it will be out-of-sight!!!

james138 said:

Well about 4 hrs after pitching the yeast I'm seeing about 2-3 bubbles a minute, so I hope that's a good sign!

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Sounds like a good sign, seems like you've got fermentation under way. Perhaps for future batches as well, especially when you do bigger beers, you may want to do a blow-off tube to make sure you don't have wort and krausen blowing everywhere. Let us know how it turns out!

duboman said:

Try and plan out your brew day in advance, get everything cleaned and sanitized an laid out in preparation. Make a list of things that need to be done and the steps to follow that you can check off as you go and stay organized. It was only your fourth batch so there is still learning going on. After several batches your system will fall in to place and things will get smoother as you become more familiar with everything that goes on.

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Yup, this. We followed this list for about a year I think. There is a lot going on so it is very easy to forget things.

Brewing procedure
At least 2 days before brewing check yeast viability
1 Gather ingredients, water, and equipment
2 Open beer, gotta stay hydrated
3 Start steeping water heating, heat to temp then turn to low
A
4 Put specialty grains into bag
5 Steep grains at suggested temp
6 Start boil water heating
7 Put LME jug in warm water to warm up
8 Set up burner
9 When steeping is done pour grains and steep water through strainer into boil pot
10 Heat till almost boiling
11 Remove from heat then add extract
12 Heat to boil and follow brewing instructions
13 Start top off water boiling with 20 minutes left in boil
14 Place wort chiller in pot 15 minutes before the boil ends
15 Cool wort
16 Sanitize fermenter while wort cools
17 Pour wort into fermenter
18 Sanitize yeast and scissors
19 Top off to 5 gallons with cooled water
20 Check specific gravity, add more water if necessary
17 Pitch yeast
18 Put airlock or blow off tube on fermenter and put in a cool dark place
19 Relax, don't worry, have a homebrew - Charlie Papazian

Dan said:

Do you know what Glynn?
Your post made me grin!
WE all making brewing mistakes,
It's part of the process we sometimes take.
In brewing adventures we might make a mistake,
We're just brewing a beer that others will take.
To that we do have much fun
Brewing under the big old sun.
Brewers are very clever
I couldn't of said that better.
So who cares if you forgot the hops
Cause you made beer...that means alot!
It happens sometimes,
That are beer is not perfectly happy
Don't let me getting all sappy.
You beer my friend will be quite alright.
I'm quite sure it will be out-of-sight!!!

Click to expand...

exactly my point. the whole process is a learning experience. today i over shot my temp on my mash. i was supposed to hit 152 i hit 158 so stirred my rump off and after 3 additions from the garden hose, i hit 153 so i closed the lid and said close enough. first run off gives me 2.5g, now i have too much sparge. i had half of it and my temp is to low. add half more temp still to low. i add all but one half gal temp is 158 still lower than i want it but it will have to do. then i forgot a hop addition. after racking to to primary im short on my volume quantity so i add whats left in my kettle to make up the difference. this was also the first time i did a 1 qt starter which of course brewsmith accounted for but i did not. now i have to much volume. are you reading this op. bottom line it will be ok and it will most likely be a great beer and all my friends and family will love it

Wondering what type of filter you were using... I just use the nylon 5 gal paint strainer bag that fits perfectly into my fermenting bucket. I don't have to worry about pouring the wort into a smaller strainer/filter that gets clogged and starts to back up. Just pour it all into the bucket and lift out the paint strainer bag. Has worked great for me...

james138 said:

I'm sorry if I sound angry but this is so frustrating!

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Waking up very early to find a very angry, very purple raccoon thrashing around in a towel covered must bucket, almost made me give it up years ago. Sometimes there are rough days, but its worth it.

Maybe you need to cut back on the steps a bit and simplify your process. HBT is great and all but it doesn't half seem to convince some brewers that they have to make things a lot harder than they need to.
The whole point of a hobby is to do what you enjoy. You're better off making a slightly imperfect beer if you enjoy making it, than a perfect beer that convinces you to quit the hobby.
I'm probably that one condescending brewer ruining your perception of the community now

yea im about to give up myself.

I have an IPA in bottles- never drank a single 1 yet
I have a Belgium in primary under 1 week
I have a Mr Beer 2 year old kit I boiled up a few days ago
I have Apfelwein I just put in a few days ago.
I have a 5 and 6 gallon BB on the way with another extract
I have a LHBS making me some AG- BIAB for my next mini project
I have an empty bottling bucket and I am getting a lid, airlock for it. And another bucket for more fermentation vessels
I havent sampled a beer from a bottle yet.


And you think you have problems........

mikemet said:

yea im about to give up myself.

I have an IPA in bottles- never drank a single 1 yet
I have a Belgium in primary under 1 week
I have a Mr Beer 2 year old kit I boiled up a few days ago
I have Apfelwein I just put in a few days ago.
I have a 5 and 6 gallon BB on the way with another extract
I have a LHBS making me some AG- BIAB for my next mini project
I have an empty bottling bucket and I am getting a lid, airlock for it. And another bucket for more fermentation vessels
I havent sampled a beer from a bottle yet.

And you think you have problems........

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Just when you think you are done, you add something to the list. Welcome to the hobby! I'd add some form of fermentation temp control as well - knowing what I know now, that and AJ's water primer were the two biggest improvements in my beer.

Hop socks are cheap (.39/ea at my LHBS). I use one for each hop addition. Since I started doing that, my beers have been much clearer and the fermentations have seemed cleaner. Just use your stir spoon to pull them out before you transfer. But AFTER cooling your wort - don't want to lose that whirlpool hop goodness!

Mako - say hi to Jason White when you see him! Wish he coulda made in the NFL, but those things happen. Still one of my favorite Sooners!

EDIT - Oh, and send me a gallon of Braum's Chocolate Chip on dry ice, if ya don't mind!

prrriiide said:

hop socks are cheap (.39/ea at my lhbs). I use one for each hop addition. Since i started doing that, my beers have been much clearer and the fermentations have seemed cleaner. Just use your stir spoon to pull them out before you transfer. But after cooling your wort - don't want to lose that whirlpool hop goodness!

Mako - say hi to jason white when you see him! Wish he coulda made in the nfl, but those things happen. Still one of my favorite sooners!

Edit - oh, and send me a gallon of braum's chocolate chip on dry ice, if ya don't mind!

Click to expand...

Boommmeerrrr! (Sorry OP, had to be done)

james138 said:

Well thank you everybody for your kind words. I really mean it. I had a good work out and am on my second beer (I know that's counter productive but...) and am a little calmer. The thing that's frustrating is that I do take my time with it and try to plan as best as I can. I like to cook too so I was always have the brew makers version of mise en place. I'm just doing kits, so technically and in theory, this should be pretty easy for me. I guess that why I got so upset because I felt I was prepared, I try to learn from my mistakes and I thought I had accounted for all of them in this batch.

I mean everything was going so well! I was almost done. It was like fumbling on the goal line. I bought a more expensive kit with a higher gravity because I felt I was ready for it. The kit cost around $50 I think and then I bought the wyeast which was like another $7 and like $6 for the stupid filter that failed. The SG of the kit is 1083 and the FG is 1020.

Reading some of your of your advice and anecdotes have helped. I will have to say that out of all the hobbies I have be involved with, this is by far has the best support community behind it. Everybody is so cool and nice and never condescending. This a really nice community to apart of! And no, I'm not drunk! Thanks again and now I plan on getting drunk and listening to the Clash.

Click to expand...

I have 10 gallons of "band-aid" beer- my first ever totally ruined batch. I haven't dumped it yet, but I'm going to have to as it's undrinkable. I can pin down what happened (at least, I think so!) and avoid that in the future. At least, I can count it as a learning experience.

I typically don't filter my wort, but leaf hops clog up my system so I started bagging them recently. I don't worry about pellet hops as they go right through just fine. I also don't worry about break material or other stuff, as it'll all settle out in the end with the spent yeast as trub.