Worst Part About Homebrewing

In your opinion, what is the worst part about homebrewing. For me, I think it has to be bottling. I did it again yesterday, and am considering to going to kegging just becuase it might be less of a hassle.

Does anyone else have any other thoughts about their worst part of homebrewing?

Just wondering.

1. Running out of beer.
2. Having to wait for new beer to finish.

Seriously, bottling sucks. That's why so many of us buy kegging systems eventually.

But you can minimize the stress of bottling day by making a bottling bucket, using a rinseless sanitizer like Star San, buying/making a bottling tree, etc.

Hm, the worst part about homebrewing...kinda like asking "what's the worst part about inheriting a million bucks?"

Bottling isn't the most fun activity in the world, but for me, it's a zen experience. You just have to make the most of it. I retire to my brewhouse, put on a nice album on my iPud or even an audiobook, pour myself a nice big fat homebrew, and get in the zone.

No, I'd have to say the worst part about homebrewing is making a kickass batch of beer and taking the utmost care with it, only to have it get infected. Believe me, that's worse than bottling for an hour.

That having been said...I've spent the better part of today working on my kegerator conversion

The worst part? Running out of the best beer you've ever made.

The best part? How much fun it is to brew more.

the_bird said:

The worst part? Running out of the best beer you've ever made.

The best part? How much fun it is to brew more.

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Second worst part: the second batch not living up to the first...

Evan! said:

Second worst part: the second batch not living up to the first...

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That's actually completely true. "MITRB II" was not nearly as good as "MITRB I". Time for #III....

In a word

"waiting".

Nearly all the problems posted on the board can be solved by this, yet we keep sampling after 1 week .

Total agreement- I hate waiting, it is the worst part but also fairly easy to get over by brewing another batch or reading BHT ^^

The most irritating thing has to be waiting. But the worst, worst, worst thing would surely be having to throw out a batch you've lovingly created because it was infected.

Bottling's a pain in th'arse, but getting no-rinse sanitiser and a buddy to do the capping makes it much easier.

The "worst" part of homebrewing, is when someone finds out that I brew and they ask: "what kind of beer can you brew??" My answer: What kind do you want?

Infections or Off flavors,

And cleaning, hate it.

Waiting isn't so bad if you brew enough to always have beer!

I hate botteling, clean up after brewing and having a beer not turn out as good as i hoped.

I would say cleaning up the mess after I make a batch ... but I live with it since it's a part of brewing life.

Having to buy beer because you floated your last keg, and you have nothing in the pipeline...

For me it is the wait until my next brewing opportunity. My schedule is so screwy I have to plan in advance when I will have a day I can spend devoted to brewing.

GT

Having to clean and sanitize a bunch of crap just to do one simple task.

Today I need to clean and sanitize a bottling bucket, siphon tubing, rack my beer into the bottling bucket, clean the 5 gal carboy that the beer just came from, rack the beer back into the carboy.

All just to pitch my Brett.

I know I could get another carboy to alleviate this, but I just don't feel like it right now.

Worst:
Cleaning
All the money I spend on cool new toys

Best:
Everything else

I'd go with bottling as my worst...

And that's why I went to kegging

However, now that I keg, I still bottle about 6-12 beers.. It doesn't seem nearly as bad when you're only doing a few, rather then doing all your beer...

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Ya...definitely the waiting.

I live in the high arctic where there are no beer or liquor stores so when my supply of store bought runs out I have to rely on home brew...this is the exact situation I am in now.

Left the civilized world with 2 flats of Urquel 500ml cans on the 13 of January.

Started a batch of IPA on the 27 January.

Ran out of beer on the 2 February.

Because fermentation went for alot longer than I though, looks like I will not get a chance to bottle till the 12th or the 13th...then 10 more days to get some bubbles.

Hedghog

Waiting for a batch to be ready....

Brewing beer is like sex, even the worst part isn't all that bad given the enjoyment you get from it.

|-|edghog said:

I live in the high arctic where there are no beer or liquor stores so when my supply of store bought runs out I have to rely on home brew...this is the exact situation I am in now.

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Yeesh -- where in the heck are you? I bet you could be a popular guy if your neighbors knew you homebrew.

Or do you have neighbors?

Another time-related item as worst part of hjomebrewing is knowing you won't have enough time to brew because the world rushes in ... (weather, kids, SWMBO, job ... basically all those contingent and unforeseen items in our lives)

But KNOWING you have the time - that can be the best part of homebrewing !

FlyGuy said:

Yeesh -- where in the heck are you? I bet you could be a popular guy if your neighbors knew you homebrew.

Or do you have neighbors?

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I am in Iqaluit, Nunavut Canada at the head of Frobisher Bay.

Giving away alcohol up here would probably get me in hot water with the community...there are no beer or liquor stores up here for a reason.

Besides, the cost of doing a batch of home-brew up here is stupid expensive.

Some examples:
$45 shipping for 7.5lbs of malt extract, 1lb of of specialty grains, yeast and hops
$60 to fill up a tank of propane.

Needless to say...when I make a batch, I don't like giving it away.

Hedghog

Worst part for me is not being able to do a whole batch with in a 10 foot radius. I.E brew outside, ferment and store equipment down in the basemnt, keg, bottle rack, clean upstairs in the kitchen, what a pita, i would love to be able to compelete a beer without it moving veryfar.

|-|edghog said:

I am in Iqaluit, Nunavut Canada at the head of Frobisher Bay.

Giving away alcohol up here would probably get me in hot water with the community...there are no beer or liquor stores up here for a reason.

Besides, the cost of doing a batch of home-brew up here is stupid expensive.

Some examples:
$45 shipping for 7.5lbs of malt extract, 1lb of of specialty grains, yeast and hops
$60 to fill up a tank of propane.

Needless to say...when I make a batch, I don't like giving it away.

Hedghog

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Yeah, I figured you were in NWT or Nunavut. That's why I said you would be a popular guy!

I didn't realize shipping was so much money to the territories. Still, all grain brewing wouldn't be that bad (especially if you could stock up on base malts). I do 6.5 gal boils on the stovetop in the winter, now -- you wouldn't need to go propane.

I am pretty sure if I couldn't buy beer, the cost of making it (even at your shipping prices) would seem like peanuts!

Is it cold enough up there to lager? Ha ha -- just kidding.

Cheers!

FlyGuy said:

Yeah, I figured you were in NWT or Nunavut. That's why I said you would be a popular guy!

I didn't realize shipping was so much money to the territories. Still, all grain brewing wouldn't be that bad (especially if you could stock up on base malts). I do 6.5 gal boils on the stovetop in the winter, now -- you wouldn't need to go propane.

I am pretty sure if I couldn't buy beer, the cost of making it (even at your shipping prices) would seem like peanuts!

Is it cold enough up there to lager? Ha ha -- just kidding.

Cheers!

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As far as doing boils on the stove...don't even get me started on my power bill.

True that on the cost of making a batch up here...every day that goes by without having beer dulls the memory of how much it costs as I anticipate just being able to sit back and have a beer with dinner.

Definitely cold enough for a lager if you could find a spot in a porch for example that wasn't too cold.

Calgary eh? Great town! I have fond memories of Calgary from my posting there with the army. Wish I was living there now!!!

Hedghog

I'd say my least favorite thing but most important part of home brewing is cleaning everything.

I think the worst part is tossing a bad batch - but not knowing why it is bad.

If I see a horse drinking out of my primary, and I pitch yeast on it anyway, well, who am I going to complain too?

But trying to guess what might have gone wrong, or help folks here who don't know why, that sucks.

if a horse was drinking out of my primary i'd kick its ass! hahah the worst part of homebrewing is definately running out of a good beer and having the next batch not be as good. that's the worst. i would say that the worst part of homebrewing is getting too drunk and forgetting a step in the brewing process, (like pitching the yeast!) but i've learned alot about brewing from that.

I'd have to agree with those that said cleaning - but it's not that big of a PITA. I've never bottled more than a 12 pack, so I can't comment on that.

Thinking about it when you can't do it. ie now.

I think a few things tie for top spot:
1) Paying shipping for a few packets of yeast because you forgot to order them the first time.
2) Cleaning up after brewing/bottling. Mostly bottling. Rinsing out the carboy and mopping up the quarter gallon that inevitably got spilled, after an hour of filling and capping, isn't too much fun.

Cleaning
Being poor and driving past the HBS everyday on the way to work

One other thing I though of is that my LHBS is closed on Sunday and Monday. It never fails that I need something from their store when they are closed!

For me, it is removing labels. Some day I will have enough bottles saved up to not have to do it! Also that one time I made an awseum Nut Brown, and it got infected. I was SO looking forward to drinking that!

I was going to complain about the distance to my nearest supply store, but I changed my mind...

Homebrewing is like sex: The worst part about it is you never get to do it enough, so I guess that means I'm +1 for waiting...

Cleaning and sanitizing!We've been doing a batch(12gal)a week for a spell now and beer chores are getting tiresome too(never thought i'd tire of beer chores).
Cheers

The worst part for me is poor planning or when life gets in the way...then I've floated the kegs (usually with the neighbors help) and got nothing in the works!

Waiting...waiting...waiting...

I've never been real good at it...