brew day from hell

can it get any worse?? first i realize oh crap i didnt put grains in first before water with lautern tun (zap pap) so i had to think fast and grab an other bucket although it doesnt have a spigot! any ideas on how to get water out? lol (this guy is screwed).. then i break my hydrometer! its only 10 am and i think i need a home brew

That's your problem. You shouldn't even lift a bucket before you have a homebrew.

Should of had a few homebrew first.

I had a rough one last time I brewed.

First AG weighing my own grain, I assumed I could use a bathroom scale and just subtract the weight of the bucket. The theory makes sense, but it didn't work out in reality. Then while milling, I got a chunk of plastic or something in my mill, so it wasn't working like it should. After troubleshooting that, and getting ground up all of my grain, I filled my MLT and added my water, Boy this is doughy! I ended up with 25lb of grain (twice my recipe) in my MLT, so I add more water... Then after I finished mashing, the sparge went well, aside from burning my hand lifting hot vessels, etc, but I need a pump. After burn-care, I got quite a few boil-overs. Then I ended up only getting half of my wort out of my kettle because my hoses got clogged with hop leaves (I should have been using pellet, decided to try whole-leaf). I tried to use my pickup tube to drain the kettle - no dice, and that's now melted.

I ended up using 25lb of grain, burning my hand, breaking a drill (that I didn't really want, but meh), and only getting half of the wort out. It was a rough day. I learned a lot, but boy...

Now my wish list includes a pump, a pickup tube, and a scale, in addition to the previous entries!

tommyguner03 said:

can it get any worse?? first i realize oh crap i didnt put grains in first before water with lautern tun (zap pap) so i had to think fast and grab an other bucket although it doesnt have a spigot! any ideas on how to get water out? lol (this guy is screwed).. then i break my hydrometer! its only 10 am and i think i need a home brew

Click to expand...

Wait whats the big deal putting the water in first? I always put the water in first makes zero difference

I was thinking the same thing...

Gary

lawngnomehitman said:

I had a rough one last time I brewed.

First AG weighing my own grain, I assumed I could use a bathroom scale and just subtract the weight of the bucket. The theory makes sense, but it didn't work out in reality. Then while milling, I got a chunk of plastic or something in my mill, so it wasn't working like it should. After troubleshooting that, and getting ground up all of my grain, I filled my MLT and added my water, Boy this is doughy! I ended up with 25lb of grain (twice my recipe) in my MLT, so I add more water... Then after I finished mashing, the sparge went well, aside from burning my hand lifting hot vessels, etc, but I need a pump. After burn-care, I got quite a few boil-overs. Then I ended up only getting half of my wort out of my kettle because my hoses got clogged with hop leaves (I should have been using pellet, decided to try whole-leaf). I tried to use my pickup tube to drain the kettle - no dice, and that's now melted.

I ended up using 25lb of grain, burning my hand, breaking a drill (that I didn't really want, but meh), and only getting half of the wort out. It was a rough day. I learned a lot, but boy...

Now my wish list includes a pump, a pickup tube, and a scale, in addition to the previous entries!

Click to expand...

Sounds rough.

Grab a couple paint strainer bags for hops.
I use a $10 digital scale that measures grams for hops and up to 11lbs for grain.

lawngnomehitman said:

Then I ended up only getting half of my wort out of my kettle because my hoses got clogged with hop leaves (I should have been using pellet, decided to try whole-leaf).

Click to expand...

I actually used the protective cover that our new Food Saver came in to make small single-use hops bags. It looked like cotton so I washed it, dried it and cut it into small squares. Weighed hops in, some twine to close it and into the pot when required. Worked great and worked as a filter too! However, I also lost about 1.5gal in my kettle due to a clogged mesh hose... I'm thinking about pouring it (the remainder) through a strainer next time...

I was taught to put the water in my MLT first. To preheat it then stir in the grains real good.

Yeah I have also seen the debate of putting grain into water or water into grain and the conclusion has always been it doesnt really matter as long as each way is done slowely to prevent dough balls. Thats just what I`ve read though. Maybe I am misunderstanding the op but also why could the water not just have been poured back into the hlt and then into the mlt after the grain was added if thats the way they wanted to go. So confused

I got ya beat. My last brew: I had just started chilling. I noticed the input to my immersion chiller was leaking a bit. I leaned over with a screw driver to tighten the worm clamp. Little did I know that output hose was kinked down stream. The pressure and heat caused the output hose right by the chiller to explode, spraying my face with near-boiling water. Trip to ER. 2nd degree burns on forehead and nose, 1st degree everywhere else. Luckily, I closed my eyes in time, so no vision issues.

Got a good name for my 1st pilsner, though: Pain Pils.

Man, compared to these my brew days go GREAT! I haven't had these types of issues. (Knock on kettle.)

Biggest problem I've had to fight through was when I overmilled my grain and had to constantly run a spoon along my kettle screen to keep the pump going for my HERM.

Pain in the butt, but man did I come out with some amazing efficiency that day. I did also end up with a trub from hell with that batch.

at first i did add water then grain and i was mixing in and realized this isnt going to work so i figured to switch out and dump water on top of grain .. this worked better for me although i did mash for more than hour!! although everything in the end worked out just not sure what i hit on efficiency and my abv .. this is also my first all grain batch this is was a learning experience.. maybe next i will add in water first and see what happens from there

"First AG weighing my own grain, I assumed I could use a bathroom scale and just subtract the weight of the bucket. The theory makes sense, but it didn't work out in reality." I don't get it, why wouldn't this work?

tommyguner03 said:

at first i did add water then grain and i was mixing in and realized this isnt going to work so i figured to switch out and dump water on top of grain .. this worked better for me although i did mash for more than hour!! although everything in the end worked out just not sure what i hit on efficiency and my abv .. this is also my first all grain batch this is was a learning experience.. maybe next i will add in water first and see what happens from there

Click to expand...

Either way works. Just make sure that you stir it up really really good to make sure you have no grain balls.

DrunkleJon said:

I was taught to put the water in my MLT first. To preheat it then stir in the grains real good.

Click to expand...

Exactly, I think this is actually easier than pre-heating with boiling water, pouring it out, adding grains, then adding water...

I posted awhile back about what was the WORST and most frustrating brew day I've ever EVER had.. but the beer came out AMAZING, and was a lot stronger than my gravity calculations led me to believe..

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f14/murphys-law-beer-251503/

One time, just as I mashed in 26lbs of grain, a snow storm hit. It was like "Well, I'm committed now........" Rushed to set up a shelter in the back yard so I could sparge and boil without snow blanketing me. It was an interesting brewing experience.

It seems that the only real problem the OP had was the broken hydrometer. All the rest were bad reactions to the idea that there is a need to add water to grain or to add grain to water. It makes no difference.

kh54s10 said:

It seems that the only real problem the OP had was the broken hydrometer. All the rest were bad reactions to the idea that there is a need to add water to grain or to add grain to water. It makes no difference.

Click to expand...

true!!.. i went in rewind in my head and thought to myself wait i am a dumb as*!! oh well .. fermenting seems to be going well .. now its a wait and see how well it actually is .. very interesting on what my efficiency would of been

Another vote for water first, then grain. You can slow add your grain whilst stirring the dickens out of things which all but eliminates doughball potential. I'd go so far as to say it's the favored way of doing things. Certainly is for me at least.

ok now this brew OG is suppose to be at 1.060 since i broke my hydrometer i have no idea what my OG is .. well on another note i wake up this morning and check and holy cow i need to put a blow off tube in .. has anyone experienced a blowoff at 1.060?

Sure. I've had to use a blowoff at all different gravities. Seems to be more correlated with the type of yeast and pitching rates.