Worst brew day ever

Ever have one of those brew days that just didnt go right from the start? That was me on Sunday.

It was my first wit in a long time which I was really excited about. I've been tinkering with decoction lately so I planned a protein rest (using flaked wheat, not wheat malt so this was supposed to help). Took out about a gallon and a half of wort to raise to boiling. Ran into the house to grab something, came out and smelled a distinct burning smell. CRAP! The bottom grains of my now boiling decoction were burnt to a crisp.

Figured it would be a total waste to stop now, so I just added my decoction back to my main mash to step up the temp from my 122 to 154. Only problem was, temp only went up to to 140. CRAP! So, I pulled half a gallon of wort, boiled it quick, added it back to the mash. 142. Pulled another half gallon and boiled. 146! CRAP!

Pulled bout a gallon and a half. 146 (yes, after a thorough stirring in of 1.5 gallons o boiling wort, my mash temp dint up at all). Throwing my brew day totally off and not wanting to have a thin-bodied wit, I threw caution to the wind, boiled 2 gallons of water, and finally upped the mash temp to 152. Still no target, but screw it, I'm done.

I sparge as normal. And surprisingly, after adding an additional 2 GALLONS of h2o not planned on, I get the perfect volume in my boil kettle (roughly 9.5 gallons were used to get 5.5 in the fermentor).

Crazy freaking day. At the end of the day, though, my overshot my OG by .002 so I was pretty much spot on despite my snafus. I still hate that my efficiency when using heavy concentrations of wheat is so low (65%), but at least I'm planning on it!

You know, it's been my experience that the worst brewdays (2nd degree burns on my chest, a flood in the house, burned grains) make the best beer!

I've had a few brewdays recently that went like clockwork, and it felt like something was totally wrong!

If I hit my temps exactly, don't have trouble priming my pumps, don't get a stuck sparge, don't have a boilover, and don't spill water over 90% of my laundry room, something just doesn't fill right!

My last one was pretty bad as well. It was the first one where a friend and i started drinking from the beginning, so no surprise that there were screw ups.

It was an imperial oatmeal porter. I forgot to put in the oats. I remembered as i finished pulling the first runnings. So i threw in 2 lbs of oats in with my sparge water and let it sit for half an hour at 168f. Of course i got a stuck sparge after something that stupid. I also realized afterwards that someone messed with my thermometer and my mash was actually at 159 instead of 154. Now fermentation is stuck at 1.040 from 1.080.

Dont drink and brew...

Yooper said:

You know, it's been my experience that the worst brewdays (2nd degree burns on my chest, a flood in the house, burned grains) make the best beer!

Click to expand...

I'll agree with that, some mistakes turn out to be great inventions/innovations. I also have had a couple "disastrous" brews (although they sound insignificant compared to Yooper's) that turned out great.

seabass07 said:

My last one was pretty bad as well. It was the first one where a friend and i started drinking from the beginning, so no surprise that there were screw ups.

It was an imperial oatmeal porter. I forgot to put in the oats. I remembered as i finished pulling the first runnings. So i threw in 2 lbs of oats in with my sparge water and let it sit for half an hour at 168f. Of course i got a stuck sparge after something that stupid. I also realized afterwards that someone messed with my thermometer and my mash was actually at 159 instead of 154. Now fermentation is stuck at 1.040 from 1.080.

Dont drink and brew...

Click to expand...

No way a 159 mash temp left it at 1.040. Look at biermunchers outer limits ops.

HokieBrewer said:

No way a 159 mash temp left it at 1.040. Look at biermunchers outer limits ops.

Click to expand...

Even if 2 lbs of oats were "mashed" at 172 in a 5 gallon batch?

Ipa, not ops. Stupid phone.

seabass07 said:

Dont drink and brew...

Click to expand...

Whoa, whoa, whoa...let's not get crazy here! RDWHAHB right?

I've never not drank while brewing. A couple times it was just a little much, and a couple of those times I made a mistake. Oh well, I've only really had two bad batches of beer ever, and only one that was undrinkable. Just try to limit yourself. Like "Alright, I'm not having one until I get the boil going." Whatever works for you.

lowtones84 said:

Whoa, whoa, whoa...let's not get crazy here! RDWHAHB right?

I've never not drank while brewing. A couple times it was just a little much, and a couple of those times I made a mistake. Oh well, I've only really had two bad batches of beer ever, and only one that was undrinkable. Just try to limit yourself. Like "Alright, I'm not having one until I get the boil going." Whatever works for you.

Click to expand...

True. The problem was that i started from the beginning. So by the time i was doughing in, i was on beer #3. By the end of the mash i was on #5.

Pics of the burns please.

Yooper said:

You know, it's been my experience that the worst brewdays (2nd degree burns on my chest, a flood in the house, burned grains) make the best beer!

I've had a few brewdays recently that went like clockwork, and it felt like something was totally wrong!

If I hit my temps exactly, don't have trouble priming my pumps, don't get a stuck sparge, don't have a boilover, and don't spill water over 90% of my laundry room, something just doesn't fill right!

Click to expand...

mcarb said:

Pics of the burns please.

Click to expand...

Too bad you missed it! Right exactly on my left boob!

The funny(?) part was that I had lifted out the lid of the MLT with the sparge arm shooting 175 degree water right at me. So, I dropped it back on the MLT and tore off my clothes to stop the burning and then ran to the sink to run cold water over my chest. I was naked from the waist up and worried that my sparge was going too fast so I rushed back to turn down the pump.

I finished that brew, but couldn't wear a bra for about two weeks! I have a little scar to remind me of how stupid I can be.

The beer, however, turned out GREAT!

seabass07 said:

True. The problem was that i started from the beginning. So by the time i was doughing in, i was on beer #3. By the end of the mash i was on #5.

Click to expand...

Ah hell... I'm usually on at least number 3 before I even dig my equipment out.

If you can remember racking to the fermentor, the beer is going to suck.

That's my story and I'm sticking to it....

Yooper said:

Too bad you missed it! Right exactly on my left boob!

The funny(?) part was that I had lifted out the lid of the MLT with the sparge arm shooting 175 degree water right at me. So, I dropped it back on the MLT and tore off my clothes to stop the burning and then ran to the sink to run cold water over my chest. I was naked from the waist up and worried that my sparge was going too fast so I rushed back to turn down the pump.

I finished that brew, but couldn't wear a bra for about two weeks! I have a little scar to remind me of how stupid I can be.

The beer, however, turned out GREAT!

Click to expand...

I vote that from this day forward you be required to videotape all of your brew sessions!

seabass07 said:

Dont drink and brew...

Click to expand...

I typically don't follow this advice because...well...I like beer. The sad part about my most recent experience is that I was stone cold sober. Perhpas my lesson should be that I need beer for flawless brew days. Interesting thoughts....

Maybe im just a forgetful drunk!

I brewed my 1st AG 10 gal batch this past Sunday and everything went fine until I attempted to top off my BK with an extra gal of water. I came up slightly short after sparge. Then the entire turkey burner assembly began to buckle under the 11 gal + keggle weight and began to toppple over! I'm holding one keg to use the last last of my sparge water to fill the other while this happened with the gas still going and burning. So I literally drop the keg I'm holding and stop the BK from going over and only spilled a few drops of wort at this point and try to turn off the gas at the same time. It wasn't at boiling but it was pretty damn hot. Lessons learnt: Do not use a regular turkey fryer burner to attempt to support that much weight with heat on it. It will buckle and poop wort all over you! I was able to stabilize it with 2 bricks but I will have to get another burner. The funny thing is that I was more concerned about getting a stuck sparge over anything else due to 20+ lbs of grain I used. That wasn't even that big of an issue. I only got a little under expected OG. Instead of 1.055 it was 1.044. For 10 gal I'm happy with that. As stated above these little lessons are what will make you brew better beer and think about the what ifs and how to avoid them.
beerloaf

subliminalurge said:

Ah hell... I'm usually on at least number 3 before I even dig my equipment out.

If you can remember racking to the fermentor, the beer is going to suck.

Click to expand...

I hope this is true, because this means my oatmeal stout should be great! Hmmm....did I sanitize that bucket or not? (Pretty sure I did.)

Maybe it was a Sunday thing. My brew day last sunday was one of those that didn't go smooth. everything that could go wrong did go wrong!!
but i'm sure I will end up with beer.

Not because anybody is clamoring for a conclusion, but rather because I can't stand unresolved threads...

I kegged my "worst brew day ever" wheat 11 days ago and let the tap start flowing this weekend. SO beyond disappointed!

-The body is thin (as I figured it would be as the damn mash wouldn't raise higher than 150 no matter how much boiling water I added.

-In all my brilliance of that day, I neglected to filter out the bitter orange peel when I racked to primary. So I have essentially been dry-hopping with bitter orange for two weeks. As you might imagine, that imparted a bitterness, that while not overwhelming by any stretch, isn't even close to style.

-The scorching of the grains during decoction imparted a smoky/burnt taste to the beer. It's somewhat subtle, but not subtle enough for anybody to miss.

-I must have fermented too cool for esters and too warm for phenols as my Belgian yeast fermented as clean as any wit I have ever tasted.

So what I have is a low/medium body, smoky, cloudy, bitter, mildly Belgian-y wit. Sounds marketable, huh?

The good news is that for some strange reason, my wife actually doesn't think it's all that bad and prefers it to the doppelbock and IPA I currently have on tap (not because those aren't good, mind you, she just doesn't like those styles).

I think going forward, I'm going to call this an experimental "smoked wheat" to anybody that samples it.

Moral of the story: don't ever attempt to brew without drinking any beer. The beer gods do not like it and things do not turn out well!