petey_c
Senior Member
The worst part. I figured that I'd brew two days in a row this week, it's been a month or so since I last brewed. Originally, I was going to make an American amber ale into a pumpkin brew, but I got "pumpkin-ed" out at the Martha Clara Beer and BBQ fest. I decided to just make the AAA as the instructions called for. The next day, I was going to make a Stone Ruination clone, both from AHS. The AAA went without incident. I also made a one liter starter for the Stone. The next morning, for some reason I woke up at 3 am and couldn't get back to sleep. I figured, I'll pull the LME out of the fridge and let it warm up a little, then start brewing around 5. As I was bringing the LME back into the house, it started to rain a little. I checked the forecast and it said we were due for thunder storms. I thought I might as well bring all the schist up into the house while it's only raining a little. Mission accomplished. With no hope now of getting back to sleep, I started to brew about 4:30. Then it started to rain heavy, then slowed, then heavy, etc. At the end of the boil, during one of the slow periods, I went back to the basement to see how the AAA was fairing. There was a flood of about about 5 gallons in the basement creeping towards my son's room. We've had so much rain recently (sorry Midwest) it was seeping/pouring through the walls. I put the pot in the kitchen sink and turned on the immersion chiller, figuring I'll get him started with flood control and come right back up in time to let some of the water drain out of the sink (cue torrential downpour). As I'm showing him what I need to do, I looked back towards the laundry area and saw more water. Great, the walls are leaking in another spot. I walked over to take a look and saw water leaking from the ceiling. The roof is leaking?! Oh schist! I left the water running for the chiller! Now I have two spills to clean up. I ran upstairs to find my wife holding the chiller hose out the window asking me, "What the hell are you doing?". Go outside to turn off the hose spigot, then race back to the basement to help my son with a towel/bucket brigade. Then back upstairs to help the wife (repeat several times). Once I got the wife/kitchen calmed down, I went back to work with my son. All in all, I lost an hour. The rest of the brew day went smoothly, despite being completely soaked.
The better part. A couple of hours later I saw that the airlock was slowly starting to bubble. Cool, the starter worked. Seven hours later foam was pushing it's way through my three piece airlock. I had my bottling bucket transfer hose to use as a blow off tube into a bucket of starsan. My most vigorous fermentation so far. (60 brews/250 gallons)
The better part. A couple of hours later I saw that the airlock was slowly starting to bubble. Cool, the starter worked. Seven hours later foam was pushing it's way through my three piece airlock. I had my bottling bucket transfer hose to use as a blow off tube into a bucket of starsan. My most vigorous fermentation so far. (60 brews/250 gallons)
