Worst Brew Day Ever: Double IPA

Just got home from the most exhausting and frustrating brew days that I have had in my first year of brewing. Here goes a run down of the week leading up to my brew day (5/13/12).

1. Brewing Tasty McDole's Imperial IPA. Started making a 2L starter earlier in the week.

2. Stepped it up once. 24 hours later, I found the starter overflowing. There was tons of crud surrounding my flask and the stir plate.

3. Today. Planned to start brewing around 9am. My friend's brother had a party a few days ago, in which we found that they lost our dip tube for our false bottom and broke our March pump.

4. After my friend's brother helped us make a new dip tube, he let us use his plumber pump.

5. Everything is going ok, until sparge time. The output blew out, spraying beer everywhere. Luckily I was able to turn off the valve.

6. The pump blew out again during the transfer into the fermenter.

7. I was so frustrated and tired, that I did not record my mash temperature or any of my gravities. This entire process took 12 hours. I am so tired.

I just hope fermentation goes well.

Sorry to hear, it seems when things start going downhill on brew day, they just compound! I'll bet the beer turns out fine even with all the glitches.

Thank you. I appreciate the support.

FWIW, about 4 months ago (around the year mark of my brewing), I came to a realization: making better beer is more important to me than just brewing whenever I can. There have been several times since where, having planned a brew day, I've decided to postpone b/c of impending problems and the snowballing effect mentioned in the 2nd post. It has really made my brewing less stressful and more enjoyable, and it lets me focus on my best practices. Just my 2 cents.

Sounds like my brew day last Sunday...

1L starter overflowed the night before. Brew day interrupted by severe weather (I'm a meteorologist), so I mixed in my step-up early, missing my mash temp low by 2 degrees F. Sac rest ended up going 2.5-3 hours while I dealt with severe weather. Pitched yeast around 1am late Sunday night. Tuesday night, krausen clogged my airlock and ended up blowing the lid off my brewing bucket 3 feet from the fermenter (a fact I didn't then notice until I woke on Wednesday morning).

This beer deserves an epic name.

edroberts said:

Sounds like my brew day last Sunday...

1L starter overflowed the night before. Brew day interrupted by severe weather (I'm a meteorologist), so I mixed in my step-up early, missing my mash temp low by 2 degrees F. Sac rest ended up going 2.5-3 hours while I dealt with severe weather. Pitched yeast around 1am late Sunday night. Tuesday night, krausen clogged my airlock and ended up blowing the lid off my brewing bucket 3 feet from the fermenter (a fact I didn't then notice until I woke on Wednesday morning).

This beer deserves an epic name.

Click to expand...

EMA: Epic Mishap Ale?

I gotta ask what was pumped through this "plumber pump" before you used it?

How did those guys lose the dip tube and break the pump?

My worst brew day ever was the first time I tried brewing AG on my own.

I was doing a clone of Founder's Breakfast Stout when the screen in the mash tun got completely clogged and I couldn't fix it - so I had to dump everything back into the boil pot.

I cleaned out the screen (I should have bought a bazooka tube to begin with) and tried it again.

Clogged.

The next time through, while trying to put everything back into the mash tun, I slipped and spilled hot, sticky grain, water, pre-boil wort everywhere. All over my feet, the kitchen floor, on the cabinets, and under the refrigerator.

100% fail and 100% un-salvagable mess.

Learned many lessons since then - but everyone has a bad brew day or two under their belt.

You know this will turn out to be your best beer ever and you'll have to try to reproduce it.

beerkrump said:

You know this will turn out to be your best beer ever and you'll have to try to reproduce it.

Click to expand...

Every time

jtejedor said:

I gotta ask what was pumped through this "plumber pump" before you used it?

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My friend's dad said just plain water. We cleaned it out a few times with brewery wash and sanitizer just to make sure.

I am guessing someone dropped the pump, breaking the pump head. We unscrew the dip tube to clean it after every brew. Someone must have gotten a hold of it and misplaced it.

I thought about cutting my losses and just brewing another day. But the yeast had been sitting at room temperature for a few days on the stir plate, and I did not want to risk losing the yeast. Once I started mashing, I was at the point of no return.

Fermentation started last night and picked up in the morning. This was an expensive beer, and I just hope it is drinkable.

ao125 said:

My worst brew day ever was the first time I tried brewing AG on my own.

I was doing a clone of Founder's Breakfast Stout when the screen in the mash tun got completely clogged and I couldn't fix it - so I had to dump everything back into the boil pot.

I cleaned out the screen (I should have bought a bazooka tube to begin with) and tried it again.

Clogged.

The next time through, while trying to put everything back into the mash tun, I slipped and spilled hot, sticky grain, water, pre-boil wort everywhere. All over my feet, the kitchen floor, on the cabinets, and under the refrigerator.

100% fail and 100% un-salvagable mess.

Learned many lessons since then - but everyone has a bad brew day or two under their belt.

Click to expand...

Ouch. Did you get burned?

I seem to have some bad luck in my last couple of brews. My Marzen and Saison both had a few hiccups that were out of my control. There is nothing like a bad brew day to make you realize that things can, and will go wrong. All we can do is try to learn from our mistakes and move on.

I appreciate all the support guys. If you have any similar stories, please feel free to share.

misled_drummer said:

Ouch. Did you get burned?

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Thankfully, no. For an overweight, balding, 30-something, I'm rather spry.

I'm much less "all thumbs and left feet" now that I'm not brewing in my kitchen anymore.

tre9er said:

EMA: Epic Mishap Ale?

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Fail Ale.

firebirdude said:

Fail Ale.

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That's good... err. wait... bad

IXVolt said:

That's good... err. wait... bad

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That's hilarious! I may use this...

Seems like every brew day I have one thing or another go wrong. I am just used to it now.

jtejedor said:

Seems like every brew day I have one thing or another go wrong. I am just used to it now.

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+1. Something always happens. Last batch I forgot my kettle screen. I've actually done a cooler mash with no manifold (luckily I had a grain bag in there). I have a pretty set routine and if I deviate from it there's no telling what might pop up.

I just try to plan what I can and mcgyver what i can't.

jtejedor said:

Seems like every brew day I have one thing or another go wrong. I am just used to it now.

Click to expand...

It is to be expected. But problems just kept piling on for me that day.

I had a brew day like that a about 6 weeks ago (not nearly as bad though) and it has turned out to be my best batch yet. The dumb thing was it was a 3 gallon batch too! It should have been less hazard prone! I kept good notes, including things like "[fiance] dropped spoon in cooling wort, possible contamination"