Well, yesterday was an Epic brew day for me and it ended in tragedy. I lost a beautiful batch of homebrew.
I have been fascinated with homebrewing since I was given a Mr. Beer kit about five years ago. I only recently began racing full throttle into the obsession for the past 9 months. I have dedicated an area in my garage to extract five-gallon brewing, kegging, and bottling. I have started brewing one as well as two-and-a-half trial batches also. I try to design my own recipes using beersmith, and look forward to building a fermentation chamber and expanding to all grain brewing over the next few years.
But I digress...
In honor of Big Brew Day, I set out to brew two 1-gallon batches and one 2.5-gallon batch yesterday. I wasn't able to dedicate the time on Saturday. The first batch was a basic wheat recipe with hopes of adding a blueberry addition in the fermenter. The brew went off without a hitch. Great boil, cooling, wort transfer and yeast pitch. Quick re-clean and sanitize for the equipment, then off to batch number two. This one was an experimental amber ale with simcoe and a touch of various crystal malts. Again, no hiccups.
The second batch was into the fermentor and everything had another round of cleaning/sanitizing. The final batch was an ode to the incredible spring weather we have been having here in upstate NY, as we transition to summer - a farmhouse saison with no spices and a charge of zythos to play off of the yeast character. Deep orange in color with some steeped caramunich and a bit of wheat. The wort tasted delucious, and I was already envisioning turbulent flow from the blow off tube the next morning as the creamy yeast starter of belgian saison 2 was gently being poured into my 3 gallon glass carboy.
Then, it happened. My day turned in an instant from a glorious celebration of my most rewarding hobby, to a night of horrific despair.
Somewhere between gathering my blowoff assembly and pitching the yeast, that carboy still glistening with starsan slipped from my hands, and went crashing to my concrete garage floor. With it, and it's newly arranged five hundred pieces, went that gorgeous brew. Speading its sticky liquid tendrils of 1.048 gravity yeast food into every crevice within a six foot radius. I stood there speechless for a moment, frozen, before darting around gathering up towels and a broom.
I addressed the chore at hand full of gloom, as my SWMBO, looked on with pure sorrow. She confessed later that she was sure I was going to shed some tears. I believe that the mantra of the great Charlie P. repeating through my mind was what kept me from losing all hope and any reward from my brew day.
I was able to hold back any weeping, but my metaphorical homebrew flag is at half-staff today. I ask you all to raise that next glass in memory of not only my fallen batch, but to all of those fallen batches that have came and went - well before their prime.
R.I.P. batch #19
I have been fascinated with homebrewing since I was given a Mr. Beer kit about five years ago. I only recently began racing full throttle into the obsession for the past 9 months. I have dedicated an area in my garage to extract five-gallon brewing, kegging, and bottling. I have started brewing one as well as two-and-a-half trial batches also. I try to design my own recipes using beersmith, and look forward to building a fermentation chamber and expanding to all grain brewing over the next few years.
But I digress...
In honor of Big Brew Day, I set out to brew two 1-gallon batches and one 2.5-gallon batch yesterday. I wasn't able to dedicate the time on Saturday. The first batch was a basic wheat recipe with hopes of adding a blueberry addition in the fermenter. The brew went off without a hitch. Great boil, cooling, wort transfer and yeast pitch. Quick re-clean and sanitize for the equipment, then off to batch number two. This one was an experimental amber ale with simcoe and a touch of various crystal malts. Again, no hiccups.
The second batch was into the fermentor and everything had another round of cleaning/sanitizing. The final batch was an ode to the incredible spring weather we have been having here in upstate NY, as we transition to summer - a farmhouse saison with no spices and a charge of zythos to play off of the yeast character. Deep orange in color with some steeped caramunich and a bit of wheat. The wort tasted delucious, and I was already envisioning turbulent flow from the blow off tube the next morning as the creamy yeast starter of belgian saison 2 was gently being poured into my 3 gallon glass carboy.
Then, it happened. My day turned in an instant from a glorious celebration of my most rewarding hobby, to a night of horrific despair.
Somewhere between gathering my blowoff assembly and pitching the yeast, that carboy still glistening with starsan slipped from my hands, and went crashing to my concrete garage floor. With it, and it's newly arranged five hundred pieces, went that gorgeous brew. Speading its sticky liquid tendrils of 1.048 gravity yeast food into every crevice within a six foot radius. I stood there speechless for a moment, frozen, before darting around gathering up towels and a broom.
I addressed the chore at hand full of gloom, as my SWMBO, looked on with pure sorrow. She confessed later that she was sure I was going to shed some tears. I believe that the mantra of the great Charlie P. repeating through my mind was what kept me from losing all hope and any reward from my brew day.
I was able to hold back any weeping, but my metaphorical homebrew flag is at half-staff today. I ask you all to raise that next glass in memory of not only my fallen batch, but to all of those fallen batches that have came and went - well before their prime.
R.I.P. batch #19
