First failed brewday

Well tonight was going to be an impromptu brew session. I decided about 5:30 to go ahead and do it because I was too excited to wait for the weekend. Everything was going well until I realized my propane tank was leaking so I ran to the hardware store to replace it (put me back 30 min). Then, while waiting for the water to drop to proper dough-in temp, my lautering manifold fell off. So I had to dump the water into a bucket to re-attach the manifold. The process of doing this dropped my water temperature too much so I was about put it back on the burner to re-heat when I noticed I had broken my only thermometer. At this point it was 8:00PM and I hadn't even started mashing. If I didn't have to work tomorrow this wouldn't have stopped me. Blah.

Damn tuff luck there... must be a sign to drink some beer instead....

Yep, I agree with brewagentjay; have a beer.

This just means you got all of your bad luck out of the way now so the next brew day shouldn't have any of these problems.

My advice: Never start brewing unless you have PLENTY of time. If you start rushing, or have a deadline, Murphy will get ya, every time!

so did you boil it down and pitch yeast? I have run into a number of problems when making beer...

WHEN ALL ELSE FAILS, BOIL AND ADD YEAST.

it will make SOMETHING. The only throw away circumstance I can think of is scorched beer... or maybe like your buddy vomited into the brew kettle.

I would try to avoid activities like driving, cooking, shaving, etc. today...just in case.

Cpt_Kirks said:

My advice: Never start brewing unless you have PLENTY of time. If you start rushing, or have a deadline, Murphy will get ya, every time!

Click to expand...

In case you haven't heard, they've change the term for Murphy's Law when applied to Brewing. It is now called Homer's Law!

I usually brew when I am least prepared and usually pay for it one way or another. I've been more successful as time goes on, but there is usually something that doesn't go just the way I want.

Last brew I broke my thermometer. It was a cheap Wally World cooking thermometer and the lead broke to the sensor. I had a sensor from the last thermometer, but it didn't fit. Some day I will get a nice waterproof, fast-reading thermometer.

First failed brewday? Sounds like a successful dry run to me. You found two major weak links in your brewing process and fixed them paving way for a more successful weekend.

My last brewday resulted in my wort chiller spewing hot water all over my hand because I overlooked a bad joint. Won't do that again.

(note: if you see the the exit tubing on your wort chiller sliding off, and you just started the water through it, don't grab it with your bare hand. It's probably really hot.)

I got myself 2 propane tanks...in addition to the propane tank for my grill. This eliminates any problems associated with running out of gas.