Worst Brew Day Yet (aka don't brew outside when it is 15 degrees)

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CoalCreekBeer

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I just wanted to relate my experience brewing this weekend.

My Brother and I brew 11 gallon batches, and split them, we have found this to be much quicker then brewing 2, 5 gallon batches the same day.

As we have both just converted to kegging recently, we came to the realization that we only have 2 kegs on tap, with nothing in the pipeline. The fear of having nothing available when those kegs blow was horrifying to say the least, especially since I am on vacation in 2 weeks.

So Thursday we decided to Brew on Saturday, the weather didn't look like it was going to be too horrible, we have always brewed outside, and take measures to ensure our warmth (Tarp city with heaters).

Anyway, we decided on a mild, for a quick turn around time, and agreed to run down to the HBS to grab our ingredients Saturday morning. Well Saturday morning came around, and it was freaking COLD! At 8am it was a whopping 8 degrees. I called my brother, we discussed the situation, and stupidly decided to brew.

Long Story short, by the time we got our ingredients and got set up to brew (Tarp City and all) it was about 11:30am, much later then we wanted to going, not too horrible, since our brews usually take about 4 hrs now.

Everything was going good, got our mash finished, got our boil going, everything was going to plan. We had a 90 Minute boil, and decided to go inside to look online (here) and warm up. When we went outside to check our boil, well there wasn't one, the propane ran out...Grrr. Not a big deal, we had a back up propane tank on the grill, so a quick swap and bam, back to boiling, minor setback, not a big deal. Go back inside, warm up for a bit, go back out, and once again, boil is dead. Propane tank is done. Being as that was the last propane tank my brother had, I drove to my place to grab one of my tanks (hurray I had one!). I don't live very far, bout a mile as the crow flies, but we are in the mountains, so it was still about 5 miles round trip. Get to my place try to grab the tank off my grill, and low and behold, the tank is FROZEN to my Grill! Not a big deal, but now the irritation is starting to build.
Got the tank free after a few minutes of pounding and banging and got our fuel over to my brothers house.

Hurray, we finished our boil!
Crap time to cold crash it.
We are very good about draining the garden hose to run to the immersion chiller. However, during our last brew, we didn't do a good enough job of it, frozen solid, no chance in hell of us using the chiller without taking all of the hose and dumping it in the hot tub for 10-15 minutes.

Well at this point, instead of trying to get the hose in the hot tub, we decided it would be easier and quicker to drop our keggle into the snow, we have had excellent success with this before in the past when we were doing 5 gallon batches. We should have thawed the hose.

Our typical time with the chiller of going from boiling down to 75 is about 7-8 minutes. When we tried the snow bank method with 5 gallons it took us about 10-12 minutes. Apparently the "thermoconductivness" (my word, I am using it) of a keggle with 12 gallons of boiling wort is pretty bad. Not only is 12 gallons of wort heavy as hell to be dropping into snow carefully so as not to spill, it also seems to take about an hr to get it to 90 degrees.

At this point we were just tired, and irritated. We called it at 90 degrees as being good enough, siphoned into the carboys, closed them, and left them till morning to pitch our yeast. We did no clean up, just left everything where it was and called it a day. My Brothers keeper, wasn't overly thrilled with this, but I think we were both past the point of caring.

Our 4 hr brew day turned into 7.5 hrs of brewing without actually finishing.

Word to the wise, do not brew outside when it is that cold, you will get much less propane out of your tanks (Lesson Learned!!!) And the best drained hose is worthless. Not to mention, your favorite beverage gets too cold to actually enjoy, had to set my beer on top of the little kerosene heater to make it drinkable (FU Coors and your blue mtns!)

I hope this huge post will help someone else from making the same mistake, we wont make it again (30 is a good temp to brew at :))
 
Coldest it gets here is in the 40's but usually at this time of year it's high 50's low 60's and was actually in the 70's when I brewed last week. I can't even imagine finishing a brew and then scrubbing my kettle in that kinda cold. Damn!
 
I've done down to the teens w/o much trouble. A beer kozie helps keep the beer warm. I am pretty good about draining hoses. You also have to remember where I put them...so you know what pile of snow it is now under....
 
If it ever gets that cold here in Tallahassee I am going to call in sick to work and go south to the Key's
 
Hat's off to you for brewing in the cold, I'm spoiled and get a bit whiny when temps drop to the high 30's. Sorry to hear of all the problems, well written story, like your humor. Pretty sure your beer is going to turn out great and next time you brew you'll probably take into account the prep factors a little better. It's a win win situation!
 
Hat's off to you for brewing in the cold, I'm spoiled and get a bit whiny when temps drop to the high 30's. Sorry to hear of all the problems, well written story, like your humor. Pretty sure your beer is going to turn out great and next time you brew you'll probably take into account the prep factors a little better. It's a win win situation!

Prep Factors Check List:

1. Make sure it is at least in the 30's.

2. Pre-Thaw Hose in Hot Tub (Add at same time as immersion chiller).

3. Multiple Full Propane tanks on hand every brew, just in case.

4. Set up heated beer cozy, so the beer you are drinking does not become to cold.

Yea, think we can handle this :)
 
Thread Jacker!!!!!

Only thing I have to say after watching that video is you really need to follow Step #4 in my above Prep Factor Check list. Frozen beer sucks!

Last Winter we did see -36 with -70 windchill, we were not brewing at that time, and if we were, we still wouldn't have been brewing :)

You folks in Wisconsin are insane.
I am sure it was fun, I could see myself being insane enough to brew on a lake with those temps. However I bet you wont do it again :)
 
Born and raised in the Durango area and I wish I still had that kind of weather, every brew I have done in Alaska so far has been in the winter time, I cant even open my garage without everything freezing alot of the time. I use ALOT of propane and EVERYTHING is done inside, its a pain but its my only choice :)
 
Kevin, you are to homebrewers what sugar is to a cookie..

Nope, that sounds gay as He**..

Uhumm Kevin, Beer is good, God is Great, People are crazy...

Keep homebrewing no matter what the temp is.

Cheers Bro :mug:
 
First saw this thread on my phone at work and didn't post, made me laugh. I learned the hard way to plan for some of this stuff being a MN brewer who brews year around, doesn't matter if its 100 or -10. Tub of water helps with tank freezeup and the hose is always kept inside. Snow helps cooling as long as you keep shoveling new snow against the kettle as it melts (that is what my assistant brewer is for).
 
I spent 20 years in boy scouts, we go on excursions in the winter called freezouts...-10 deg on a couple of occasions..cleaning pots and pans, even changing your skivies is a damn chore. Dish water was getting Icy in mins....I salute your brew effort, and understand completely where you're coming from. It makes for one hell of a story.
 
oh please I brewed yesterday outside in two foot of snow. I had to shovel a path just to get to the propane tank. The brew went as normal 3.5 hours in total. Learn to embrace the no chill method.
 
I had a similar experience a few weeks ago. I'm in Aurora, CO and I started my brew when the sun was out. Had no idea it was supposed to snow that day.

Long story short, everything took FOREVER!!!

Side note: My wife made a comment on Sunday about washing the cars. It was sunny out, heck I even wore short sleeves and no jacket to church. When I started washing (with those yellow dish gloves on) it was fine but it got cold fast. Pretty sure my fingertips were on the first stage of frostbite.

Good thing is I didn't have to dry the cars, the water just froze onto them!
 
First saw this thread on my phone at work and didn't post, made me laugh. I learned the hard way to plan for some of this stuff being a MN brewer who brews year around, doesn't matter if its 100 or -10. Tub of water helps with tank freezeup and the hose is always kept inside. Snow helps cooling as long as you keep shoveling new snow against the kettle as it melts (that is what my assistant brewer is for).

Oh we were shoveling, and stirring, the damn thing just wouldn't cool for us
When we lost our boil, it dropped 10 degrees in just a few minutes, when we wanted it to cool, it didn't, I swear physics were working against us that day.
 
Yeah, I'm a newer brewer (October '11) and I haven't brewed a batch when it was warmer than 10 degrees yet..

I think the biggest potential failure point in my brew day is getting enough BTUs in the wort to keep'er boilin'. I have to crank my turkey frier on full blast.....can't wait for my banjo equipped brew stand to build itself...

Happy Brewing.
 
Yeah, I'm a newer brewer (October '11) and I haven't brewed a batch when it was warmer than 10 degrees yet..

I think the biggest potential failure point in my brew day is getting enough BTUs in the wort to keep'er boilin'. I have to crank my turkey frier on full blast.....can't wait for my banjo equipped brew stand to build itself...

Happy Brewing.
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B000291GBQ/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20

Ive got this, it keeps a 10 gallon boil going with the valve barely cracked, and its free shipping up here. Just in case your interested.
 
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