My worst brew day

What the f*ck just happened...?

I can't believe I actually thought I could do two batches back to back after working 10 hrs. I barely survived the first.

In 20 or so AG batches I've never had absolutely nothing come out of the valve when I was trying to sparge. Unreal. I dumped the entire mash back into the kettle, a portion of which went down my arm, cleaned out the mash tun and... same exact thing two times in a row. Still no idea what the issue was.

Only thing that saved me was my BIAB bag. Although I effed that up the first time too. Lined a bucket with it and tried to dump 5 gallons of mash in it, well... needless to say, the bag didn't stay put around the edge of the bucket. Second attempt, used binder clips on the edges of the kettle and that worked... after I sat there and squeezed all the wort out.

Started to feel better at that point, as my pre-boil gravity was 1 point off. I didn't even get cocky either - worked my ass off to make sure hops were measured, chiller was ready, etc.

Apparently I didn't boiloff enough, ended up with more like 6 gallons of 1.070 wort - was shooting for 5.25 with an OG of 1.080. Then realized I didn't have any 1/2" tubing to fashion a blowoff. Pretty sure I made my star san solution too strong tonight too because I was too pissed off to measure it right (and it's almost out, so it takes 9 thousand pounds of pressure to squeeze it up into the measuring cup portion of the bottle). So everything smells like a f*cking indoor pool. I'm sure that will be great.

Stuck the airlock in the bucket grommet and pushed the o-ring through. So that's floating around in there now, sweet. Anyone know what size o-ring that was so maybe I can buy another one and have a proper seal at the top of my POS bucket?

Finally just said f*ck it and cleaned up and left the bucket down there... the yeast will eat it and make beer, I'm sure - but I hate this batch with a passion right now. If it turns out terrible - hey! I only wasted about a pound of leaf hops! Ugh.

And when I was cleaning my false bottom & mash tun - I noticed absolutely nothing clogging it up. So I guess I'm just in bizarro anti gravity world. That POS is going to end up in the brew kettle doing leaf hop filtering duty and I'll just mash with my grain bag in the cooler.

Time for a homebrew...make that several

I had to dump out my mash tun into a BIAB bag once too. Just try to relax and move forward. In the end the batch will probably still turn out good. A bad day of brewing is better than a good day at work anytime! You might want to consider looking into trying rice hulls if you haven't already..

sounds like a rough day... sorry to hear

I'm not worried about it, just frustrated. I've brewed enough to know it'll probably turn out fine - it was just the endless barrage of stupid little stuff.

I've really never been satisfied with my false bottom either and I think this might be the straw that breaks the camel's back. I don't know what I am doing wrong, but it's rare that I have zero issues & zero grain bits in the kettle. I must've vorlaufed for 1-2 gallons.

As far as "time for a homebrew" - I wish! I'm brewing cause the pipeline is empty. I have some craft beer though so I guess that helps the pain, lol.

Thanks for allowing me to ***** and moan. Even my nipples are chafed right now. I don't know what that has to do with anything but it's happening and it's just another sign that makes me say screw this whole night.

But for real - does anyone know if the o-rings that go in a fermenter bucket grommet are a commonly found part? If so - can someone post the size? (I should probably do a search too). I'd like to make my fermenter less janky in the morning when I'm in a better frame of mind. Maybe grab a piece of 1/2" tubing from Menards too... Pseudo open fermenting right now... ha

Burgs said:

But for real - does anyone know if the o-rings that go in a fermenter bucket grommet are a commonly found part? If so - can someone post the size? (I should probably do a search too). I'd like to make my fermenter less janky in the morning when I'm in a better frame of mind. Maybe grab a piece of 1/2" tubing from Menards too... Pseudo open fermenting right now... ha

Click to expand...

Do you mean o-rings or rubber grommets? They have rubber gromets at Lowes, but i'm not sure the size. I think it's 5/16 ID, but I don't really remember..

EDIT: Ok I went and found a grommet I bought at Lowes. It's 11/16 OD by 3/8 ID..

Whatever was in the lid of my run of the mill 6.5 gallon bucket fermenter. I guess it would be a grommet, not an o-ring. Thank you!

They're pretty common, i think my lhbs carries them for 50c.

I feel for you. I had a pretty crappy one recently, too. Sometimes I wonder why I bother, but that usually only lasts until I drink one.

All that grommet does is form a seal for the airlock that bubbles so you can see that it is working. Tape 3 sides of a piece of plastic wrap over the opening on the bucket and you have a cheapo airlock that won't clog up if your krausen gets crazy.