What steps of the brewing process annoy you to no end?

Ok, so we all know brewing has so many upsides, but is there anything you dread doing during the brewing process?

For me, it's connecting/disconnecting siphon tubing from my auto-siphon/racking cane/racking spigot. I HATE doing that. I invariably scratch the skin right off of my fingers, because the tubing is JUST too small.

How about the rest of you?

Why do you take the tubing off your racking cane??

I HATE cleanup!

Yeah, SPARGING. I have no sparge wand or whatever you want to call it. And I have no spigot on my brew kettle so sparging is done by syphoning the water over my grain bed with a 3/8" hose and a towel wrapped around the hose so I dont get burned with the 170deg water. Quite the PITA for a 5.5gal Partial Mash Batch.

1.Trying to find leaks in the kegger.
2. Cleaning the wort chiller.

Hmm... I honestly don't think there's any part I really hate. Clean-up's not a ton of fun but I've got my little rituals while I'm setting up and breaking down and it's honestly not that much of a pain.

I don't really care for the part where you have to clean up the fermenter right after you rack to a secondary or clean up the secondary and bottling mess

And I'm also not really wild about washing the bottles

I don't think there's anything I don't like. I like bottling even though most people hate it. I don't mind the cleanup because I do it as I go. I designed my CFC to hook onto my sink so cleanup is a breeze. I suppose not being able to fly sparge in the winter is annoying but I just switch to batch sparging.

Actually I hate that my kegerator only holds 2 kegs but unless I move I'm stuck with it.

Mutilated1 said:

And I'm also not really wild about washing the bottles

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Ok, I guess there is a part I hate... bottles and everything to do with them... which is why I haven't bottled a beer in a years.

Filling bottles. I'd love to go to kegging but its just not practical for me right now.

I hated bottling (so I keg).

Cleanup's a *****, but it's a lot easier when you clean as you go.

Making starters is always a PITA for me, not that it's difficult or an unpleasant process, but it's hard sometimes to squeeze in the time during weekday nights for any brewing tasks. Too much going on at night.

Cleaning the beer lines in my kegerator, cleaning bottles and post brew clean-up.

david_42 said:

1.Trying to find leaks in the kegger.
2. Cleaning the wort chiller.

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Gad, +1 on #1. Sometimes it takes forEVER and pisses me off to no end! I hate lifting the damn carboys and carrying them. On the rare occasions I bottle, I really REALLY hate cleaning, scrubbing and dealing with bottles.

I hate carrying all my equipment from the storage room in my basement, outside to my back deck to brew, then carrying it all down again when I am done.

Hauling 50 pounds of 150 degree spent grains upstairs from the brewshop to the outside.

The hauling of all my equipment from the basement, to the garage, then back down again.

I need to get welded brew fittings. Ineveitably everything leaks a bit until it warms up and then the fitting for the thermometer leaks.

I hate screwing with hot, leaky fittings.

And they plot their attack ahead of brew day cause it's always a different fitting that leaks when it gets hot.

Aside from that, cleanup. It seems to take just as long as the actual brew does. Even though I clean as I go.

the_bird said:

Making starters is always a PITA for me, not that it's difficult or an unpleasant process, but it's hard sometimes to squeeze in the time during weekday nights for any brewing tasks. Too much going on at night.

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Hear, Hear. +10

This is why I switched to dry yeast and never looked back. I always keep at least 4 sachets of each yeast in case I decide I need to up the cell count.

My problem is that even if I do make the starter, there is no guarantee I'll be able to use it the next day. I have had that happen too many times.

There's nothing I really "Hate" in the brewing process...after all it is a "Hobby," so I try to make even the most onerous task as easy as possibly. I try to constantly pimp my process so that it's a smooth and effortless as possible...

For example, I let copious amounts of oxyclean do all the cleanup for me.

And I've got my bottling process down to 45 minutes, sitting comfortably at my dining room table, with very little extra motion.

GilaMinumBeer said:

Hear, Hear. +10

This is why I switched to dry yeast and never looked back. I always keep at least 4 sachets of each yeast in case I decide I need to up the cell count.

My problem is that even if I do make the starter, there is no guarantee I'll be able to use it the next day. I have had that happen too many times.

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Yup. Too much seems to change between the time I'd be making a starter and the time I'm planning on brewing, too often I have to cancel my plans. I'm really thinking that a stirplate is my next investment, even before a pump; being able to heat up a flask, cool it right in the flash, pitch the yeast and let the yeast start humping away the night before holds a lot of appeal to me. I do use dry yeast most of the time, but it would be nice to try out some of the more specialized varieties even on fairly straightforward recipes.

Cleanup because I'm just so tired after a brew session. And cleaning carboys because they are simply a b!tch to clean.

Setup, followed by teardown.

Everything else I like doing. Cleanup isn't GREAT fun, but I don't mind it.

I'd rather everything had it's place so that I didn't need to teardown and setup the brewery.

Maybe the next project....

Bottling and then waiting

It used to be botteling so I got a keg set-up.

No it's clean-up. But I don't see a good way to avoid that. Doesn't annoy me to no end but could do without it.

I love recipe formulation and drinking my homebrew. Everything else in between is rather bothersome, to be honest.

I need a brew partner to share the work with. All SWMBO does is fill the bottles, then empty the bottles. At least she lets me brew whenever I want to.

brewing in an apartment. I want more space and I'd love not to have to carry things from the balcony to the kitchen, kitchen to bathroom, kitchen to balcony, etc.

Beerthoven said:

I love recipe formulation and drinking my homebrew. Everything else in between is rather bothersome, to be honest.

I need a brew partner to share the work with. All SWMBO does is fill the bottles, then empty the bottles. At least she lets me brew whenever I want to.

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At least yours does something benificial. Mine just gripes about how long it takes. And that 10minutes into heating strike water. I keep kissing up for a Brew Magic that will help to automate a lot of the brewday but, so far, it hasn;t worked.

probably sanitizing/cleaning bottles... filling the bottles i like, and doesn't take much time. but sanitizing 48+ bottles sucks w/o a dishwasher. thus is why i ordered the tap-a-draft system.. hopefully it will work out ok!

...listening to you guys whine...

Oh, sorry, did I say that out loud???

I have no problems with any of the steps...I look forward to the reward in the bottle/keg...:rockin:

Bottling, hands down. Just a hideous nightmare.

I hate waiting for beer to ferment and condition. Or at least I did in the beginning. Wouldn't it be nice if beer would be ready in days instead of weeks?

I hate having an achy back for a few days after I brew, from repeatedly lifting and lowering kettles/coolers/carboys full of liquid. Which is why I've got to get some kind of brew sculpture happening. They are expensive, but they're a lot cheaper than back surgery!

Set-up and takedown is a big one. Going from the garage to the back deck takes a few trips. (Sometimes I'll brew in the front yard if I can be out there full time, otherwise the deck is enclosed so I don't have to babysit everything to keep the neighbors out of it).

The other big PITA (it's a simple fix that I haven't done yet) is carrying water from the kitchen faucet out to the back deck. It's not that far, but still a PITA when making multiple trips.

And while it's not really a step, that half glass of foam when a keg kicks the big one is really my biggest dislike, because then I'm out of a good beer.

killing a keg of the best beer you have ever tasted!!!! is hands down the only thing I HATE about brewing. Everything else in between I sooo look forward to.
JJ

I enjoy the entire process- set up to break down and cleaning. After all it is a hobby, and even the most mundane tasks (measuring out my strike water, mixing up sanitizer, bottling, etc) are pleasant.

I don't mind the modular system I have now, but a sculpture would be nice at some stage.

Beerthoven said:

I love recipe formulation and drinking my homebrew.

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I love the recipe formulation too, since I got beersmith, I have not brewed one recipe to the original specs and have created a few from scratch. This to me is the best part of brewing! (along with final tasting ).

The ONLY thing I hate is waiting for the bottle conditioning. Lately I haven't been able to brew nearly as much as I would like. As a result, I am out of of home brew and am forced to buy beer at a store!

Bottling ruins the entire process for me. I've gotten to the point that when I'm thinking about brewing, I think about the bottle cleaning/bottle filling/bottle capping/bottling mess that is to follow, and sometimes I just read a book and go buy some Sierra Nevada seasonal instead.

Keezer project started this weekend

Oh, and I really don't like bottling. The damn little tiny cloud of yeast that every now and then sneaks into my glass, ruining the flavor of my pale ale and leaving that black spot on the white fluffy head. I can't wait to cold crash those little bastards

Cleaning the Dried Krausen off the floor of my fermentation refrigerator.

Second to that is waiting until the last minute to rack previous brew to secondary carboy - clean - sanitize and have carboy ready for runoff from CFC. I only have 3 carboys.

BlindLemonLars said:

I hate having an achy back for a few days after I brew, from repeatedly lifting and lowering kettles/coolers/carboys full of liquid.

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+a handful on this one, BLL. My back and hands are both weak, so lifting the mash tun to go dump grains, carrying fermenters in/out, etc. are all a bit taxing. Couldn't physically keep up with bottling anymore, thank beer for kegs!

I enjoy most of the day. I just wish I could get the pain out of the picture so that I could enjoy it that much more.

If I had to pick just one thing, though, waiting for strike water to heat. I'm always either done prepping 20 minutes before it hits temp, or I get so caught up preparing things that I overshoot by 15*F and have to wait for it to cool.