Worst effing brew day

First, I miss my temps by about four degrees because I forgot to account for the extra pound of rice hulls in my grist. Second, after taking first runnings, I pour in the water for my batch sparge and start to stir. I notice a random (large) set of bubbles come up near where the manifold connects to the outlet hose. When I go to sparge, I get a chunk of grain and then nothing. Turns out the manifold slipped out of the outlet and the whole thing got jammed up. I couldn't put the sucker back in because of the foot of 170F water between my hand and the outlet hole. So, I tried just scooping and pouring the grain into a colander over the brew pot. As you might guess, not ideal and the whole pot was filled with little pieces of wheat and barley. Ended up just scrapping the whole session because my frustration was so high.

Argh!

Don't give up man! I started off the day with blowing my circut breaker because I had the idea of increasing my 1500w element with a 2000w. I thought of giving up. It put me several hours behind my ideal schedule grant it. I emptied the water from the HLT, replaced the element, refilled, and started over.... finally 3 hours from my initial plan mashing time I am now 38 minutes into mashing. I had to take a walk, and talk my self into brewing. After all, if it was easy everyine would do it - however, that being said, everytime I brew there is always an issue which make me second guess too.

i can understand that feeling. i have yet to scrap anything, but i can see me doing the same. what's your manifold setup like? Is it something you could probably upgrade and avoid for future sessions?

i keep cheesecloth around just to have. you could have, as an alternative to dumping, ran it all through the cheesecloth to filter out the chunks and add a bunch of other junk to it and pretend it's a different style. hell, most people who've had my homebrew wouldn't know a Belgian from a Blow-Pop.

Ahh memories. How much sweat fell into the wort?

Bentpirate said:

Don't give up man! I started off the day with blowing my circut breaker because I had the idea of increasing my 1500w element with a 2000w. I thought of giving up. It put me several hours behind my ideal schedule grant it. I emptied the water from the HLT, replaced the element, refilled, and started over.... finally 3 hours from my initial plan mashing time I am now 38 minutes into mashing. I had to take a walk, and talk my self into brewing. After all, if it was easy everyine would do it - however, that being said, everytime I brew there is always an issue which make me second guess too.

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absoloutely! Every brewday since i went all-grain and using whole leaf hops instead of pellets i've had issues. most recently was dealing with the spent hops post-boil and trying to fill the fermenter without getting leaves in the carboy. i treated myself to a brand new Kettlevalve and Kettlescreen. :rockin:

You know, it's actually funny. This is the first really bad session. Maybe I was getting cocky and this is karma telling me to stay on top of the process.

I had a similarly bad brew day on Friday. So many things went wrong - but I kept the brew. I decided to name it "Train Wreck Stout" because the brew day was such a train wreck.

Even though your brew day may suck, the beer may not.

That's extra crappy, sorry to hear about that. But there are some things you could have done, or can do in the future, to fix these problems:

heywolfie1015 said:

First, I miss my temps by about four degrees because I forgot to account for the extra pound of rice hulls in my grist.

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Before adding your rice hulls, put them in a strainer of sorts and run hot water over them. First, rice hulls are typically pretty dirty so you want to run the water over them until it runs clear. Second, you missed your mash temp because your hulls were room temperature; the hot water rinse will not only bring them up to temperature (or close to it), it will also allow them to absorb the water and not reduce your mash volume.

heywolfie1015 said:

Second, after taking first runnings, I pour in the water for my batch sparge and start to stir. I notice a random (large) set of bubbles come up near where the manifold connects to the outlet hose. When I go to sparge, I get a chunk of grain and then nothing. Turns out the manifold slipped out of the outlet and the whole thing got jammed up. I couldn't put the sucker back in because of the foot of 170F water between my hand and the outlet hole.

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Pfft, who cares about 3rd degree burns? Here's a simple and somewhat awesome solution. Get a trash bag or something you know won't leak, put your arm in it and fill it up about halfway with cool tap water. This will allow you to put your arm in a hot-ass mash and fix/retrieve things, the cool water acting as a barrier.

Reno_eNVy_446 said:

Here's a simple and somewhat awesome solution. Get a trash bag or something you know won't leak, put your arm in it and fill it up about halfway with cool tap water. This will allow you to put your arm in a hot-ass mash and fix/retrieve things, the cool water acting as a barrier.

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Brilliant.

Sorry to hear about your day, I would probably have done the same myself. I guess the good thing about brewing is you can always start over with the knowledge of not making the same mistake twice:cross:

fineexampl said:

hell, most people who've had my homebrew wouldn't know a Belgian from a Blow-Pop.

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I am with you on this one!:rockin:

I picked up a pair of those crazy yellow gloves my mom used to wear back in the day when I was a kid and she did dishes. The bigger ones (that fit me) go pretty far up your arm and buy you enough time to get your stuff connected without burning the crap outta your arm. *protip - still gotta be fast like some kind of brewing ninja, but it helps*

After reading about your not wanting to scald your arm/hand in 170 degree wort I have decided my next on-line order will include some of these:

http://www.northernbrewer.com/brewing/blichmann-brewing-gloves.html

Leave it to Blichmann to MSRP those for $12

Banjoman76 said:

After reading about your not wanting to scald your arm/hand in 170 degree wort I have decided my next on-line order will include some of these:

http://www.northernbrewer.com/brewing/blichmann-brewing-gloves.html

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Man, do I wish I had a pair of those yesterday. Definitely on the "to buy" list.