First ever brew day from hell! (tm)

I know everyone has one of those days every now and again so here's mine:

So I decided to brew Bee Cave Brewery's Haus PA since I hadn't brewed in a while last night.

Got a bunch of new supplies from a descent online canadian distributer that I was anxious to try out.

Things started out ugly and got worse:
7:30pm - While mashing, the temp dropped 9 degrees in one hour! I usually dough in with much more water, but it just goes to show how poorly the keg keeps heat in the tun. I may end up converting that cooler after all. I added some hot water to bring the heat back up to 152, but the majority of the mash was probably done at 148.

8:30pm- Right after sparging, noticed the dog was sick, and we had to bring him to the vet. Left the wort sitting in the boil kettle for about 2 hours. Thankfully doggey (longhaired minature dacshund) is okay.

11:30pm- Started boil. Shortly after achieving rolling boil, propane runs out. DOH!

12:00pm- grabbed my backup tank. It too was low on propane. I ended up doing a 55 minute boil because after that point the boil wasn't rolling anymore, and the burner looked like more of a candle.

1:00am- Chilled with no issues. M new device for limitting cold break/hop debris failed miserably!! It was essentially a street elbow hooked up to the bulkhead with a stainless scrubby shoved in the one end to act as a filter. This will require some rethinking. Whirlpooled the wort, then ran to sterilize my siphon hose.

2:00am- pitched and cleaned up. Missed my OG by what looks like 9 points, although the hydro sample was a bit warm. Never has that happened before. Go figure. Anyways bed time. Hockey at 7:30am. work at 9:00 am. DOH!


One thing actually worked out great. I put together one of those hop bag devices which worked awesome. Very clean boil pot at the end of the day and I couldnt have been happier about that.

At the end of the day I still made beer. Now to forget about this brew day and get those tanks filled

Hey, since you mashed low, you'll probably have a lower FG. With that said, it sounds like you just made a slightly over-hopped session Haus Pale Ale. Sounds delicious to me!

It will end up being your best brew to date....or it wont.... Good luck with it.

Which online place did you buy from?

Haha yeah who knows figers crossed it turns out great.

Canadabrew: I used http://www.homebrewgearcanada.com . It's about 2 hrs away from my place, so the package arrived the day after it shipped.

Just as a follow up, this beer turned out to be one of the most fantastic brews to date. Ive never had a beer taste this good and clear this fast! ABV% is around 5% which is perfect for me.

Go figure!!!

I had a day like yours a couple of weeks ago. I actually ruined the curtains splashing hot wort all over the kitchen and broke a thermometer in the process (so I didn't even know at what temperature I mashed at and lost about a gallon of first runnings). The wort also sat for 2 hours before reaching pitching temperature. I took my first taste yesterday and it was AWESOME.

Wich is sad since I don't intend on adding cold and hot water half a dozen time each until I'm mashing at 2.5 qt/lb and breaking a colander so I can get to splash soon to be beer. I was lucky my girlfriend wasn't there when it happened because I would've been banned from brewing inside ever again.

I also bought new curtains on the sly afterward when I realized that the cleaning hadn't made that good of a job on them. I'm like the James Bond of covering up messes