Who else has had a brewday meltdown?

Let me preface this by saying that I am ordinarily as cool as a cucumber. My other hobby is cycling. Two years ago, while doing a charity ride for a children's hospital, some d*****bag stole my bike. My friends were mesmerized by how calm I was about the whole thing. Anyway ...

So today is Good Friday. Office closed an hour and a half early, SWMBO is doing something with her dad, so, damn right, I'm brewing (making ohiobrewtus's Hoegaarden clone). I planned it all out, just like every other brewday - did my mash calcs, wrote up a to-do list of temps, additions, etc. pre-heated the mash tun, etc. and I'm all ready to go.

Okay, so where's the thermometer? Seriously, where's the thermometer? Go****mit! Where's the f***ing thermometer!!!!

Man, I stomped around the kitchen for 1/2 hour opening and forcefully slamming every cabinet where the thermometer could possibly be. Then I sat down on the floor opened up a homebrew (an amber - thanks to Yooper for the recipe!) and thought and thought. As I R'd, DW'd, and H'd a HB, lo, and behold, it was in my starsan bucket.

Perhaps I should have spent Good Friday in church praying for patience. Anyway, meltdown averted.

Any other stories of brewers losing their minds on brewday when a critical piece of equipment goes AWOL? Seriously - I'm feeling like a dumb@ss right now. Tell me I'm not alone.

I miss-placed the thermocouple for my smoker that goes into the meat once. I made do and didn't let it interfere with my day. Usually I just keep rolling on and don't let the little things get between me and the Zen of brewing.

I am lucky to remember were anything is. This is why I meticulously keep all my stuff together and put away. This story reminds me of something else...Always have a spare: propane tank, lighter, hydrometer and thermometer. Can't find/broke my main one, RDWHAHB and grab the spare...odds are it will turn up soon anyways.

I find that when I start to rage like that and everything is fighting me, that RDWHAHB and as soon as that is done, things seem to calm down as well...but it sounds like you learned that...lol.

GL on future brews!

Yep, I'm ordinarily super meticulous about that stuff, which is why I was so completely thrown off when the thermometer wasn't where it was supposed to be or in the other place where I'd expect. Ugh. Fortunately, the crappy part of this day only lasted 1/2 hour or so. Onward and happy brewing.

What a convenient place for it to be...in the sanitation bucket haha

I can't ever seem to find the lighter I use to light my burners. Never really lead to a meltdown, but it was always a frustrating few minutes. I've been trying to keep all of my equipment together as much as possible, so I'm a little more organized when I'm setting up/breaking down, since that always seems to be so time consuming.

All of my brew days at my new place have been on the verge of a meltdown.

I have tried my best to get crap consolidated, but pretty much all my brewing stuff is still strewn all over the place. Some of it is in the garage, some of it is in plastic bins in a cabinet, some of it is in the kitchen in drawers, etc.

I have forgotten something and then gone hunting at the last minute EVERY SINGLE TIME I've brewed since I moved here. In my old place everything was collected and stored in a single space, but we don't have a place like that here where everything will fit. I am working on designing a cabinet were I can store all the crap in one spot, but it's been slow going.

RDWHAHB. Life is too short. Is there something else thats got you wound up tight?

Ah, same as everyone else I guess. Busy schedule and it's hard to find 4.5-5 hours to brew. When I do, it's bliss. When I do and something goes horribly wrong, usually I'm cool. Tonight, I just temporarily went ape sh*t. All is well now, though.

Glad it all worked out. I'm sure I've lost it before; I just won't fess up to particulars!

I do stovetop AG with BIAB. One brew day I crushed my grains with my corona mill, heated up my water to the correct temperature, dumped my grains into the pot, and then I looked at my counter and saw my 5 gallon paint strainer bag...not in the pot. So I had my first BIABWAB brew.

I lined a smaller pot with the paint strainer bag and scooped out most of the mash in there, then I lined a fermenter with another paint strainer bag and dumped the rest of the mash in that. It actually turned out OK, and I hit my 84% efficiency despite the problems.

Guess I should add to the checklist. Up to today, it's been ingredients? Check. Starter? Check.

Now I should add the thermometer and, for good measure, braid, tubing, MLT, those particular 3/8" drive sockets I use to tighten the IC to the faucet, and the rest of the stuff. Just for good measure. And to pray for patience.

I wouldn't say that I have a "meltdown" but every time I brew there will come a point when the expletives briefly start flying out of my mouth because of some annoyance (i.e. sticky wort dribbling out onto the floor necessitating a mop up at the end of a long brew day is the most common, hoses leaking water or starsan on the floor or counter,). I honestly cannot think of a single brewing session where "something" has not gone wrong - nothing major just niggling crap. I think that I would be worried if there was not some minor problem each time because it seems to be part of the process.

Post script: I regained my Dude-like coolness hours ago. Had to mention that I hit all (ALL!) my numbers right on, everything is cleaned up and put away (where it's supposed to be so I can find it later.)

Ahhhh. Sweet. I love this hobby despite the occasional kicks in the pants.

botteling days make brewing days EASY.All that cleaning!

The last time I had a meltdown was when the pediatrician refused to see my very sick young child because of a ridiculous clerical error. His account somehow got merged with a girl (who he has no relation to at all) who stopped going to this doctor before he was born. The idiot (I'm kind to call her an idiot, but I was not so kind that day) clerk said they couldn't see him anymore because of a policy which states that if any sibling transfers, they won't see any of the others. She was too stupid to understand when I explained that we have absolutely nothing to do with whoever that girl is and it's all a mistake. I ended up taking him to the ER. He only went back to the pediatrician once after that (his mom called the doctor who apologized), and that's because I didn't know she was taking him. I'm surprised they let us back after the **** I said to that lady. I could have easily been arrested for terroristic threatening and menacing behavior. But even now I feel like it was justified in this particular situation.

I spent good Friday eating red meat and hookers and planning a 15 gallon brew day tomorrow!

Melt down today. Second time keggle dip tube has been completely clogged when I went to drain. Wound up having to stir and force wort at the dip tube for the first six gallons while the wife strained the wort into the fermenter. Then I had to use a racking cane which is fine except I have apparently trashed all of my longer lengths of tubing. Thus I had to tie two smaller lengths together with the plastic ball valve from my cooler/MT. While stirring and and trying to get a siphon started on the dip tube I was literally shaking with rage. + I already had trouble getting a decent siphon on a 5 gallon IIPA transfer only a few hours earlier. Luckily the wife knows I can throw ***** fits from time to time and just leaves me alone or pours be a beer.

Consolation prize was that the beer did go perfectly until that point and hit OG and volume dead on.

i seem to always have the kids come out right when I'm doing something that needs my full attention. that's when I get pissed. i don't mind them helping out, but they pretty much exclusively come out when i'm in the middle of chilling, or trying to add my last addition, which usually includes a hop addition, IC, yeast nutrient and whirfloc all at the same time. I always manage to miss something due to the kids being in the way which leads to me either prolonging the boil or cutting something short. then when the buckets come out, they want to add the sanitizer, or stir for whirlpool, or start cleaning stuff up. So their intentions are good, but they usually just wind up sticking their hands in a sanitized bucket, or stirring at the wrong time and disrupting my whirlpool. all in all, I guess i'm happier to have them hanging out with me then just ignoring me every brew day, or me ignoring them on brew day

Something that might help...I have a bottling bucket and a fermenting bucket that don't get used very much anymore. I started keeping all of my brewing tools and loose parts in there, and my wife noticed. She has a habit of keeping the house clean for some reason, and normally my stuff goes missing. Fortunately if something disappears, I just check one of those buckets and it's usually there. Use a bucket or even one of those large plastic containers and keep your stuff in there. It will save you a lot of time when looking for brushes, hydrometer, thermometer, barbs, etc.

Really though a lost thermometer is a stick in the side, but there are far worse things that have happened. I've had a glass thermometer with lead shot (or whatever weighs it down) break inside the brew kettle, like Boy mentioned I've had a valve get clogged while transferring wort, then it turned into a stuck auto-siphon...left the valve open more than once and lost about 1/2 my wort...got about 2 gallons of cleaning water all over the kitchen...had a cat climb into the brew kettle after it was sanitized...ran out of propane...mis-calibrated cooking thermometer (fortunately didn't matter)...neighbor decides to mow while my brew kettle is open...city conducts sewer smoke testing while brewing...more than one pop-offs while fermenting (only use blowoff now)...missing barb that goes to my kettle valve

...ridiculous, ridiculous problems whenever I filter something...oh friggin day...I've had over-pressurized leaks, clogged filters, hoses not screwed on tight enough...the problems that come with experimentation will leave you in the pits.

Panic more than meltdown. Last weekend I moved my brewery items from the garage (and other parts of the house) to the new man cave. I thought to myself: "This is great, all my brew stuff located in one place!" The next day my buddies and I are brewing up a dunkelweizen and I go to sanitize my fermenters, I have 5. 2 were in use and 1 has yeast to be harvested in it, that leaves 2. I can only find 1. WTF! I'm on the verge of freaking out when my brew buddy suggests to keg one of the fermenters in use (3 weeks in on a Mac and Jacks African Amber) and use it. Did that, immediate problem solved. Still haven't found the missing carboy. If my brew buddies hadn't been there, I would have had a meltdown.

So what happens when you forget about the Carboy when you filling with water? D*$it!! Flooded that laundry room. Luckily wife is out of town. : )

Wow, you guys seem to lose your cool pretty easily.

My set-up was designed for a full boil in two pots on an electric stove. The house I've recently moved into only has a flat-top induction stove, so I had to improvise, and make use of a portable propane cookstove for my boil. Of course, the cardboard/aluminum foil insulation I had wrapped around the pots managed to catch fire (Hindsight is always 20/20), and in turn caught my new box of matches on fire as well. Luckily, this happened in the garage. And naturally, the propane ran out with 15 mins left in the boil.
Eventually, you just give up, and hope that a meteorite doesn't crash into your house.
For the exact same batch, as I was heating frozen strawberries to add to secondary, I forgot about them on the stove, they boiled over, and my stove was a sticky sea of strawberry goo.
The next day, the strawberries clogged and blew the airlock, making a nice little mess in the basement.
After all the trouble, I ended up with a barely ok tasting batch of beer.

Agent said:

My set-up was designed for a full boil in two pots on an electric stove. The house I've recently moved into only has a flat-top induction stove, so I had to improvise, and make use of a portable propane cookstove for my boil. Of course, the cardboard/aluminum foil insulation I had wrapped around the pots managed to catch fire (Hindsight is always 20/20), and in turn caught my new box of matches on fire as well. Luckily, this happened in the garage. And naturally, the propane ran out with 15 mins left in the boil.
Eventually, you just give up, and hope that a meteorite doesn't crash into your house.
For the exact same batch, as I was heating frozen strawberries to add to secondary, I forgot about them on the stove, they boiled over, and my stove was a sticky sea of strawberry goo.
The next day, the strawberries clogged and blew the airlock, making a nice little mess in the basement.
After all the trouble, I ended up with a barely ok tasting batch of beer.

Click to expand...

Haha yeah that's the worst of it, especially with experimenting with fruit and other flavors. After all that work, sometimes you just go "yeah...I don't even really like this beer" haha. I've tried adding things to a finished beer (in the glass) to see if something will scale up...but it's not quite the same. What's even worse than having a beer that you don't like...is going through the trouble for something that isn't noticeable. Biggest ones I've noticed are vanilla beans...

Can't say I've ever had a brewday meltdown. A little panic once in a while, but thats pretty much about it. SWMBO leaves me alone when I begin the process and since I work strange hours (night-shift nurse) I generally plan my brewday (which oddly for me, is always during the day) when family and friends are at work or otherwise engaged. Its pure "me" time and I don't want to be bothered.

I have two digital thermometers... last brew day, right as I got ready to mash, both thermometers went wacko on me. I had to borrow one from my neighbor. I had a buddy over watching, too - How embarassing!

BrewDay can stress me out?! Fortunately, I now only do it on a weekend, and usually with a Friend... that way I can give them assignments while I fiqure out the solution to some crisis...

Brew day by myself doesn't go well..............