so what's the worst part of brewing for you

I don't like being dependent on the weather in order to brew. I don't have a vent in my garage, or water source for that matter. So I'm reliant on it being warm enough to run water out of the hose. Consequently, my pipline is pretty low at the moment.

For me the worst part is not being able to brew often enough. I need more friends to help drink down my homebrew so I can brew some more. It's hard to justify doing another brew when you already have 4 kegs of beer in the fridge and a few cases of bottles.

Washing everything 20 times!

Started canning starter and priming sugar and vacuum sealing hops and grain in mason jars.

I've scrubbed probably 10+ cases of them this weekend, each with lid and band, then had to dry them somewhere.

I don't like the clean up, scrubbing the krausen ring from the bucket after a bottling day, washing all the equipment down all over again....Etc.

I don't mind the waiting between brew steps, generally it's a chance to sample of brew. But the aging and the Lagering process is the worst part to me. Currently aging a Belgian Quad for a another month. Thankfully I do have 7 others on tap to make the wait easier.

For me, it is drinking the last couple bottles of a pretty good batch several months after bottling only to find that if I had exercised patience and waited, that the entire batch would have been outstanding with the same aging as the last few. And knowing that the next time I brew the same recipe, I will probably do exactly the same thing...

DonMagee said:

For me the worst part is not being able to brew often enough. I need more friends to help drink down my homebrew so I can brew some more. It's hard to justify doing another brew when you already have 4 kegs of beer in the fridge and a few cases of bottles.

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I'm with you on that one! I cannot believe the number of people who are so brand loyal to B/M/C.

Here's one for you:

You know your Budweiser friend, get one of his beers, pour it in a glass, add one or two drops of food coloring & hand it to them. Bet you a full keg they say they do not like it!

I have done this many times ---- ever heard someone say " I don't like dark beer?"

I hate bottleing. I have done 5 brews now and every time I bottle I make a big mess. I can't wait to get my kegging setup.

BayviewBrewer said:

I hate bottleing. I have done 5 brews now and every time I bottle I make a big mess. I can't wait to get my kegging setup.

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Bottling is way nicer once you have a kegging system.

I rack straight into the keg with a ball lock liquid fitting on the end of my autosiphon. Works great. Don't have to worry about the hose curling up and spraying beer everywhere or introducing oxygen because you raised it out of the bucket a bit. Can even be a pure CO2 environment if you want it to be.

Have all 8 of my kegs full (well 7 full, 1 with bad poppets on order), so I wasn't able to rack into them for bottling. Racked into two bottling buckets instead. Really dreading having to use them again. I had hoped they'd be left to collect dust or mill into.

Normally, I put 2-4 psi behind it, then attach a bottle filling wand or picnic tap assembly. Easy instant filling. Or, if you prefer to use the keezer faucet to bottle bulk primed off the keg, a growler filler. Or, to bottle your serving brews, a counterpressure filler or poor man's beer gun.

But anyway. Yeah, bottling gets nicer once kegs and CO2 get involved. Washing bottles still sucks until you get a dishwasher, or a power drill and bottle blaster, or build one of [thread=98932]these bottlew washers[/thread].

I was thinking it was bottling, but yesterday's (day one) IPA bottling effort proved to be cake. Clean up I don't care about, cos I'm used to staying on top of things in process. So it's probably what is going to be happening today as me and my brewmat hit day two for bottling with our milk stout while kicking the porter batch and waiting the three or so weeks for the two new batches to come up.

I used to hate cleaning until I bought PBW. I PBW all kegs and carboys, all I have to really scrub is the brew kettle and the mash tun, takes no time and its done, everything else is just soak and rinse, super easy.

I don't really hate any part of brewing anymore, I just wish I could give my beer to more people. I hate laws that prevent me from selling my kegs to a pub.

Mostly_Norwegian said:

I was thinking it was bottling, but yesterday's (day one) IPA bottling effort proved to be cake. Clean up I don't care about, cos I'm used to staying on top of things in process. So it's probably what is going to be happening today as me and my brewmat hit day two for bottling with our milk stout while kicking the porter batch and waiting the three or so weeks for the two new batches to come up.

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Bottling day used to drive me nuts, but since I upgraded to a Vinator, bottle tree, and bench capper. It's a breeze now. Bottled 44 yesterday in about 45 minutes.

thadius856 said:

I rack straight into the keg with a ball lock liquid fitting on the end of my autosiphon. Works great. Don't have to worry about the hose curling up and spraying beer everywhere or introducing oxygen because you raised it out of the bucket a bit. Can even be a pure CO2 environment if you want it to be.

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That is a great idea, I think I am going to pop a female flared connection on the end of my autosiphon so I can use a disconnect when kegging and leave it open when bottling (or other general racking).

kpr121 said:

That is a great idea, I think I am going to pop a female flared connection on the end of my autosiphon so I can use a disconnect when kegging and leave it open when bottling (or other general racking).

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Honestly, I just shove the tubing over it or pull it off when I don't want it there anymore. There's no pressure when siphoning, so you don't really need a barb and swivel nut unless you really want one or you're using BelSeal type line.

Clean up and put away are the most unenjoyable aspect for me as well, but with each batch, I get more organized and improve my techniques and process.

I am planning to make an equipment washer using a sump pump. Hoping to be able to wash cumbersome buckets, mash tun and kettles with recirculated oxiclean or PBW without scrubbing. Wash and put away other items while the washer works.

I've also seem a post on here using a pump on a bottle washing manifold system. Rack em up. Let em wash. Have a beer.

Designing and creating these type DIY projects is actually one of the most enjoyable things about brewing for me.

I was going to say cleaning up, but when I thought about it more the real answer is when a batch runs out.

Worst part for me is when something doesn't go as planned in the brewday. Clogs, spills, running out of propane, rain, guests, etc.

baulz said:

Worst part for me is when something doesn't go as planned in the brewday. Clogs, spills, running out of propane, rain, guests, etc.

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Im with you there. When a peaceful day of brewing goes awry, I get extremely upset and it throws me off. I tend to plan my brews ahead of time to alliviate any problems. Everyonce in a while I do a spur of the moment brew and it reminds me of why i need to plan ahead.

The worst part of brewing for me has to be getting down below 4 cases in the cellar.. By that time it's panic mode bichez.

DonMagee said:

For me the worst part is not being able to brew often enough. I need more friends to help drink down my homebrew so I can brew some more. It's hard to justify doing another brew when you already have 4 kegs of beer in the fridge and a few cases of bottles.

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I can help with that! Unfortunately I am in Alaska, but if you ever want to swap some beers let me know.

Another vote for cleaning

The waiting to see how a batch turns out. Especially when I know I made a mistake and I keep thinking it will be ok... right.

Usually the beer turns out good. Not great. Next time I'll... Again with the waiting.

Here is the hardest part, waiting on a big beer (Tripel, RIS) and knowing there will be another six months before I can try to improve something in the process.

The worst part for me is racking the chilled wort and pitching the yeast. That is the only stage of brewing that stresses me out. As long as its not too hot, you can't **** up a mash, once the boil over threat is done the boil is no problems, once its fermenting just don't mess with it and it will be fine (or beyond your control), kegging is easy but the last aspect of brewing I haven't up graded is the racking to the fermenter. I'm still dumping it through a collander into the carboy and oxygenating by shaking. There are so many ways to screw up a batch at that point. I'm always worried I'll drop something, a fruit fly will land in the wort, I didn't thoroughly sanitize something, the wort and starter aren't the same temp, etc.

I only hate BMC and hangovers!!! Otherwise I love everything there is about brewing. I'm addicted to brewing and everything that comes with it!!!

I changed my processes because of what I didn't like. Namely,cleaning all the stuff at the end, rushing to sanitize and pitch, spending 5+ hours brewing. And of course, bottling.

BIAB and No-chill fixed it for me. 10 gallon batch is a 3.5 hour brew day, cleaning 90% in the middle of the session, pitching yeast the next day. I still partially bottle, but kegging made it easier. I just started kegging, but my process is weak. I have much to learn, but I suspect that once the kinks are out, this will be easier too.

All I will be down to bitching about now is waiting for the brew to turn out.

I thought bottling was bad until I left the grain in the mash tun overnight. Holy crap does that stuff make me gag. It's hard to clean it out right away as I do a lot of "sampling" on brew day and once the yeast is in I am done for the day.

We had a clogged pipe and forgot about the mash tun while we were trying to get a working shower back.

Mashed in Sunday around noon. Got around to emptying the tun Tuesday around 5pm. Terrible smell!

worst part for me... hmm.. would have to be trying to carve out a window to brew, transfer, or bottle. I'm just so freaking busy all the time (work, house, wife, family, etc.) that it's difficult to find the time to brew beer. I can find 20 minutes a night for sampling easily, but a 4-hr window to make a batch? (sanitation, brewing, clean-up) is very difficult, a 2hr window for bottling (sanitation, bottling, clean-up) is easier but gets pushed to the way-side on the weekends because of what I will call "house stuff" or "car stuff" (do my own maintenance); and come this spring I need to spend time splitting wood to recoup what I used this winter.

FINDING TIME that's the tough part for me.

Right now it's waiting over a hour to get 6 gallons of wort boiling on my stove. Solved that problem
For the summer I will be using a burner outside

For myself, being fairly new to the whole home brew thing, it is the plethora of information and terms that can cause my mind to implode and wallet to explode if I try to get too carried away. It is both easy and hard to start out!

I still find bottling fun, when I make beer I just turn on a good movie or two and brew at night (start at 9pm, finish around 1am ish), clean up in the AM after rinsing everything and bottle last batch during the mash/boil. Basically I brew on a fermentation cycle (approx every 3-4 weeks).

Running out of homebrew. Definitely.

Seriously though, removing labels from bottles.

Clean up gets another vote, I would put bottling in, but I refuse to do that anymore, that is why I keg now, bottling is the DEVIL!

Waiting for fermentation to complete so I can bottle.
Waiting carb up/aging so I can open bottles.

This is why I'm thinking of getting more carboys/buckets, and start brewing 1-3 gallon batches of different beers at once. That way I have a revolving door of beer.

Cleanup and finding a place to dump the grain.

CoalCracker said:

Cleanup and finding a place to dump the grain.

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You need Chickens! 3 medium hens can take down about 30lbs of grain in a day and it ramps egg production.

Cleaning for sure. It's not so bad in the spring-fall when I can clean outside on the deck with the garden hose but it sucks cleaning in winter because I have to do it in the bathtub!

cleaning used to be a big deal for me before Oxyclean came along. Now its mostly just a matter of soaking overnight, and rinsing out the next day - piece of cake. Bottling is still a ***** for me, but I'm hoping my recently purchased vinator and bottling tree cut some of the misery down.

The bottle tree & vinator def make bottling day easier & faster. not to mention,the bottles now only take up a 2 square foot area. I soak the fermenters in PBW & use a dobie brand scrubber with some PBW on my polished SS BK/MT.

My wife would say beer farts.

I don't think there is a part of brewing I dislike. Everything has a step, a process, and a reason. There's a lot of joy in bringing something from brain to bottle and knowing I made every step happen.