rough brew day

*Warning - ramblings and pissedoffness to follow

This is the second time I tried to make this post, I freaking closed the browser accidently after typing 80% of it the first time. So I'll just put the short version out this time.

I took the day off of work because a fence is being installed at my house. Great day to brew! First I look at my yeast starter, apparently I left it in too cold a place cause it looks like I cold crashed it, I can see the yeast is all at the bottom. So I shake it and put the flask in some 80F water and let it sit while I brew. Long story short, I use 1 gallon water less than I should(I don't know where I measured wrong) leaving only 4 gallons in the fermentor. And getting those 4 gallons out of the keggle was a pain because I used whole leaf hops for the first time and my keggle has no screen or anything(it kept clogging, I had to jam a thermometer in the drain to allow any fluid to flow. So I add a gallon of tap water and luckily I assume only a 70% efficiency so I was able to get pretty close to my mark. Then I get a phone call from work I get distracted and when I get off the phone I hear my Basset Hound's paws hit the ground, I run over to look at she has that guilty look about her(she was drinking the wort or at least sniffing it). So I spray some sanitizer on top of the brew and at this point I'm just hoping it turns out drinkable.

I bought Stone's 08 vertical epic a while ago and I decided I needed a beer real bad and this was the only commercial one available so I drank it. It was damn good and the highlight of my day.

Thanks for reading my venting. I feel much better now, but need another beer.

What a day! I empathize with you, so I'll crack a homebrew right now to commiserate with you.

I have a feeling this beer is going to be great- it just seems like it'll be the best beer ever and you'll spend the rest of your brewing career trying to recreate it. I even have a name for your beer- "Dog Lick Ale" (or whatever kind of beer it is- Dog Lick Stout for example).

It's cliche but...

"A bad day brewing is still better than a good day at work."

Sorry to hear it didn't go as planned. Let us know if it still turns out.

I know it's hard, but remember rule #1...RDWHAHB. I'm sure your brew will turn out great. I often miss my volume goals. This is an art we are participating in. Changing the type of hops we use (whole, pellet, etc), using new grains, a new burner etc etc will all impact the session. But it always turns out as beer...I've even got an IPA dry hopping right now that I ended up a little over 4 gallons, but will end up loosing some more due to the hops in secondary. But it's still beer...

And the starter sounded fine. Yeast on the bottom means the little guys are doing their job.

I cold crash my yeast starters all the time so I can decant the starter "beer" from the yeast.

I'm sorry I can't help you with the dog. Hope it turns out okay! If so, maybe you've found a secret ingredient!

Well at least we know what to call it...Dogspit Ale!

Revvy said:

Well at least we know what to call it...Dogspit Ale!

Click to expand...

I was thinking a variation on Papizian's Goat Scrotum Ale.

I've heard that dogs mouths have less bacteria than our own (not sure I believe it, especially after making my dog spit out poop it was eating). But many people get by just fine when they have used their mouth to start a siphon (not recommended) so you may be good to go! Beer is resilient.

Revvy said:

Well at least we know what to call it...Dogspit Ale!

Click to expand...

You HAVE to bottle and label this one!!! Yunus' Dog Slobber

One of the local brewers ( a brother of a friend) actually markets Horse Piss Beer , so you might want to keep that basset hound around. Heck, this might blow up and you have to get a bloodhound

It's an IPA to, Edwort's Stone clone but slightly modified with different hops.

If it's decent I'll label and post about it.

Sorry to hear about your day, but poor suckers like myself had to go to work during the day yesterday and come home at 5 PM and start brewing trying to race the clock.

I too used whole leaf hops, but I have a 52QT stock pot and not a keggle, so I have to man handle the thing to pour out the wort. I used a strainer on top of my funnel to gather the hops, orange zest pieces too. I didn't get as much as I wanted into the fermentor either, I think the hops soaked up more than I thought.

But yeah know it is just beer and I am sure it will taste good enough to drink.

Let me see if I can make you feel a little better:

My brewday Saturday pretty much sucked! "Murphy" was hard at work and most of his laws seemed to come to pass by the end of the day.
I didn't have enough water, so I had to use tap water. Mash was a little too hot, so I added water and accidentally dropped the mash temp to 150°F.... did two decoctions and couldn't get the temp back up to 154°...... over sparged and dropped OG to 1.062 that should have been around 1.068... had to boil 2 hours to get volume down to 5.5 gal.... new heat shield interfered with flame not allowing me to achieve a good rolling boil, more like an anemic rolling simmer..... forgot to add whirlfloc..... hops stopped up bazooka screen and I couldn't pump, so had to stir like hell while cooling.... keggle wouldn't drain, so I had to siphon..... Now hoping for an infection to improve the brew.
All the while I was struggling trying to keep my 2 year old from smacking the dog in the ass with my mash paddle....

I made a started for some sweet water I brewed on Monday and noticed a frickn' dog hair in the bottle of yeast!!! " What the hell!!! How did that happen? Everything was well sanitized and the yeast seemed fine so I ran with it after considering tossing it. We're calling it Wild Dog Hair Ale. The price I pay for having three Shelties and a Border Collie. It's Thursday and the fermentation is still very active.

Now I have a new brewing issue…. I’v seems to have out done my ability to brew more than I can drink!!! I’m stalled until the fermentor is freed up of I can buy another carboy.


Primary – Wild Dog Hair Ale (Sweet Water Pale Ale)
Secondary - Sweet Water Pale Ale 1st attempt
Seconday – New Amsterdam Pale Ale
Kegged - New Amsterdam Pale Ale
On deck – Celebration Ale Clone (Sierra Nevada)