So, I brewed in Hell today.

I charged my cordless drill last night in anticipation of my 12 gallon Steam beer brew today. I awake at 7:00am and excitedly stumbled into the garage. Measure out strike water and get it on the burner. Grab the grains and dump them into the barley crusher hopper, attach drill and squeeze the trigger.

Nothing, a few revolutions and she's dead. Oh crap, the charger must be bad. No problem I tell myself, I'll throw on the handle and hand crank it. Now let me tell you, 20 pounds of grain is not all that fun to hand crank. But im off to the races once again.

I throw the grains into my cooler and dough in. A tad high on temp so I stir out a few degrees. Perfect, right at 154, I slam the lid and set the timer. Fast forward 60 minutes. Sparge water is heating, it's time to drain the tun. A few drops slow to nothing, that's odd. Never happened to me before. I grab my mash paddle and start to dig in, something doesn't feel right. Oh sh#%, somehow my manifold has come apart!

I panic, how in the hell am I going to fix this!? I start grabbing anything closely resembling a clean bucket, or container. Now mind you this is a double batch so my 52 quart cooler is topped out. I start scooping out mash with my 2 quart pyrex measuring cup. Get most of the mash out and re-attach the manifold. It has somehow come unglued from the spigot.

Dump the mash back in, and do the first sparge, no problems. Start the last sparge, and bingo, it comes off again. Time to pull it all out again and re-attach the stupid manifold once again. Whew, finally ready to boil.

Fast forward to end of cooling. I'm using a 15.5 sanke keg for the first time for fermenting, time to transfer. Oh crap, I can't lift a 20 gallon brew pot up high enough to drain into keg. Back story- half of this batch is for a friend, who was supposed to come and help, he never showed. So now I have to transfer some other way.

So, I sanitize my 3 gallon bucket I use for transferring wort from mlt to boiler. Sanitize my auto siphon, and start transferring. Crap, what do I do with the siphon hose while dumping the bucket? By this point im 8 hours into a brewday that should take 5 hours tops. My back was wrenched from dumping mlt twice and I just didn't care. So I pull out siphon hose and lay it on the brew kettle lid next to me, knowing full well im risking infection.

I repeat the process 3 more times, each time cringing as I lay the hose on the kettle lid. I pitch a massive starter and drop in the stopper and airlock. My "friend" shows up 5 minutes later and helps me hoist this spawn of satan into the freezer. I just know deep down this thing is full of blight and disease. It starts bubbling away 4 hours later! Maybe this will be the best batch I ever brewed, or a complete fail. Time will tell.

Been there! Had a simular manifold issue. Made a new one and soldered everything. Damn thing drove me nuts. Luckily i have these thck rubber gloves that go up past you elbows. I reached in and reattached it.

Why was you kettle so low that it couldn't drain into the keg? Is you boiler spigot only high enough for a glass carboy?

So, what are you going to name this brew?

ah, i had manifold issues a while back as well. i ended up drilling/tapping holes so i could still take it apart to clean. takes me a few extra minutes to assemble/take apart but its worth it not worry about it coming apart.

you may have risk it, but i bet it'll turn out fine.

Wild West, I hear you. I just started doing 10 gallon all grain batches and they all seem to have several moments of chaos. Whether it is gravity off by 20 points or a hose is not available. Luckily someone told me to have sanitizer on hand while brewing. Seems like I always need to rig something up to overcome the chaos. I think it all adds to the satisfaction of drinking your own beer. I am sure your beer will taste great. Mine always does. Cheers!

I charged my cordless drill last night ...

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Sorry, I missed your whole post. Couldn't get my eyes off your avatar. Whatdya say?

Denny's Evil Concoctions said:

Why was you kettle so low that it couldn't drain into the keg? Is you boiler spigot only high enough for a glass carboy?

So, what are you going to name this brew?

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I really need a pump for my setup. For single batches I just lift the kettle to the top burner after chilling then transfer. As for a name, im going to wait until I see if it turns out.

Man, my back started to hurt just reading that.
I'm glad you stuck with it and hopefully it will be the best beer you ever made.

I'd say you're probably good with a nice starter that took off that fast. You aren't giving your "friend" half the batch still are you?

Man...that's rough.

I gotta say, though, everyone should have at least one corded drill around. I have 2 cordless dewalts (one is an XRP), a corded dewalt, and a corded hitachi hammerdrill. So unless all 4 of my batteries die and the power goes out, I'm set. If you're cash-strapped, then this $15 one from HF will do.

Evan! said:

Man...that's rough.

I gotta say, though, everyone should have at least one corded drill around. I have 2 cordless dewalts (one is an XRP), a corded dewalt, and a corded hitachi hammerdrill. So unless all 4 of my batteries die and the power goes out, I'm set. If you're cash-strapped, then this $15 one from HF will do.

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I use an 18volt Dewalt, it has never failed me until now. I hope it's the charger, my friend is going to give me an extra he has. This will get him back in good with the brewmaster.

Good call on the cheap corded drill, I didn't know they still existed.

But you pulled it off. Good for you. It'll probably be some of the best beer you made.

Might even be the batteries too. My 18V pack poop out every 2 to 3 years and I have to get new ones.

I have also been in your situation. Excpet my manifold was a collapsed dome false bottom. that brewday died when I finally said screw it and dumped 30 pounds of mashed grains down the drive in an angry rush to get my truck in the garage and out of the hailstorm.

The hailstorm that stoppped almost immediately as I pulled my truck into the garage.

GilaMinumBeer said:

Might even be the batteries too. My 18V pack poop out every 2 to 3 years and I have to get new ones.

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Actually I just charged it with my friends charger, success! It's a good thing, because i'm doing a Pliny clone tomorrow. With 17 oz of hops on the line, I want everything to be spot on.

I will own this one.

Looks like the pots I use. Did you get them from a restraunt supply store?

BTW, I started a similar thread last week. Friend was suppose to show up for 10 gallon batch and didn't. Almost couldn't get my mash tun with 23 pounds of grain and 10 gallons of water back onto the table.

Sorry to hear about that crappy brew day but now it is in the past. I have the same backup corded drill that Evan suggested and have had to use it once or twice when I forgot to recharge a battery.

chefchris said:

Looks like the pots I use. Did you get them from a restraunt supply store?

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Yup, the 20 gallon is from Restaurant Equipment, Supply & Restaurant Supplies | Instawares, the 15 gallon I snagged from ebay.

Evan! said:

Man...that's rough.

I gotta say, though, everyone should have at least one corded drill around. I have 2 cordless dewalts (one is an XRP), a corded dewalt, and a corded hitachi hammerdrill. So unless all 4 of my batteries die and the power goes out, I'm set. If you're cash-strapped, then this $15 one from HF will do.

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This is what I tell myself every time I go to use my drills. I have two cordless and usually have 4 dead batteries Still haven't bought the corded drill