Don't drink (heavily) and brew

A couple of months ago on a Friday night, after a happy hour, I arrived home and thought I'd go ahead and brew a Fat Tire clone (recipe at the end of this story). Originally I was going to do this over the weekend but feeling kinda "good" at the moment I decided it was time to brew right then and there (1st mistake).

Well, I opened up another beer and started to get my grain bill together, heat my water, etc. When I get all the water in the mash tun I dump in the grain, stir, close the lid, and open myself up another beer, and start playing some tunes on my iPhone. 15 minutes later, while Bob Seger's "American Storm" was playing (who knew), I look over across the counter and see almost 2 pounds of various grains sitting there, and I'm thinking, why are those there? Turns out those were for this recipe -- I had simply "forgotten" them (truth is I had knocked them behind something and couldn't see them until I moved). What to do now, I wondered... Why I'll just open up the mash tun, and dump the "found" grains in, and extend the mash time -- of course (2nd mistake).

After another beer, it's time to sparge. Luckily I can say that the sparge went pretty well. Unfortunately that was the "highlight" of the entire evening, as I got my 6GL+ worth for the kettle. Hey, sometimes things go just right, regardless of the amount of alcohol one has consumed.

Now I do split boils, since I don't have a lot of space or kettle volume to boot. With a split boil, basically I run off my mash/sparge stuff into one large bucket, then divide this between two brew kettles. After that the hop additions are split equally between the two during the boil. Has worked for me well in the past, and would've worked here, but...

This time, however, I had read somewhere (obviously not here) that I could just boil 1.5GL in one, and 4.5GL in the other. The smaller of the two, per this "article', said it could be boiled for 15-20 minutes, cooled, and set aside. I thought this was "fantastic", and I could even use this "cooler" wort to help cool the larger wort, the one where I'd DO all my hop additions in (basically treating the 1.5GL short boil as "top-up" water) -- mistake 3?

So the smaller kettle is done, it's just sitting there "cooling" and finally the complete hour is up for the larger kettle. Time to cool it, right? Right. I dump the smaller into the larger (by this time, it's all about 5 to 5.5 gallons) and I set it in my sink and an ice bath. Then I have another beer and then I start "thinking"... ah geez, mistake 4 is on!

There's 8" of snow outside. Why don't I just take my kettle and set it in a pretty snow bank? Yeah, that'll work, I know that'll be faster, right? I proceed to do just that. Did I mention that 5.5GL of liquid is heavy? Did I mention it's double heavy after 10 or so beers?

Yep, you got it... spilled at least 1/2 GL on my way outside, but now I've got her in the snow. Dang, it's cold out here. Where's my lid for this? Let me go inside, I gotta clean this mess up. Mistake 5.

SNOOOORRRREEEEE ZZZZZZZZ -- an hour and a half later I wake up and have a massive hissy fit (keep in mind I'm alone), go outside, see my uncovered kettle just sitting there in the snow. I almost wanted to take a picture of that "landscape" but alas, I bring the thing in. God only knows what went on outside while she sat there, uncovered. It's nice and cool all right though. The wort is down right cold! I'll just wait it out, and you know, have another beer. Finally, it's time to move it to the fermenter and that goes pretty well, all things considered. Mistake 6 has been made.

As I'm about ready to pitch the yeast, I realize I hadn't made a starter the day before. I do this (normally) for any "large" batch, and again, I've had success with it, but oh no, not tonight. In addition, this recipe calls for a yeast I had not used before, White Labs WLP051. Reading about it a few days before, one of the keys for this yeast is fermentation temperature (which of course is true for any yeast, but this one from what I can gather even more so -- needs to be a touch cooler than your typical WLP001). I don't care, I'm pitching it, and letting the chips fall where they may. Boy did they fall. Mistake 7.

I have one of those Cool Brewing fermentation bags -- they work pretty good and do not take up a lot of space. Depending on how many frozen bottles of water you put in the bag, you can get the temperature down into the 50's. Normally, for my setup I put two 12oz bottles in there, and the temp stays around 64-66 (my condo temperature is usually 70-72). So, yes, I could have went cooler...

If I had actually used the bag, I might have not even written this story. I had forgotten to freeze a few bottles. In my infinite wisdom, I just leave the fermenter out, sitting next to the bag, like some magic might just happen if I have another beer and call it an evening... which I do. Mistake 8.

9 weeks later, after tasting several of the bottles, it kinda tastes and smells like, well, like iodine. That's the best way to describe it. No, I don't use Idophor at all -- strictly a Starsan man here. Somewhere between mistakes 1 and 8, or quite possibly all of them, I turned what should have been a good brew into something I could disinfect wounds with. Or perhaps infect them?

Lesson: Don't drink (heavily) and brew.

Recipe (I call mine the "Idophor Clone", but call it what you will, it's all in the technique):

8.63 lb 2-row
1 lb Munich
8oz Crystal 80
6oz Victory
1oz Willamette (60)
1oz Willamette (10)
0.5oz Goldings (flameout)
WLP051 White Labs Yeast

60 Minutes at 154
Drain and sparge 170 to 6+ gallons; 60 minute boil.

*reads thread title*

That's why I don't start drinking until at least the mash has begun.

I personally think that there might be a difference between "heavy drinking while brewing" and "brewing after coming home from the happy hour" lol!

Great story tho...

Great Story!!

Luckily, I have a better half who retains some sense when we've been drinking and usually keeps me from doing stuff like this.

I don't drink when i brew. I don't like to deal with hot liquids and such when i'm under the influence of alcohol. I have a drink when im done and ill prob just smoke a stogie while i brew.

I get hammered pretty much every time I brew. I have the occasional broken glass or hydrometer but never messed up a batch because of it. I use a brewday list that way I don't have to depend on a drunk to remember everything.

Brewing on a Friday night on a buzzed whim. That is awesome. If it were me starting on Friday night and drinking throughout the brew, I'd probably fall asleep during the boil and be woken up in the wee hours of the morning to burning wort smoke and a totally effed up kettle. So kudos to you for at least making it all the way through. I guess you could name it Stonewall Jackson's Civil War Antiseptic Ale.

It's quite the wonder that I didn't fall asleep during the boil -- heck, the next day, I couldn't even remember putting the hops in. Lord knows how that "schedule" went! LOL

frank_wood1966 said:

Lesson: Don't drink (heavily) and brew.

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The best decision I ever made in life, as it relates to brewing, is drinking heavily before, during and after I brew a beer!

wardens355 said:

Brewing on a Friday night on a buzzed whim. That is awesome. If it were me starting on Friday night and drinking throughout the brew, I'd probably fall asleep during the boil and be woken up in the wee hours of the morning to burning wort smoke and a totally effed up kettle. So kudos to you for at least making it all the way through. I guess you could name it Stonewall Jackson's Civil War Antiseptic Ale.

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I like that name, good one!

I used to drink and brew..Beer quality has gone up since I stopped..Just too many bad things that can go wrong with brewing while intoxicated. I usually pop a brew once I pitch the yeast and the carboy is labeled and set in its 3 week resting place and the gear is all cleaned up.
Its my "Atta boy" beer for after.

bbohanon said:

I used to drink and brew..Beer quality has gone up since I stopped..Just too many bad things that can go wrong with brewing while intoxicated. I usually pop a brew once I pitch the yeast and the carboy is labeled and set in its 3 week resting place and the gear is all cleaned up.
Its my "Atta boy" beer for after.

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I believe that your beers may turn out better when you brew without drinking. But, what's the difference if I'm drinking like a fish, hit my mash temp spot-on, set my timer for the mash, drain, boil, add hop additions on time (timer will go off), boil-down to desired volume, cool wort and pitch yeast? I've done it so many times without problems.

I've brewed close to 90 batches of beer. And I'd estimate I've been totally sober for maybe 5 of those. I'm usually ridiculously buzzed and have made some fantastic beers.

My point is, I am not sold on the idea that brewing totally sober makes for better beer.

To give some idea as to how much I consume, I typically have a beer while getting all of my equipment together from the basement, another 2-4 during the mash (includes heating strike water), and another 4-5 during the boil, cooling wort and clean-up.

It's impossible for me not to have a beer on each and every one of those steps.

Brewing beer sober is like having sex with your clothes on.

Remmy said:

I believe that your beers may turn out better when you brew without drinking. But, what's the difference if I'm drinking like a fish, hit my mash temp spot-on, set my timer for the mash, drain, boil, add hop additions on time (timer will go off), boil-down to desired volume, cool wort and pitch yeast? I've done it so many times without problems.

I've brewed close to 90 batches of beer. And I'd estimate I've been totally sober for maybe 5 of those. I'm usually ridiculously buzzed and have made some fantastic beers.

My point is, I am not sold on the idea that brewing totally sober makes for better beer.

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100% agreed..Its all about how functional you can be while drinking. When I was 22, I could be totally wasted but perform open heart surgery. Now at 42, when I drink, I really need to be in a position where I am not near anything sharp, electrified or breakable.
:fro:

My biggest problem with drinking and brewing is that when I am all finished up, I don't feel like cleaning up, so I do a half-assed job and then need to reclean the next day. To avoid that, I usually crack my first beer when I am oxygenating my wort and finish beer #2 by the time I finish cleaning all my equipment. Then the floodgates open...

I think that when you're brewing while sh*tfaced, you definitely increase the chances of something going wrong. People move large glass carboys, very hot and sticky wort, and not to mention the open flames. Falling asleep while the burner is on is never a good situation.

I'm not saying that you can't make awesome beer under these conditions, but it definitely increases that chances that you'll potentially hurt yourself and maybe even others, especially if you're brewing indoors. If it gets to the point where you can't remember much from the brew night, that may not be a good thing.

It's like driving home after getting smashed and saying, "I got home safely, so drinking and driving is fine for me."

Not trying to be preachy here. I had one brew session where I fell asleep because of over-consumption and luckily it was during the wort chill phase. Now I make it a point to limit how much I drink, and when to start.

I've never actually gotten totally smashed while brewing, but there have been a couple of occasions when I found myself feeling a little more "loose" than I was comfortable with, and dialed it back. It helps that I like to do my brewing on weekend mornings, and it's tough to have even a single beer at 7:00 am without the angel on my right shoulder mumbling something about me maybe having a "problem." Gimme a break, mimosas are a thing, why can't I have a beer with breakfast? Whatever. So I end up not even having the first beer until lunchtime, right after I've finished packing away all my freshly-cleaned gear.

This reminds me of a story from back when I was living at home during off-semesters in university. I have a younger brother who was also living at home at the time. Anyway, one night he went out partying with some friends and came home pretty late, after the rest of us had gone to bed. I came out of my room the next morning and found him asleep (passed out?) on the couch. Eventually Dad went outside to get the paper and came back in the house yelling, "Who was using the bar-b-que!?!"

Turns out my brother had gotten a hankering for some sausage when he came home, so he put some on the bar-b-que and promptly fell asleep on the couch. By morning, the sausages were sad, shriveled pieces of charcoal, and the propane tank was completely empty. Dad was not impressed.

I value my brew time while drinking.

Plenty of time for a HB during clean up. Other than that, I've got too much going on at the same time for something to get lost in the shuffle. If you're dedicating a day to brewing, or going from a-b-c, or have some help - sure, do whatever you want.

In my brewhouse (Kitchen), it's no beers until the yeast's pitched and it's time for cleanup.

Dang. Entertaining to read, but dang.

I can't think of the last time I had 10+ beers in a day, let alone a brew session (maybe college?). For me, 6 beers (at least the kind of brew I make, which is generally around 6-7%) and I am DONE. Drunk, loaded, what have you and I am not exactly a tiny guy (185lbs and 6'1"). I mean, I could probably manage 10+ beers over the course of an entire day, but in 4-5 hours, probably not without being a menace to myself or others.

I drink almost everytime I brew. I normally crack one about halfway through mashings and occasionally I'll crack a second one part way through the boil. Then I'll sometimes have a third after I am done cleaning up to toast a new about to be beer.

That is my limit and most of the time I'll just open a single beer part way through the boil or near the end of the mash and nurse it through the rest of the brew and clean up and not open one even after I am finished.

Of course this weekend I might want to tone it down a little as I am doing two days of two back-to-back brews each day. So I might just want to do 1-2 per brew and have ONE celebratory beer after the entire day's mess is cleaned up.

Though in general I hate getting drunk. I love a happy buzz, but that is about as far as I go with drinking most days. I might get drunk 2-4 times a year, but only mildly drunk at worst (the occasional family holiday doing beer tastings and what not. Maybe a crazy night with my wife after the kids are to bed, that kind of thing).

My brew days normally start at 6AM. No way in hell am I drinking that early.

sumbrewindude said:

Plenty of time for a HB during clean up. Other than that, I've got too much going on at the same time for something to get lost in the shuffle. If you're dedicating a day to brewing, or going from a-b-c, or have some help - sure, do whatever you want.

In my brewhouse (Kitchen), it's no beers until the yeast's pitched and it's time for cleanup.

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I'm basically your build (10 lbs. lighter) and I will say the average ABV on beers I consume during brew day is 8-8.5%. It works out just fine. I mash in the kitchen, bring the wort over to my garage (door is right by my kitchen) and onto the propane burner. I boil and cool there since I have a faucet just outside of my garage. I also dump my grain in the woods and clean-up all of my equipment with the hose just outside of the garage. It's so easy.

I don't think I could ever brew by myself or with anyone who isn't drinking during the brewing process.

I think this is one of the reasons I will stay with my extract brewing. I feel that me and my friends drinking like we do making extract is bad enough. Now, outside, having to do more stuff with more liquid? yeah, there are mistakes that will happen every single time.

My first brew ever, in Jan, we drank more than we made.... (5 gallon batch).

One of the last steps in my brew day is hauling 5 gallons down a flight of stairs. I know one day I'll die from it, but at least I'll die covered in beer; both inside and out.

I usually don't drink to much before the end of the boil. Mainly because I'm still trying to figure out between my current gravity, current volume, and volume after cooling exactly what I've made.

kombat said:

I've never actually gotten totally smashed while brewing, but there have been a couple of occasions when I found myself feeling a little more "loose" than I was comfortable with, and dialed it back. It helps that I like to do my brewing on weekend mornings, and it's tough to have even a single beer at 7:00 am without the angel on my right shoulder mumbling something about me maybe having a "problem." Gimme a break, mimosas are a thing, why can't I have a beer with breakfast? Whatever. So I end up not even having the first beer until lunchtime, right after I've finished packing away all my freshly-cleaned gear.

This reminds me of a story from back when I was living at home during off-semesters in university. I have a younger brother who was also living at home at the time. Anyway, one night he went out partying with some friends and came home pretty late, after the rest of us had gone to bed. I came out of my room the next morning and found him asleep (passed out?) on the couch. Eventually Dad went outside to get the paper and came back in the house yelling, "Who was using the bar-b-que!?!"

Turns out my brother had gotten a hankering for some sausage when he came home, so he put some on the bar-b-que and promptly fell asleep on the couch. By morning, the sausages were sad, shriveled pieces of charcoal, and the propane tank was completely empty. Dad was not impressed.

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Hey, beermosas can be a thing, right?

For your last, I know too many people who do "stupid things" while drunk. I try to constrain myself to at worst saying things I wouldn't ordinarily have said (see holiday beer tastings with family. The perfect time to say things you later regret! Especially when it is your wife's entire extended family there!!! Woot! Though it has only happened a couple of times...that I said something I regreted. Thankfully they were mostly all so tanked they don't remember hearing it).

I know someone who thought it would be a great idea to crap on his neighbor's (who he hated) front step. The only problem is they were so loaded they FELL ASLEEP promptly afterwards. Their neighbor found them curled up asleep on their front stoop, next to a pile of feces.

The police, when called, were NOT amused (I think he only had to do 100 hours of community service and court costs out of it. Oh, and a 100 yard restraining order from the neighbor. Fortunately they were not next door neighbors).

Well ill also add that i tend to do most of my brewing first thing in the morning. Thats also a big reason i dont drink when i brew. i tend to do my prep the night before and hit the ground running when i wake up and start. I like to brew but all i want to do is just get that wort into the fermentor pitch the yeast and enjoy the rest of my day.

Trying to wrap my head around this... I brew BECAUSE I drink heavily, now you dont want me to drink heavily when I brew?

Then when will I brew? ARGGG!!!

brick_haus said:

Trying to wrap my head around this... I brew BECAUSE I drink heavily, now you dont want me to drink heavily when I brew?

Then when will I brew? ARGGG!!!

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One of the reasons I won't ever consider brewing beer professionally is because I need to drink constantly throughout the process.

Yes, I said "need to." :fro:

Remmy said:

I'm basically your build (10 lbs. lighter) and I will say the average ABV on beers I consume during brew day is 8-8.5%. It works out just fine. I mash in the kitchen, bring the wort over to my garage (door is right by my kitchen) and onto the propane burner. I boil and cool there since I have a faucet just outside of my garage. I also dump my grain in the woods and clean-up all of my equipment with the hose just outside of the garage. It's so easy.

I don't think I could ever brew by myself or with anyone who isn't drinking during the brewing process.

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We've met? I've only been to CONN a couple times, and that was a long time ago....

No way I could do an 8+ABV beer and stay focused on hitting all my times. I'd have one, then another, and well hell at that point I might as well just turn everything off and go for a nap.

Every now and then I get a drive by "helper" who's under 5, I'm not going to take a risk of someone getting burned on something hot. She does love to add hops, though....

sumbrewindude said:

We've met? I've only been to CONN a couple times, and that was a long time ago....

No way I could do an 8+ABV beer and stay focused on hitting all my times. I'd have one, then another, and well hell at that point I might as well just turn everything off and go for a nap.

Every now and then I get a drive by "helper" who's under 5, I'm not going to take a risk of someone getting burned on something hot. She does love to add hops, though....

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You are lucky. My 3 and 5 year old generally ignore it. I WISH my 7 year old would. He loves to walk in to the kitchen, "Daddy. Are you brewing beer again? It STINKS! STOP IT!"

sigh.

Remmy said:

I don't think I could ever brew by myself or with anyone who isn't drinking during the brewing process.

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I agree. It should be unlawful to brew beer without drinking beer. I set up in a way that I dont need to be sober. That's what timers, brewing calculators and brew day sheets are for.

Just think...what if this had been the best beer you ever made. Then the problem would have been trying to replicate the exact same errors......instead of making NEW drunken errors.

It probably sucked because you forgot to say "BOOM" when you made each hop addition.

Onkel_Udo said:

Just think...what if this had been the best beer you ever made. Then the problem would have been trying to replicate the exact same errors......instead of making NEW drunken errors.

It probably sucked because you forgot to say "BOOM" when you made each hop addition.

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It generally takes me at least a beer before I am willing to start cackling while I stir my pot heating up to strike temperature (BiaB). Boil, boil, toil and trouble. Fire burn and cauldron bubble *hehehhehhehehehehhe*

I don't think I could make it through a brew day without drinking... heavily lol. My druken state isusually what make cleaning bareable

I made mistakes on brew days when I started with a beer, and that was prior to my partial mashes! These days I generally wait until I've added my bittering addition to crack the first, and despite this I still makes mistakes once in a while. But it's sacrilegious not to drink beer on brewing and bottling days, just as it is on BBQ and mowing days (after a shower and plenty of water that is!).

I certainly wouldn't try brewing after happy hour. My beers are generally 5.2-7% and I'll have 5-7 or so. But that's also in as many hours as I'm a bit of a slow drinker (1 every 30-60 mins) unless drinking with friends.

I do partial mash/partial boils and have considered boiling my LME and top off water (3 lbs and water is ~1.5 gals to total 5.5 gals) with my aroma addition (7 mins) and cooling so I'm not exactly using straight water for top off to reduce my overall IBU's so much. But then I'm also considering reducing my over all volume so as not to need more than 1 qt of top off.

phyllobeddo said:

My brew days normally start at 6AM. No way in hell am I drinking that early.

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I have found it is impossible to drink all day if you don't start in the morning.
:cross:

BrotherGrim said:

I have found it is impossible to drink all day if you don't start in the morning.
:cross:

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This is true. I've collected a lot of data on the subject. I have also found that a fishing rod somehow multiplies the number of beers I drink in the morning.

Gotta drink homebrew while brewing homebrew. Although I really don't drink more than three beers in a "session" anymore anyways. (Granted, I like and mostly brew stronger beers, but still, after years of being the binge guy every Friday and Saturday, I decided to give up my belt a couple years back).


Though we did use the last brew as our platform for drinking one of my xmas presents, a 3L bottle of Double Bastard. And we figured a 3-hour boil barleywine brew was enough of a spectacle for that (along with some homebrewed 10% quad and 10% belgian golden strong and a bomber of Abyss going around the brew circle). Yeahhh....there were a couple things around flame out and after that I don't quite remember...

azazel1024 said:

You are lucky. My 3 and 5 year old generally ignore it. I WISH my 7 year old would. He loves to walk in to the kitchen, "Daddy. Are you brewing beer again? It STINKS! STOP IT!"

sigh.

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Thats how/why I quit smoking 26 years ago. I'm sure my wife put him up to it!! Sure can breathe better now though..