Half-Ass IPA

So, Saturday morning I decided I wanted to utilize some cascade hops I've had in the freezer and some grains I've had for over 2 months (they were already milled and needed using). Brew days for me can be somewhat hectic as I have twin 2yr olds (almost 3) that require constant supervision. My wife seems to think I should be tending to them instead of doing something as useless as making beer, although when I make her apple cider she thinks it's a great hobby (of course, because that takes all of ten minutes to add some yeast to some sugar and apple juice).

I decided that instead of fly sparging as I always do, I'd try batch sparging this time to save some time and get back to helping her with the kids. I heated my water to temp, tossed it and the grains in the mash tun and let it sit for 90 minutes. This is where I get lazy.

With about 20 mintues left, I heat about 7 gallons to 168 degrees. I drain all the wort out of the tun and into the kettle. I then add a couple more gallons to then mash tun and, instead of stirring it and letting it sit for a few minutes, I let it sit for about a minute and ran the remaining wort into the kettle and started the boil. While waiting for the wort to come to a boil, I took a sample, cooled it and took a reading. 1.039. WTF? Preboil was supposed to be around 1.054. So, I added about a half pound of DME and a cup of table sugar to the boil and said F*** it, we'll see what happens. After several boil overs, I finally got this in bucket with some saved S-05 slurry.

It's going pretty strong right now. My OG came to 1.055 so I'm hoping for something between 5.5% and 6%. It's an all cascade (well, except for the left over williamette and hallertau I used for bittering) IPA. 2oz cascade at 20 mins, 2 oz at 5 mins, and I'm going dry hop with 2oz in the keg. I figure even if the sugar dries it out a bit, it shouldn't matter. I'll be happy if this even ends up drinkable.

I JUST realized, 2 days later, that I didn't even bother to check my mash temp. Thus, I have dubbed this my Half-Ass IPA. I'll let yall know how it turns out.

That sounds like brewing with one of my buddies. It always turns into a what the heck are we doing day.

I have four year old twins and though the brew day gets a little less hectic, there are still those rushing around moments where you have forgot to add something or forgot a measurement or missed strike temps too high or low . Lately I've embraced late night brewing and kids bedtime is directly correlated to strike water temp.
My brew days go a little something like this: Heat strike water and dinner at the same time . When water is at temp mash in and get sparge water ready. put the kids in the tub and get them ready for bed . At some point heat sparge water read a story or two . By that time kids should be asleep and mash is ready to sparge ( or the kids are bouncing off the walls and you're sick of yelling at them to go to sleep ) if you fly sparge excuse yourself from said crazed children and set up the sparge, drain to kettle . Run back upstairs to wrangle children back into bed ( which is much easier when they are still in cribs ) hope the mash tun doesn't overflow for one catastrophe or another . By the time it's done fly sparging you either have a brewpot of goodness or a hell of a lot of cleaning to do . And hopefully by this time the little cherubs should be fast asleep . Run down to start boil measure out hop additions and Benadryl ( for that little cherub who still won't go to sleep ) ... Then sit back relax and enjoy the boil while wondering why you undertook this in the first place and try to keep yourself awake till its time to pitch yeast and clean up

dlovin said:

I have four year old twins and though the brew day gets a little less hectic, there are still those rushing around moments where you have forgot to add something or forgot a measurement or missed strike temps too high or low . Lately I've embraced late night brewing and kids bedtime is directly correlated to strike water temp.
My brew days go a little something like this: Heat strike water and dinner at the same time . When water is at temp mash in and get sparge water ready. put the kids in the tub and get them ready for bed . At some point heat sparge water read a story or two . By that time kids should be asleep and mash is ready to sparge ( or the kids are bouncing off the walls and you're sick of yelling at them to go to sleep ) if you fly sparge excuse yourself from said crazed children and set up the sparge, drain to kettle . Run back upstairs to wrangle children back into bed ( which is much easier when they are still in cribs ) hope the mash tun doesn't overflow for one catastrophe or another . By the time it's done fly sparging you either have a brewpot of goodness or a hell of a lot of cleaning to do . And hopefully by this time the little cherubs should be fast asleep . Run down to start boil measure out hop additions and Benadryl ( for that little cherub who still won't go to sleep ) ... Then sit back relax and enjoy the boil while wondering why you undertook this in the first place and try to keep yourself awake till its time to pitch yeast and clean up

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That gave me a great laugh! So glad someone else understands....the struggle is REAL!

Fellow twin Dad here! My twins are 6 now, and I've been brewing for about 5 of those years.

Do what works for you, but my AG brew days typically start around 5:30-6am on a Sunday, and I finish around 10-10:30am. It DOES get easier. We're very restrictive on TV/screen time during the week (20-30 minutes a day max), so Sunday morning is perfect for letting them get up and watch a movie while Mommy sleeps and Daddy brews.

My kids always want to help me, though. I probably shouldn't, but I let them throw the hops in the boil, stir the mash, etc.

I let them help as much as I can. My son loves to pour the grain into the mill and pull the trigger on the drill. We made a Hefeweizen for their birthday and he kept calling it minion beer because it was going to smell like bananas

Well, this turned out surprisingly drinkable. Came in at 5.5%abv with nice citrusy notes. Cloudy as hell (due to the dry hopping in keg I assume), but very tasty. And I wouldn't try to replicate it again if I could... More control and attention next time!

I feel you brother.
Although my little boy is only 1yr old, I have to negotiate with the wife to get a night off once in a while...
Bath for the little one, then off to the garage... it's usually 1-2am when I go to bed.