Brewing Stress Dreams

[pentirei]

Do you guys get 'em? I've only just started brewing (I've made one brew so far...an imperial IPA I called Wünderbier...it's already almost gone) and I guess the stress of waiting for Midwest Supplies' order status to change from "Processing" to shipped got to me.

So I dreamt I was brewing what I'm planning to make next, a mostly-extract but kinda partial-mash clone of Founders Breakfast Stout. I had finished the boil when I realized that I had forgotten to mash the oats at the beginning and had also forgotten to add the torrified wheat (which is definitely not part of the recipe). My kitchen was strewn with packaging material from Midwest and I couldn't even tell if they'd sent me the torrified wheat in the first place.

Then, to my horror, I turn around just in time to see my roommate dipping his unwashed, unsanitized hand into my wort because he wants to taste it.

I awoke in a cold sweat.

What's your worst beermare?

 

[Zuljin]

I had a dream last night that my neighbor cut my grass and put weed whacker marks around my tree. Then all my bottles were broken in my shower.

 

[lowtones84]

Yup, definitely. My latest one was that I bottled and corked a highly carbonated Belgian beer but forgot to put the wire cages over the corks. The co2 popped the corks out, oh no!

I've also had dreams about starters not taking off and things like that.

 

[TNGabe]

This thread makes me feel 30% less crazy.

 

[Tupperwolf]

Yes, absolutely.

The week before I brewed my first ever batch of beer (all grain, to make it more complicated) I had stress dreams nearly every night. I experienced nearly every disaster possible in my dreams, including a careless relative dumping a bottle of hot sauce into the mash tun.

 

[kh54s10]

Yes, absolutely.

The week before I brewed my first ever batch of beer (all grain, to make it more complicated) I had stress dreams nearly every night. I experienced nearly every disaster possible in my dreams, including a careless relative dumping a bottle of hot sauce into the mash tun.

This sounds good! I bottled a batch of Pepper Ale last week where I added 2 tablespoons of cracked red pepper to the last 5 minutes of the boil. I took a gravity reading and tasted it - little pepper flavor so I dry hopped with another ounce of hops and another 2 tablespoons of pepper flakes. It had a bit of bite on the taste I took at bottling time.

No bad dreams for me, only good ones!

 

[Brewitt]

I did when I started. I had even more of them when I started to brew all grain after two batches of extract brewing. I think the day I stopped having them was when a brew buddy of mine came over to do a brew in a bag with me for his the first time (he was an extract brewer for many years). He just laughed at me for how meticulous I was and how much I planned ahead. He taught me to relax and assured me that there was a lot of room for "error" in the process. Since then I have relaxed. I've never had a spoiled beer since then. I still plan ahead, weigh everything out, measure everything carefully and follow good sanitation procedures. I just don't worry so much. When I go to his house to hang out while he brews, he throws in handfuls of this and than, mows the lawn while he is mashing in..... His beer comes out great. I guess the moral of the story is that if you spend the time to learn the procedure, then learn what's important and what doesn't matter, it gets a lot less stressful. At least for me.