First all grain a DISASTER

[Xalwine]

So this past monday I did my first all grain batch. Almost everything went wrong.

The day started with me running to home depot to get an attachment for my hot liquor tank so i could sparge. I get back only to realize i got the wrong size... no problem. I'll dissassemble my 5gal pot that i used for my BIAB. Did that and got it running.

Now, I get my hot water running and my mash is going. I start heating my sparge water and i realize im 1 gal short! so i run inside and fill a gallon bottle with my (decent) tap water. I get that going.

I vorlauf and pull the liquid into my brew kettle, and realized i used to much water in my mash and thats why i was one gal short! so now i have an extra gallon to boil off.

I go to put my floating thermometer into my boil kettle, being very careful because i broke one before. i gently put it into the pot, it bobs with a rolling boil and the tip of the thermometer breaks.

I panic, and immediately check forums, I get the consensus that it will not affect my beer because it wont transfer to my fermenter. I start sanitizing my 2 other hop bags to act as filters just in case.

I use a boil timer in my brewpal app to let me know when to add my hops, and the app crashes. So i have to ballpark my hops addition.

I finish my boil, and chill. I transfer over to my fermenter, using the hopsacks over the end of my tube, also aerating it. I take my fermenter inside and add my yeast, it is at this moment that I realize, I forgot to take a sample!

I go out to my garage to grab my hydrometer, and the bottom of the tube opens and my hydrometer falls to the ground shattering.

I take my beer thief inside to grab a sample, and when I open my closet a bag of dogfood falls and spills all over the floor. more mess to clean up.

I grab a sample to test with once i get my new hydrometer and put it in a mason jar and put it in the fridge. I then realize i never sanitized the mason jar.

the next day I check, and my airlock has had zero activity. I give it a shake and Krausen puffs into my airlock. but it starts bubbling.

I fully expect to come home from work today and find out that it blew off and i'll have even more to clean up.

on the plus side, I think the beer will be ok.

 

[JasonInBTR]

Sounds to me like you learned a lot on your first AG. I have about a dozen under my belt now and am just getting comfortable with my process. At least it can't be much worse on the next go around.

Jason

 

[mcaple1]

Why didn't you just use a watch for your hop additions...unless I am missing something here.

 

[Xalwine]

Sounds to me like you learned a lot on your first AG. I have about a dozen under my belt now and am just getting comfortable with my process. At least it can't be much worse on the next go around.

Jason

Thanks for the confidence, I have another grainbill set up for next weekend, I'm hoping to do 1-2 a month til I get it down pat, then maybe 1 a week. Get a nice pipeline going.

 

[350_Malibu]

Sounded like a fun day!

 

[headbanger]

Hang in there man, we all have days like that.

 

[Xalwine]

Why didn't you just use a watch for your hop additions...unless I am missing something here.

I don't wear a watch. Plus i had this nifty app on my phone that claimed to alert me when I needed to add my hops. I forgot to look at the time when my boil started.

Hang in there man, we all have days like that.

Thanks. Don't worry I'm not throwing in the towel after 1 bad brewday. Although for about an hour afterwards I considered burning my whole brew sculpture down and pissing on the ashes.

 

[headbanger]

I don't wear a watch. Plus i had this nifty app on my phone that claimed to alert me when I needed to add my hops. I forgot to look at the time when my boil started.

Ain't technology great?

 

[JasonInBTR]

Yea.....I recommend grabbing a cheap digital timer next time you are at wallyworld. Another thought is to jot down the start time of the mash and boil on your brewsheet.

 

[Xalwine]

Why didn't you just use a watch for your hop additions...unless I am missing something here.

Yea.....I recommend grabbing a cheap digital timer next time you are at wallyworld. Another thought is to jot down the start time of the mash and boil on your brewsheet.

 

[waldoar15]

You don't need a thermometer in your boil kettle. Check mash temps and check when the wort is cool enough to pitch yeast.

 

[edmanster]

Get a refractometer while your at it.. Got mine for $35 off ebay shipped.. I only use the hydrometer for my dry wines FG's..

 

[Xalwine]

You don't need a thermometer in your boil kettle. Check mash temps and check when the wort is cool enough to pitch yeast.

I only had it in there to know how close i was to boiling. I planned on removing it but I had a pretty violent hot break.

 

[Xalwine]

Get a refractometer while your at it.. Got mine for $35 off ebay shipped.. I only use the hydrometer for my dry wines FG's..

I looked into it, but to get my final gravity i'd need a hydrometer anyways. so what is the benefit to using a refractometer when I could just use a Hydrometer instead?

 

[Mike_A]

on the plus side, I think the beer will be ok.

That right there is all that matters. Glad you survived without any personal injury too. Brew days ending in gauze or stitches would be worse.

Every time I mess something up on brew day, I just remember that people have been brewing beer for thousands of years and managed to end up with a better product than the giant, scientific, technical approach of BMC.

Oh, and the benefit of a refractometer is being able to read gravity without adjusting for temperature, plus taking a much smaller sample. Also, the readings CAN be adjusted to work for final gravity, but you already spent the ~$5 on a hydrometer so you can still use that for your FG check.

 

[edmanster]

You can get really close to your FG unless it goes below 1.. You can also check the SG of the mash to help determine if conversion has taken place. You can check OG. You can do all of these things without cooling your wort (with ATC) and you only need 1 drop..

 

[rambler]

Ha, I think we can all relate to at least a part or two of that story, I have had brew days that have gone like that too. Thats how you learn i guess.

In the bbq section at wallyworld I found a meat thermometer that is very handy. It has a ss probe with a 3 foot cord, an alarm when your target temp is reached, and works remotely-meaning you can detach the timer from its base and carry it around in your pocket so your not stuck there watching and waiting. I think it was only 16 bucks or so.

 

[Xalwine]

Ha, I think we can all relate to at least a part or two of that story, I have had brew days that have gone like that too. Thats how you learn i guess.

In the bbq section at wallyworld I found a meat thermometer that is very handy. It has a ss probe with a 3 foot cord, an alarm when your target temp is reached, and works remotely-meaning you can detach the timer from its base and carry it around in your pocket so your not stuck there watching and waiting. I think it was only 16 bucks or so.

Nice! I'll have to pick one of those up.

 

[TheSlash]

Get a refractometer while your at it.. Got mine for $35 off ebay shipped.. I only use the hydrometer for my dry wines FG's..

TOTALLY agree. I did my first few batches with a hydrometer and between having to cool the wort, take a huge sample, get the thing to float with zero bubbles, etc I was really starting to dislike the hassle of figuring out efficiency.

Now I use the little dropper that came with the refractometer, place a drop of wort on the end and see the exact gravity! Mine adjusts for temperature AND shows gravity scale along side brix. Was $49.

A great great $49 tool I thought I would never need, and now will never brew without.

 

[charliec]

So Murphy paid you a visit! Sounds like you learned a lot in that one session. Keep at it bro!

 

[estoppel]

Sounds like you'll end up with a great beer anyways! Stuff will always go wrong on brewday. Even when I brewed extract, it always seemed like there was one or two screw ups. My friend and I brew in my kitchen and we're pretty famous for dropping stuff. We casually refer to our brew operation as "On the floor brewing", not because you'll end up on the floor after you drink our beer, but because most of the ingredients and equipment wound up on the floor at some point during brewday. But we still make good beer!

 

[Zixxer10R]

I'm glad everything turned out OK, but i'm sorry...gotta say that story was extremely entertaining to read! I was making a fool of myself in my cube laughing out loud, people walking by wondering why my eyes are teared up and red from laughing so hard.

Thanks for the entertainment. I'm sure i'll have some great stories as my hobby progresses.

 

[PatientZero]

Sounds like you'll end up with a great beer anyways! Stuff will always go wrong on brewday. Even when I brewed extract, it always seemed like there was one or two screw ups. My friend and I brew in my kitchen and we're pretty famous for dropping stuff. We casually refer to our brew operation as "On the floor brewing", not because you'll end up on the floor after you drink our beer, but because most of the ingredients and equipment wound up on the floor at some point during brewday. But we still make good beer!

My friend and I brew in my kitchen, too. Your regimen seems pretty close to our. In the 2 years we've been brewing together, I think we've gone through about 8 hydrometers.

On top of that, my girlfriend won't let us dump our trub and other nasties down the drain anymore, so it all goes in the toilet. How many of you can say that the toilet is an integral part of your brewing equipment?

OP: Sorry, I feel like a total dick, but I LOOOOOOOOVE laughing at other people's misfortune. I'm sure your beer will be fine, though. I think I've had all of the same issues you've had at some point, but probably not all in the same brew session. AG brewing gets better from here on out.

 

[Xalwine]

i love the schadenfreude in this thread. I am alright with this situation being laughed at, it's just a series of unfortunate events. one after another after another........

 

[Zixxer10R]

i love the schadenfreude in this thread. I am alright with this situation being laughed at, it's just a series of unfortunate events. one after another after another........

after another, after another, after another...

 

[estoppel]

PZ: I pour the trub down the john too. It plugged up my sink/tub a few times and it's just easier. So yeah, the toilet is definitely part of my brewing equipment.

 

[dlaramie08]

You definitely get the "survival of an unfortunate series of events" award.

 

[Xalwine]

Sorry to necro an old thread. But it's mine, so that's fine I guess.

So I just had my first brewday in 8 years this past Saturday. Almost 10 years from when I had my "first all grain disaster day"

I got up, went to Lowes to pick up a last minute barb adapter that I needed for my tubing hookups for transfer. Measured out my water, adding some to account for dead space that I measured the day before.

Preheated my MLT cooler with 10 gallons and transfered that to my cleaning buckets so I didn't waste it.

Got my strike water up to temp, mashed in and had a great time cleaning the fermenter, accessories, tubing, and all the little bits and bobs. Before I knew it, I was starting my sparge and pulling my wort. Collected a bit more than I needed, but just had to boil a bit longer. Turned out to be a blessing in disguise because I nailed my OG. Although I'm not sure how much sugar that last half gallon really had in it.

I also used a watch to track time. who woulda thought?

Got my boil rolling, hops added, and then quickly cooled after the 90 minute boil. Transfer went painlessly, and I pitched a very active yeast, as evidenced by my blownoff blow off tube this morning.

The worst thing to happen was getting some pretty nasty sunburns. But all things consitered it went great.

It's a little weird re-reading through this. Reflecting on where I was back then. Still a funny story though.

 

[day_trippr]

"Weird" seems apt
Given the chronology I'm wondering what brought you back after 8 years off...

Cheers!

 

[hout17]

Glad you didn't give up lol. Sound like your brew day went well. Also I would recommend getting John Palmers How To Brew 4th edition if you haven't.

Brew on let us know how the brew turns out!

 

[Xalwine]

"Weird" seems apt
Given the chronology I'm wondering what brought you back after 8 years off...

Cheers!

Mostly having the ability to do so. I recently moved from an apartment to my own house, so I have much more room to brew. I transferred to keg yesterday, and have my next brew day set for tomorrow. Glad to be brewing again, and I can't wait to get that first cold pint.

 

[day_trippr]

Ah - that totally makes sense, and congrats!
Hope you have many brew days ahead!

Cheers!

 

[Gozie Boy]

Just remember the immortal words of experience and wisdom from the late, great (and no doubt all grain brewer) Roseanne Roseannadanna:
"It's always something..."

 

[Xalwine]

Just remember the immortal words of experience and wisdom from the late, great (and no doubt all grain brewer) Roseanne Roseannadanna:
"It's always something..."

I thought it was her father?

 

[Gozie Boy]

You may be right on that. But she always said something else that many of us have thought to ourselves at least once during a "challenging" brew day:

"I thought I was gonna to die!!"

 

[BrewinInPA]

Last night, just as I was finishing my wort chiller run, a pincers beetle landed on the lid and raced towards the crack where the wort chiller tubes stick out. I tried to flick him off, but he was too quick and got through the crack and INTO MY CHILLED WORT!! I had already dumped my sanitizer except for a small bowl full inside. Do I run in to sanitize my hands while he swims in the wort, or do I touch it with unsanitized hands to fish him out? I did the latter. I'm using Kveik, so I am pretty sure my Cream Ale will be fine. RAHAHB.

 

[BrewinInPA]

First time in my life I ever called an insect an emmer effer.