RELAX!!It's only beer -it ain't that hard. . .

[gunhaus]

So the story begins on a fine Saturday morning, with the noble goal of brewing a fine ordinary bitter to replenish the dwindling pipeline. It's a favorite recipe, and perfect for a quick easy brew day, with fast finish grain to glass. The evening before I had gathered the requisite materials (And a nice pint as well) at the good ole LHBS. Before bed I put all the equipment in its place. A good cup of joe, a quick bit of homemade bread and marmalade, and to the brew.

No water. I forgot the stop for the RO water! Crap! A cup of joe for the road and off to town.

It is now mid morning, daylight wasting. Time to roll. . . Crap! I am out of propane. I had a spare but my brother borrowed it and i forgot. Another to go cup, and back to town.

It is now past noon. But the water is on, the measuring is done, things look set, time to mill the grain. This is a simple beer, 6lb of MO, 4 oz Biscuit, 4 oz crystal 80. The grain bill in the bag says 8oz of biscuit, and 8oz of crystal 80. The LHBS, had a newbie, and apparently there was a misunderstanding. No worry, this is a good beer but could stand a tad more body. The extra grain might be nice way to get there. The drill won't run. . . My spare is over to my sons . . . Back to town. Got the drill, water back on the burner, grinding away. It is after 2.

Mix and mash and measure - Bingo! 154 on the spot, first thing to go spot on today. Set the timer, pour a 1/2 pint of Irish red, let her role. An hour later mash out and vorlauf. . . Nothing coming out . . .Oh goodie.

Here I must edit out the cursing, huffing, and general orneriness, as well as the questionable use of wooden skewers and canned air.

Finally flowing! Clears up really quick, nice! I Let her rip, and pour the run off back in the cooler. Flow stops . . . .

MORE CUSSING

Flowing again at last. My quick low gravity bitter has had a nice long 2-1/2 hour mash. Drain, sparge, drain, to the burner. Burner won't run. Something wrong with the propane tank . . . Try multiple tricks, fail miserably, too frustrated to even cuss; back to town to swap tanks. Have to watch propane guy mess with tank for 45 minutes trying to prove me an idiot . . . Finally gives in and gives me a new tank. Back home start the boil. Get a WHOLE pint of Irish Red.

Boil done!! YESSSS!!!!! 1.036 OG -Happy number. Connect the hose to the chiller . . . No water. Only hose is frozen. No other hose around and I am NOT going to town for a new one. Put the lid on. Stick in a snow bank. Clean a few things, and drink another pint, go to bed.

It is now day two of my quick brew day. It was cold, and my wort has ice crystals. I have to warm it up on the burner just to get to pitch temp. 62 degrees, open valve and let her flow . . . No flow.

More cussing and a sanitized skewer.

FLOW! Get the murky liquid into the fermenter. Darker, and MUCH more cloudy than normal -DON'T CARE, really ready to be done. Pitch the yeast, set the temp, wrap in a blanket and clean up! AHHH! Nothing to it!

This beer finishes quick - this batch was no different. Three days and the Notty had done its job. I cold crashed on Friday. The beer had cleared some, but still murkier than normal. No worry. Saturday afternoon; gelatin, keg, burst carb. Sunday turn gas down to serving pressure, and forget it for a while.

Two weeks go by, and I decide to bite the bullet and see what we got. Surprisingly clear. Smells excellent. Lightly malty, good and bitter, tastes just like BEER! Go figure! This brewing thing ain't really that hard is it!

Gotta go, time to mash in a nifty stout.

 

[applescrap]

Haha, thanks for sharing. What a brew day! You have more patience than me.

 

[riceral]

It might just turn into one of the best beers you've ever brewed.

 

[VirginiaHops1]

Props to you man. I may have just packed it in and postponed my brew day after realizing I needed a 2nd trip into town.

A lot of us sweat every minute detail to try to make amazing beer but you're right, it really isn't that hard. I had one instance where my chest freezer/ferm chamber had a malfunction and froze my batch early in fermentation. I thawed, pitched new yeast and let it finish up. Wasn't my best batch but wasn't bad at all. Another time had major issues with a pilsner yeast and ended up missing my window for fermenting cold because I had an ale that needed fermenting. Said screw it and fermented them both at ale temps and surprise surprise, the pilsner tasted just like beer and pretty good.

 

[bkboiler]

Wow! I hurt for you just reading that... Had brew days only half that bad and made immediate changes to my process afterward to avoid ever again!

 

[betarhoalphadelta]

I think most brewers focus on all the stainless steel "bling" that gets used on brew day. And all that stuff has its place, of course.

But the truth is you can screw up nearly everything on brew day and as long as you pitch a healthy quantity of yeast, have a healthy ferment [at appropriate temps], and generally take good care of the beer post-brew-day, you'll have good beer. Maybe it's not the beer you envisioned, but it'll be beer.

Conversely, you can nail your water, your mash temp, your preboil gravity, your hops, your OG, all with an NHC gold medel award-winning recipe, but if you screw up your ferment you might end up with utter trash.

So good on you... We've all had those brew days where nothing went right. When you have one of those and you STILL make delicious beer, it kinda makes you feel like the struggle was worth it!