PatMac
Well-Known Member
So I brewed on Friday and made an extremely dumb mistake. For anyone who doesn't know this already - The kitchen sink disposal is not a fan of grains...
I had steeped my grains and added the hops. The boil was going along well. I was going to throw the grains and bag away in the trash (a novel idea) but for some reason decided the grains should be poured out of the bag into the sink and go down the disposal (I'd done it before, but why again? I don't know). So as the boil is going I turn on the disposal to get rid of the grains, about a fourth of them went down no problem. So I went to push some more down and all of a sudden the water starts building up in the sink. "Great..." I thought. I started digging out grain from the disposal and the sink still wasn't draining. I figured it was a minor clog so I tried the old plunger trick and that only made both sides of the sink spit up nasty brown water. I'm jumping between my sink and stove trying to take care of the clog and prevent boil-overs simultaneously. The boil finally ends, I run my wort to my bathtub instead for the ice bath and leave the sink problem for later. Pitch the yeast, get the brew in the fermenter and finished it up.
Came back after dinner and ended up having to take all of the plumbing apart under the sink and every single piece was completely clogged with grain. Note to self - Never make that dumb mistake again. So for those of you who are rolling your eyes at me thinking "Why would you do that?" I'm right there with you thinking the same thing of myself. For those of you who haven't thought about disposing of grains that way...don't.
As long as the beer turns out okay it's all good though!
I had steeped my grains and added the hops. The boil was going along well. I was going to throw the grains and bag away in the trash (a novel idea) but for some reason decided the grains should be poured out of the bag into the sink and go down the disposal (I'd done it before, but why again? I don't know). So as the boil is going I turn on the disposal to get rid of the grains, about a fourth of them went down no problem. So I went to push some more down and all of a sudden the water starts building up in the sink. "Great..." I thought. I started digging out grain from the disposal and the sink still wasn't draining. I figured it was a minor clog so I tried the old plunger trick and that only made both sides of the sink spit up nasty brown water. I'm jumping between my sink and stove trying to take care of the clog and prevent boil-overs simultaneously. The boil finally ends, I run my wort to my bathtub instead for the ice bath and leave the sink problem for later. Pitch the yeast, get the brew in the fermenter and finished it up.
Came back after dinner and ended up having to take all of the plumbing apart under the sink and every single piece was completely clogged with grain. Note to self - Never make that dumb mistake again. So for those of you who are rolling your eyes at me thinking "Why would you do that?" I'm right there with you thinking the same thing of myself. For those of you who haven't thought about disposing of grains that way...don't.
As long as the beer turns out okay it's all good though!
