How NOT to brew 20 gallons...

So I don't know if I'm not the only one who has done this but I figured I'd share my most recent lesson in homebrewing.

My life is pretty busy... I know everyone's is but I'm gonna go out on a limb and say I beat the majority of the population in absolute productivity/efficiency of my time. That said, I know there's always room for improvement (but that's a whole other thread...) and hanging out on a forum may slow down said efficiency but its Saturday and I want to share this .

So my last brew day was July 3rd. My brewing time has come to a crawl. So I decided that to help be more efficient, I would brew 2 ten gallon batches to make up for my lack of time. Unfortunately, my brother, who I usually brew with, was planning on going camping with his family over the 4th of July weekend. I've only brewed one other time by myself and - while doable- is so much easier to do and keep on track and take good notes with two people. So, to recap; I'm brewing by myself and doing 2 totally different (and brand new) AG recipes in one setting, by myself... A steam beer and a Wee Heavy.

Overall, everything went well, and I hit most of my numbers (I used an old bag of brown malt that I figured wouldn't fully mash but I knew that going in) but by the time I got done, I was going on 10.5 hrs so I was getting fairly loopy. - Not drunk, just ready for the damn day to be done. I finally put the four containers in the basement and let them sit. Summer went on and got even more busy and I finally got around to checking them yesterday over lunchtime to see if they were done (I assumed they were but I was putting them in lower temp and used lager yeast for the first time with the steam beer batch so I didn't know...).

I posted yesterday about having trouble with them not fermenting out but was informed extremely quickly about what I had done wrong with trying to check the SG with a refractometer (thanks Yooper!). I've been brewing for over 3.5 yrs and had never known that you couldn't use a refractometer when alcohol was there.

So, this morning, I got up before the kids to keg (assuming my beer was finished) and kegged one batch... Here's where my assumed containers with properly labeled yeasts gets a little more questionable. I made ten gallons of each style but used two yeast strains for each. So four different yeast. With my Wee heavy, I meant to use White Labs Edinburgh strain and Dry US-05 strain. The Steam beer was gonna use White Labs San Fransisco liquid lager strain and dry S-23 lager strain. But I'm pretty sure I mixed those up...

I'm thinking the US-05 and S-23 got switched... But I'm even more confused because the containers labeled as the Wee Heavy are actually lighter in color than the steam beers The picture shows the steam beer labeled beer on the left. The other odd thing was the ones I thought were the steam beers FG was higher than the steam (although only slightly).

So, this rant was basically just so say I'm an idiot.:rockin:

Have a great weekend!

 

Oh, and I guess no matter what happened, and the moral of the story:

Every last drop still has alcohol in it and will be ready to drink in a few days!

And it's Ronnie-approved!

 

Ride the storm, probably some of the best brew you have ever made!

 

Wow! 3.5 years is a lonnng time for not using a calculator with fermenting refractometer readings, but it looks like good beer nonetheless! Awesome bar as well.

 

We usually only use the refractometer when brewing. I've always taken a hydro sample when kegging. I was just wanting to take a quickly reading while home at lunch and figured I'd just put a couple drops on the refractometer to get a quick estimate. Never used it when kegging so I've never had this problem...

Thanks for the compliment on the bar. Built it all myself using a lot of ideas from this forum. Took a long time to get done but was definitely worth it

 

Here's before and after pictures from about the same spots of the basement. One of the beams is behind the TV and the other is the corner that's protruding into the room by the door on the left.

 

Gotcha, no worries then! And that is an AMAZING brewpub you built there... what time do you guys open?

 

We never close. It's my basement. This is my center piece

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I wish I had a basement. Feck.

Nice setup adam.

 

I like your banjo. Why is it hanging backwards?

 

Main answer: to deter the kids from pulling on the strings. But it's decoration now (until the kids get older and they want to learn it). Also, the back of a banjo is usually the prettiest part but no one gets to see it. The last reason is that I've upgraded and got a better one that I play (or attempt to play, at least)

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A++ on the bar, mainly because of the cutout of Ron!

 

Is that an Arthur Hatfield Buck Creek?

 

Who are you and when are we gonna hang out?! It is a Hatfield but it's a custom Celebrity. It's the only one like it. Certain parts are silver and others are gold.

There's also one other big difference... Can you figure it out?

 

Ah, it's a left-handed version - cool! That is a very nice banjo. I met Arthur several years ago when I lived near Nashville and drove up to his place to check out his banjos. A couple of years later my playing improved enough to justify buying a professional instrument but I ended up getting an Osborne Chief instead. Later, I wanted to get a walnut Hatfield, too, but finally decided I'd never get good enough to deserve another one. I was right :-(

 

Unfortunately my playing still isn't good enough to justify it but the other banjo was becoming my weak point. So I figured if I was going to upgrade, I might as well get something I can grow into. Plus, I don't ever plan on selling it but it should hold is value and good ones are only going to go up in price in the future.

I like the chiefs as well. They're both good choices.

I had a hard time choosing between the walnut and maple. I like the mellower sound of the walnut but thought the quilted maple on the resonator is THE prettiest wood grain. In the end, the looks difference outweighed the difference in sound between the wood types.

Got a pic of yours?

Banjo porn on a beer forum... Life's great!

 

But,

passedpawn, If you did have a basement where you live it would probably be filled with groundwater. You would need scuba to use your brewpub.

 

This is the only pic of my banjo that I have on this iPad. It's from the highlight of my banjo career ten years ago. Jamming with Ned Luberecki and Tony Trishka. I'm in the middle. Wow, that was a long time ago.
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Just class. Extremely jealous and impressed with your cool bar. Wow!

 

SevenOaks - That's some good company to have while playing...

To everyone else - Thanks for the compliments on the bar. It took about a year to complete. Got it done right before the 2014 superbowl (although I finally got around to making the table about a month ago. Just had a plastic folding picnic table there). The bar front is actually an old door turned sideways and cut down some. I even did the upholstering/button tufting on the booth. And the stained glass is actually my parents old door they were gonna throw away. I cut it down, turned it sideways and framed it in. It's covering an access window to a crawlspace under the house.

 

.

 

And here's the moral of the story...

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