Brew day recovery stories

[Brewer dad]

What’s your best story about something ridiculous you had to do or overcome to save your beer on brew day? Stuck sparge, mixed up your ingredients, passed out and did overnight mash?

Mine was earlier this month on a Dunkel. I was milling my grain and noticed the gap adjustment had come loose and had shifted. I fixed it and went about milling the rest of my grain. Began mashing in and as I’m pouring the grain I start to notice this is going way too easy, but being up against bed time for the kids I pushed through.

Upon return I stir my mash and sure enough I can see my crush was awful/partially non existent. I check my mill and it turns out I adjusted in the opposite direction so I opened the gap on one side vs closing it. So at best probably 1/3 of my bill was prooperly crushed, 1/3 partially crushed, and 1/3 barely if anything. I’ve been reading about kesselmaishe style of decoctions and figure well might was we’ll try.

After 45 mins I pull grain bag, drop it in another pot, add water, and begin to heat. Hey I’ve got an immersion blender, let’s get medieval and go to town on the grain. Check the first runnings while that’s going, I’m at 1.050, crap. Finish mash/sparge process without taking reading and decide on 90 minute boil, and add 8oz sugar. At the end of it all I finish at 1.045 so I was around 1.035 pre boil. Expected OG was 1.050.

I kegged this two nights ago and it came out great. I’m sure I’m not the first to do any of that, but I’m just happy I got myself back in the ballpark and it came out well.

 

[JohnSand]

The one that comes to mind right now is the time I was creating a new recipe on Brewer's Friend. The grain seemed a little high, but I forged ahead. Only when I took my first gravity reading did I realize something was wrong. The efficiency on the calculator was set at 35%, so my Pale Ale became a Double IPA. It came out well anyway.

 

[mashdar]

I had the silicone elbow for the return on my AIO get chewed through by a mouse. Pinhole.

I filled it up the night before and noticed some drips under the gear. I got lucky I noticed and did not assume it was a spill. Moved the gear and checked again in a minute. Drained and found issue.

I didn't push through, but this was probably the biggest glitch I've had in recent memory. I'm very glad I didn't find out during the mash or in the morning with a flooded basement. Got parts and brewed a week later!

 

[Snuffy]

One of the last Christmas presents my dad gave me was a pair of Cooper's "American Pale Ale" extract kits. The kind with the yeast under the lid. I let them go almost a year past their "Best by:" date before I got around to them. There was no way I was not going to brew them, so to get it over with I decided to make it a DAPA and brew them both together with the Mash and Boil. Then, at the last minute, I found a pound of organic dried Smyrna figs and decided it would be an FDAPA. I'm not sure why. Not my best idea. I think I felt it was going to be a bust anyway, so why not? I boiled the figs a bit to soften, pureed them and added to the boil. The entire process was snakebit from the start. Double the extract and extra fruit goop is a perfect scorching storm and I had to stir like crazy. Finally got it finished and then realized I had loaned out my immersion chiller. I decided to just let the unit cool down overnight and worry about it in the morning. 8 hours later, it was still at 136F. I put wet towels around it and turned a fan on it. Took another 4 hours to get to 86F. The valve got slow when transferring to the fermenter and I had to open and close it like 50 times to keep it flowing. Went ahead and pitched cause I was tired of waiting. Anyway. Cleanup was a massive PitA. Had to use Barkeepers to get the scorch off and then disassemble valve. Hoses turned brown from residue inside and had to be soaked and flushed with hot PBW. The entire thing was a total cluster futz from start to finish. Fermentation took almost 3 days to start. After 2 weeks I transferred to secondary so I could get my fermenter back. There was still stratified fig sludge a week later. Eventually bottled it and forgot about it. When I got around to trying it a few months later, it was pretty bad. It took me almost a year, but I drank it all. I will admit I poured some glasses out before I was finished, but I probably consumed 4 out of the 5 gallons. Had a decent kick to it but the fig twang was not a plus. It was like some weird smoothie that combines fruit and vegetables in a way that nature never intended. Probably the most problematic brew day I ever had and with crap results. Thanks, dad.

 

[IslandLizard]

[...] it was pretty bad. It took me almost a year, but I drank it all.

[...] the fig twang was not a plus.

It was like some weird smoothie that combines fruit and vegetables in a way that nature never intended.

Of course you didn't think of it at the time, but Lactose is the cure to all those ailments. And if it doesn't on first or second try, the solution is simple: add more Lactose!
Also, a very catchy name helps the beer drinker to focus on what they're drinking. And what it's supposed to taste like.

 

[Snuffy]

Of course you didn't think of it at the time, but Lactose is the cure to all those ailments. And if it doesn't on first or second try, the solution is simple: add more Lactose!
Also, a very catchy name helps the beer drinker to focus on what they're drinking. And what it's supposed to taste like.

It couldn’t have hurt. I could have named it, I guess, but that would have implied I expected someone else to drink one. Maybe “Whatever Happened to those Figs?”
or “Shut Up and Drink Your Figs”. “Fig Newtonic”. “In Case of Emergency, Grab a Glass”

 

[Alfgs]

Got way too optimistic on the size of my pot on a biab barley wine.

Eye balled the carton of malt "it will fit, I will just drain it and pour in new water, like a parti gyle double mash".
Well, off course the whole thing was thicker than oatmeal. Actually broke one of my ladles trying to stir it.

Luckily I had another large pot tucked away. Turned on the kettle, got a small pan of water boiling and poured into the second pot until the temperature was right and started scooping malt from my first pot.

"Damn, I need to fill up my first pot with water" on with the kettle and a small pot of water again, pull out my pressure cooker to mix water to the right temp, pour it into the first pot.

Spent about 30 minutes scooping malt and water between pots to keep everything managable.

Since I had intended to use the second large pot for draining the biab pot I now had to pull out every pan in the kitchen to drain it, then empty the second pot into the biab-bag, then drain it again, fill with hot water to sparge.

Now I am standing there with 5 pots of wort, the whole stove and counter is sticky with sugar because I have been scooping and pouring back and forth to free up pots.

With all the tripple mashing and sparging that has been going on I am standing there with four times the volume of wort than I plan to ferment. Well, I was going for a long boil anyway..

I split up my wort over four different pots and start boiling, pouring over and reducing them one by one as I am able to combine the volume.

Well. Came out perfectly in the end. Volume was perhaps 5% lower than intended when I hit my planned og and the fg also was spot on so it worked out fine in the end.

 

[kevin58]

A: You should know the volume of your kettle. B: You should know how much malt you can mash in that vessel. If you don't you can look up a mash volume calculator online. Another option is to use recipe software but it is crucial that you create an accurate equipment profile to get accurate results (see A.

 

[mashdar]

A: You should know the volume of your kettle. B: You should know how much malt you can mash in that vessel. If you don't you can look up a mash volume calculator online. Another option is to use recipe software but it is crucial that you create an accurate equipment profile to get accurate results (see A.

I think he has a much better sense of it, now. : )

 

[fluketamer]

the return tube from my recirc pump came out of the kettle and spilled about 85 percent of my wort onto the floor. luckily i had a bag of dme which i used to get my numbers back. -

this turned out to be one of my best beers ( just like someone said it would be) and i obviously have no way of repeating it now.

 

[IslandLizard]

the return tube from my recirc pump came out of the kettle and spilled about 85 percent of my wort onto the floor.

Ouch!

luckily i had a bag of dme which i used to get my numbers back. -

this turned out to be one of my best beers ( just like someone said it would be) and i obviously have no way of repeating it now.

I doubt spilling 85% of your wort on the floor is the critical parameter in your process...
But you may be onto something making it up with DME!

Would be interesting to make a batch with each and compare them.
Skip the spilling part, though.

 

[OakIslandBrewery]

the return tube from my recirc pump came out of the kettle and spilled about 85 percent of my wort onto the floor. luckily i had a bag of dme which i used to get my numbers back. -

this turned out to be one of my best beers ( just like someone said it would be) and i obviously have no way of repeating it now.

I think the lucky part is not ending up in divorce court after a spill like that

 

[day_trippr]

This is why I never add DME to a pot on a stove top for making starters. Ever.
Bring water to boil, place pot in sink, add DME, stir, chill, done. Nearly zero risk to wife's kitchen

Cheers!

 

[Slim M]

A: You should know the volume of your kettle. B: You should know how much malt you can mash in that vessel. If you don't you can look up a mash volume calculator online. Another option is to use recipe software but it is crucial that you create an accurate equipment profile to get accurate results (see A.

Yeah, I’m lazy. I use the calculator.

 

[fluketamer]

Ouch!

I doubt spilling 85% of your wort on the floor is the critical parameter in your process...
But you may be onto something making it up with DME!

Would be interesting to make a batch with each and compare them.
Skip the spilling part, though.

i swear the hop expression was better in this beer that had dme in it. i wonder if there are mineral salts in the dme that contributed. i think i remember seeing that dme has minerals in it thats why you dont have to worry as much about water when extract brewing. iirc

I think the lucky part is not ending up in divorce court after a spill like that

thankfully it was outside.

 

[BrewnWKopperKat]

i wonder if there are mineral salts in the dme that contributed. i think i remember seeing that dme has minerals in it thats why you dont have to worry as much about water when extract brewing.

I think I remember mentioning this in the past

Give me a moment & I'll edit in a link.
eta: (link) - and yes, I've found those numbers to be useful when working with DME and CaS04, CaCl, or NaCl additions.

 

[Slim M]

I don’t know if this counts as a recovery story. I feel like I have to credit the yeast for this one. Years ago I had a 12 gallon batch of honey wheat going. It was spring time and the bees were out. I couldn’t keep them out of the shop where I was brewing, I bet when all was said and done I had to fish 10 or 15 honeybees out of that batch at various stages.

I had them get into the boil, I had them get into this sparge, and I even had them get in to the chilled wort. I doubt the honey additions at the end had anything to do with it, but it adds to the story. I pitched a couple of packs of USO5 and everything turned out fine as far as I could tell. I was worried though.