Today is the third day of spring and I've officially had it with the winter of 2014.
It's been below freezing here in Albany since what seems like Labor Day of last year. I brew in the third bay of my garage and, up until this year, have not had many problems with the weather. An extra layer of clothes, a propane heater and I've been good to go.
This year it's been one PITA after another. Frozen pipes, ruptured faucets - the full Monty. Through it all, I've persevered in the best spirit of home brewing. When my sink froze, I brought water out from the house. When the outside faucets froze and I couldn't use my immersion chiller, I reverted back to ice baths and snowbanks. All the while I stuck with the old adage - a bad day of brewing is still better than a good day of anything else.
Today's brew session was the end of my patience. With spring here, I looked forward to an improved brew day. The temperature here in Albany was above freezing. I was able to dough in by 7am and everything went like clockwork. I hit all my numbers, cleaned as I went and completed my boil in a respectable 4.5 hours. All that was left was to chill, pitch and call it good. Things were the tits - I even poured myself a pint in celebration (British Mild at 3.6% - a perfect breakfast beer). And that's when things went all to hell.
Turns out that winter had one more kick in the balls for me. My immersion chiller must have frozen and spilt because when I went to check the progress of my chill I was met with a disastrous sight: My boil kettle overflowing sweet wort all over my garage floor. Insert string of expletives here.
It took me nearly two hours to mop up, clean up and cool down. My spirit was broken. My resolve was spent. My beautiful batch was ruined.
Fully defeated, I decided to do the only thing a home brewer could do: I switched from beer to whiskey and brewed the f**ker again.
Not only did I get my batch back, but now I can list John Jameson as my co-brewer too. Suck it winter!
It's been below freezing here in Albany since what seems like Labor Day of last year. I brew in the third bay of my garage and, up until this year, have not had many problems with the weather. An extra layer of clothes, a propane heater and I've been good to go.
This year it's been one PITA after another. Frozen pipes, ruptured faucets - the full Monty. Through it all, I've persevered in the best spirit of home brewing. When my sink froze, I brought water out from the house. When the outside faucets froze and I couldn't use my immersion chiller, I reverted back to ice baths and snowbanks. All the while I stuck with the old adage - a bad day of brewing is still better than a good day of anything else.
Today's brew session was the end of my patience. With spring here, I looked forward to an improved brew day. The temperature here in Albany was above freezing. I was able to dough in by 7am and everything went like clockwork. I hit all my numbers, cleaned as I went and completed my boil in a respectable 4.5 hours. All that was left was to chill, pitch and call it good. Things were the tits - I even poured myself a pint in celebration (British Mild at 3.6% - a perfect breakfast beer). And that's when things went all to hell.
Turns out that winter had one more kick in the balls for me. My immersion chiller must have frozen and spilt because when I went to check the progress of my chill I was met with a disastrous sight: My boil kettle overflowing sweet wort all over my garage floor. Insert string of expletives here.
It took me nearly two hours to mop up, clean up and cool down. My spirit was broken. My resolve was spent. My beautiful batch was ruined.
Fully defeated, I decided to do the only thing a home brewer could do: I switched from beer to whiskey and brewed the f**ker again.
Not only did I get my batch back, but now I can list John Jameson as my co-brewer too. Suck it winter!
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