Homebrew Nightmares

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BGates14

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Ok, so I brewed my first 10 gallon batch awhile ago. Nothing went wrong, aside from the fact a few weeks later I found out half of it was infected. Probably a slightly unsanitary carboy, my mistake.

The other day I brewed another 10 gallon batch. This time I was 2 gallons short of the 10 gallons, so I ended up with two carboys with 4 gallons in each (I evened them out.)

That night I had not one, not two, but at least three or more nightmares about ending up will less than what I needed to end up with. Not even after the boil, but after the mash. I had nightmares about hoses that I don't have, quantities that I don't know how to control, etc.

Has anyone else had homebrew nightmares?
 
I fall asleep thinking about brewing some nights but I can not say I dream about it, let alone have nightmares.

IMO it sounds like you are WAY to concerned with the tiny details in a bad way. I make beer. I get whatever efficiency I get, I hit the exact temps I will hit (not necessarily the ones I wanted lol) and will end up with exactly how much beer I end up with. No worries, no nightmares...

I am not saying to skip vital steps but it sounds like you seriously need to RDWHAHB!

:mug:
 
I brew beer for enjoyment and my own drinking, not competition or commercial sales. Since I don't have to please someone else, my brewing is much more laid back. Yes I want good beer and yes it would be nice to get great efficiency and to hit all my numbers but in the end as long as I enjoy the beer, no nightmares.
 
Rather than concentrating on "nightmares" and fear mongering, focus on successes instead. Contrary to what most stressed out new brewers believe, our beer is not like a weak newborn baby, it is actually hardier than most of them think.

Especially the yeast, it is much more resilient than we often give them credit for.

If 45 million year old yeast that was preserved in amber could be grown into a starter and beer made from it, really why would you think your yeast would be any different? The yeast wants to work for us, it wants to F*&k and eat sugar and fart co2 and pee alcohol, it's the entire purpose for living. That's in it's dna


I know new brewers take to fear like flies take to dog crap, but actually it takes a lot to ruin your beer. We've sunk body parts into them and still they manage to survive. Here's a ton of stories.....
What are some of the mistakes you made...where your beer still turned out great!

I wish I could inject massive doses of rdwhahb into all your brains so you wouldn't have freakout moments. I hope that by providing you all with detailed info, you'd see how most of the time you are all stressing out for absolutely nothing...Or are going by wrong "cues" and looking for signs (like airlock bubbling/krausen, etc) that sometimes just aren't there.

You guys just gotta breath and learn to trust.

:mug:
 
I think I gave the wrong impression. I thought nothing much of the batch being short, and said to myself oh well, theres always next time. I'm not that concerned about it at all, I just found it funny that my dreams reflected that.

I'm a heavy dreamer, I achieve lucidity a lot. I just thought it was interesting that I had a few brewing fiasco dreams that woke me up in the middle of the night. I pitched my yeast the next day and I'm still looking forward to it just as much as I would any other batch.
 
Dreams are funny like that. I have nightmares about work on occasion, I'm not particularly stressed about work at the time, but I still have them. We put a lot of mental energy into something and I think that it manifests itself in our dreams. So the "topic" of the dream isn't always that important if you are trying to interpret a dream. I think it's the overall theme or pattern that would be more important. But what do I know, I'm no expert.
 
OH boy! I have to ring in on this one for sure…lol My friend and I have been home brewing for 19 years or so and we go around and around and the stuff you’re talking about. He the worry wart and I am the guy that says “were a cottage industry not Anheuser – Busch”. He worries about hitting the right mash in temps exactly and getting the chart out to hit the right IBU on our batches. I in turn am always down playing getting it right on and rolling the dice and saying it’s close enough for government work. When making 15 gallons at a time you don’t want to F it up, but you don’t need to lose sleep over it. And yes I know it a science like my pal says, but it’s also a great hobby to relax with! In all the batches we have made the only nightmares we have had are the real things like stuck mashes , holes in our emersion chiller leaking water into our worth, and having one of the kids throwing there snot rag into out fermenting trash can think it was the garbage. Funny thing is they all turned out fine… Enjoy and may all those bad dreams turn into some dam good beer PROST! :mug:
 
Never a nightmare, but lots and lots of dreams... although, the dreams are usually dealing with commercial scale brewing... going back to work for one of my former employers, or going into a new place and learning the system, etc.

Revvy's post hit the nail on the head... don't worry, let the stress roll off, have fun with it. Crazy stuff can happen, but it rarely messes up the beer! And, even if it does, think of the mileage you will get with the story! :D
 
OH boy! I have to ring in on this one for sure…lol My friend and I have been home brewing for 19 years or so and we go around and around and the stuff you’re talking about. He the worry wart and I am the guy that says “were a cottage industry not Anheuser – Busch”. He worries about hitting the right mash in temps exactly and getting the chart out to hit the right IBU on our batches. I in turn am always down playing getting it right on and rolling the dice and saying it’s close enough for government work. When making 15 gallons at a time you don’t want to F it up, but you don’t need to lose sleep over it. And yes I know it a science like my pal says, but it’s also a great hobby to relax with! In all the batches we have made the only nightmares we have had are the real things like stuck mashes , holes in our emersion chiller leaking water into our worth, and having one of the kids throwing there snot rag into out fermenting trash can think it was the garbage. Funny thing is they all turned out fine… Enjoy and may all those bad dreams turn into some dam good beer PROST! :mug:

Funny thing about that is, I think that you have to be off by at least six IBUs to even notice a difference... someone at a local microbrewery told me that. (I think it might have been the chief brewer's mom -- Sun King is a family operation.)

LOL!
"What did goiked's buddy say when he tried the homebrew?"
"It's (s)not bad!"
LMAO!!
 
We were working on a carrot wine... I am usually very good with asepsis but with this carrot wine we had to let the carrot pieces (10 lbs of them... Organic and sweet coreless ) sit for a day to extract the juice with enzyme.... After water and yeast addition everything started ok then things got... Well they got slimy for lack of a better word... The bucket had six gallons at least of free space in it on top of the six gallons of carrots and liquid in the bucket but the fermentation was so slimy that it overflowed all over my kitchen floor with this thick froth. It was obvious that it was infected yet the yeast appeared to still be running it's course.... Had to dump it all in the street. Took a couple gag photos.... One Can be seen here http://i.imgur.com/3wkZq.jpg
 
I've had a handful of good dreams and maybe one or two "Oh crap, I forgot to buy the [yeast/sanitizer/etc.]!" kind of dreams. They were totally unfounded because I hadn't actually bought anything for my next batch yet. Kind of like those dreams where you were late for that algebra test even years after being out of school.
 
We were working on a carrot wine... I am usually very good with asepsis but with this carrot wine we had to let the carrot pieces (10 lbs of them... Organic and sweet coreless ) sit for a day to extract the juice with enzyme.... After water and yeast addition everything started ok then things got... Well they got slimy for lack of a better word... The bucket had six gallons at least of free space in it on top of the six gallons of carrots and liquid in the bucket but the fermentation was so slimy that it overflowed all over my kitchen floor with this thick froth. It was obvious that it was infected yet the yeast appeared to still be running it's course.... Had to dump it all in the street. Took a couple gag photos.... One Can be seen here http://i.imgur.com/3wkZq.jpg

That pic made me LOL :rockin:
 
I've had brewing dreams - no nightmares yet. When I was taking calc I would grab my digital alarm clock early in the morning and try to take the derivative of 3:43 or something, but brewing hasn't stressed me like that.
I did lose a batch of alt to wild yeast recently - that's more of a daymare.
 
Thee last time I had a dream about homebrewing I ended up making a mash tun the following weekend. As for nightmares? Nope. I drink way too much homebrew to have nightmares.
 
We were working on a carrot wine... I am usually very good with asepsis but with this carrot wine we had to let the carrot pieces (10 lbs of them... Organic and sweet coreless ) sit for a day to extract the juice with enzyme.... After water and yeast addition everything started ok then things got... Well they got slimy for lack of a better word... The bucket had six gallons at least of free space in it on top of the six gallons of carrots and liquid in the bucket but the fermentation was so slimy that it overflowed all over my kitchen floor with this thick froth. It was obvious that it was infected yet the yeast appeared to still be running it's course.... Had to dump it all in the street. Took a couple gag photos.... One Can be seen here http://i.imgur.com/3wkZq.jpg

Great Pic!
 
Contrary to what most stressed out new brewers believe, our beer is not like a weak newborn baby, it is actually hardier than most of them think.
:off:

Newborn babies are not as weak as most stressed out first time parents think:

YouTube - Broadcast Yourself.

No, but seriously, it's true, they are not as weak as most first time parents think they are.
 
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