I had the best brew day...

[insanim8er]

I decided to brew 10 gallons of nut brown. I bought all the ingredients and got everything ready to go.

As I was getting the water to temp, I started to crush my grain. Well, I had a barley crusher that went in for service. I didn't even realize how disgusting he sent it back to me until it was almost time to mash in. So I had to tear it apart and use my tooth brush (needed a new one anyway) It was black and full of metal shards. This guy is on my *blank* list. His customer service is GARBAGE. STAY CLEAR OF BARLEY CRUSHER.

Anyway... I finally get it all clean and ready to use and mash in. The mash seemed way too thick. I realized I forgot to double my water! So in a rush I try to fix the problem. My thermometer is all jacked up (guess my GF decided to use it to make hard candy). I have no idea if I even hit my temp because I had no back up. Thermapen is on the NEED list...

I start the sparge and get the boil going. Everything went good. I racked to my fermenter, oxygenated, and pitched... Then I put it in the fermentation chamber.

Later that night I was going over notes and realized ...... I forgot to double the hops! :smack:

Thank god after all that crap I came out at 82% efficiency for a 70% recipe. I got hops today to make a tea and add back to the fermenter. It'll get me back on target and add about 2 gallons of beer.

After two years of brewing, I figured this ameature crap was behind me. Well... Guess it happens to the best of them.

It was a great brew day... Because at the end, I made beer.... I won't be winning any awards with it, but it'll be beer non the less... I hope

 

[Stauffbier]

I had some bad luck with my brew today too. I actually did an overnight mash last night. I went to crush my grain with my Corona mill, and I decided to slightly tighten it up to try and increase efficiency a little. I barely turned the bolt less than a 1/4 turn, but that ended up being too much. Stupid me, I didn't bother checking the crush. I just let it rip through all the grain. I ended up with about 18 lbs. of what was essentially coarse flour. I went ahead and doughed in with a pound of rice hulls hoping that would keep me from getting a stuck sparge.

Fast forward to this morning. I go to lauter the first runnings, and it's stuck like chuck. It wouldn't even drip. I tried all kinds of stuff to un-clog it to no avail. I ended up having to scoop out the wort and grain and strain it through voile. I basically squeezed out all the wort I could, and then added sparge water and did it again. On the plus side, I ended up with great efficiency and super sweet wort. Since I squeezed the grain I also ended up with an extra 1/2 gallon more or less.

Everything went great after that. I pitched about 6 hours ago, and it's already bubbling away.

Even a bad brew day is better than a good day at work!

 

[HistoryBrewing]

I get served humble pie from the brewing gods every other brew day.

It happens.

 

[Stauffbier]

I get served humble pie from the brewing gods every other brew day.

It happens.

I've actually had seamless brew days for about 1.5 years. I guess I was overdue.