It's been said before: don't brew drunk!

[Murphys_Law]

A few years ago...probably my <10 brew day, I somehow managed to break my hydrometer in my fermenter (I have no idea how or why it was in the bucket).

Yeah, I was pretty drunk.

I ended up sanitizing a strainer and another bucket and just poured the beer from one to the other. The strainer was the fine metal one and did a good job of catching the “BBs” and glass from the hydro.

Beer actually turned out delicious and nobody died of some type of poisoning or glass cuts!

I think I even did a “drunk Amazon” that night and bought a 15G kettle which I no longer use.

I may have a beer during boil and/or waiting for the wort to cool but that was probably the last drunk beer I made!

 

[SleepyCreekBrews]

All these anecdotes pale in comparison to the guy (i think he was on this forum) that slipped and his arm ended upon the boil kettle. he suffered some terrible burns on his hand, arm and torso.
We use some serious stuff to make our beloved beverage. Know when to say when.

 

[Abrayton]

Thanks buzzkillington

 

[schematix]

Several years and 20+ brews later I haven’t even had 1 sip during a brew day. The 50 odd brews before that, as much fun as it was, I won’t go back to the good ‘ol 7am sloshfest. Too many mistakes.

 

[TBC27]

thanks buzzkillington

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[jrgtr42]

I normally will have one or 2 during the brewing, depending on when I get started. If it's early in the morning, it's more like having a couple cups more coffee than usual.
I haven't had (knock on wood) any issues due to alcohol - I don't get the good stuff going until fermenter is full and in place, and I've started cleanup.
Any problems I've had are due to rushing things along.

 

[Pkrd]

Most of us are dumb enough that we'd probably make those mistakes sober.
Y'all stop hating on the beer.

 

[Gagunga]

I usually brew in the morning and finish around lunch time. I reward myself with a post-brew beer with my lunch. That way I don't have to worry about overindulging while brewing. That doesn't mean I haven't had any caffeine-induced morning brewing screwups

Been there done that. Oh I have half an hour before adding this or that. I'll clean the house a bit...45 min later oh ****.

 

[hawkbox]

I find I screw up the most when someone is helping me as I get distracted and forget things like gravity measurements, etc...

 

[Vandulus]

Welcome to the school of hard knocks

My rule is "To make good beer, one must drink good beer", unfortunately I took that rule a little too liberally early on and forgot to add DME until after the wort was chilled, pitch the yeast or sanitize everything properly.

To echo much of what many have said before:
- Prep like crazy before brewing
- Create a detailed checklist when sober and follow it religiously
- Write notes as you brew, as your memory may get a bit fuzzy
- No beer until after mashing is done
- Only one beer during the boil
- Another beer during chilling and cleaning
- As many beers as you care for afterwards to celebrate another brew day!

 

[cubalz]

I brew in the early morning, heating my strike water and doughing-in no later than 8 am. I do not taste any home brew until the fermenter in filled, yeast pitched and is in the chamber. The reason? When I used to drink while brewing in afternoon or at night in the early 90's, avoidable issues/mistakes kept happening and my consistency and quality suffered because of it.

 

[PhoenixCoyote]

I brewed 2 batches last weekend. Had 14 beers in me before finishing the second bathch. Thought i forgot to pitch the yeast. But it went ok lol.

 

[iijakii]

Brewing is pretty damn easy, are you guys really getting that toasted you can't operate the valves right or forget to sanitize? Sheeeit. All of the tricky part is at the front end when I'm only on beer one or two -- measuring ingredients out.

 

[KIDD69]

My most recent alcohol influenced blunder came when I was creating a starter for a saison. After going through the usual steps, and making the usual mess on the stove, I placed my flask on the stir plate to do it's magic and proceeded to watch some playoff baseball. After the game and a few more Double Dead Elephants (8% IIPA), I strolled into the kitchen only to discover the pkg of Belgian Saison 2 yeast sitting on the counter! I'm glad my wife didn't grab it and throw it back in the fridge.

 

[beernutz]

Homewbrew club brewday at my house in July of this year. Three other brewers and I started around 9 with the plan being that the rest of the club would arrive around 1 for grilled sausage and a beer tasting.

About 7 more members ended up arriving noonish and even though I had had a few, or to be accurate more than a few, I was in good shape when everyone arrived.

Our fearless leader though instead of bringing homebrew to the tasting brought 3 types of dopplebock and a double IPA. Oy vey. After that even though a lot of club members were still at my house I went to my bedroom and took a refreshing two hour "nap" in the middle of the afternoon.

I still have no clear recollection of exactly how my fermenter made its way into the fermentation freezer that day but the beer turmed out pretty good!

 

[seabrew8]

I just brewed up a beautiful 2.5 gallon batch of IPA, and was enjoying a few home brews while doing so. I recently switched to a ported carboy, and unfortunately while I was filling it after cooling I didn't realize the valve was open and my wort was flowing into the sink while I was filling it... so I now have maybe 1 gallon of wort fermenting in my basement instead of 2.5 . All that work (wort) literally down the drain. So listen up when we say it kids: do not drink too much while brewing, and always pay attention to the moment, it can make the difference between a full case and a six pack. I learned my lesson the hard way, I hope you can learn from my mistake.

On to the next recipe - older and wiser.

I brew drunk all the time. I think it depends on the person and the equipment. I have a grainfather so my brew day is pretty relaxed.