zegolf
Well-Known Member
Just felt like I needed to share my nightmare of a brew day yesterday. On a whim (and because I hadn' t brewed in ages) I picked up a Honey Ale kit from Midwest Supplies. I wanted to get a beer into a fermentor because all I've got is an Apfelwein fermenting, and my kegs are quickly becoming empty!
I should have turned back the minute I noticed that Midwest had only sent me half of the hops I had ordered, but I had some similar hops in the fridge that I decided I could use as a substitute. Hell, half of homebrewing is experimenting anyway, right?
I manage to get through the brew with only a few more hiccups (it was really nice out and the split-second I took the lid off of the pot I had a mosquito fly into the boil), but with my SWBMO breathing down my neck to eat dinner, I killed the flame and got ready to start cooling the wort.
More bad news. I lost the adapter for my wort chiller that attaches it to the faucet. I wasn't about to risk splashing water into the wort so I set it in a really lousy ice bath, covered it up and 4 hours later finally pitched the yeast from a smack pack that was probably 30 seconds from bursting. The wort was a little too warm for my liking, so I'm really hoping I didn't kill all of my lovely yeasties, but only time will time. For now, I'll just have to RDWHAHB and keep watching my Apfelwein ferment.
It's a beautiful thing.
I should have turned back the minute I noticed that Midwest had only sent me half of the hops I had ordered, but I had some similar hops in the fridge that I decided I could use as a substitute. Hell, half of homebrewing is experimenting anyway, right?
I manage to get through the brew with only a few more hiccups (it was really nice out and the split-second I took the lid off of the pot I had a mosquito fly into the boil), but with my SWBMO breathing down my neck to eat dinner, I killed the flame and got ready to start cooling the wort.
More bad news. I lost the adapter for my wort chiller that attaches it to the faucet. I wasn't about to risk splashing water into the wort so I set it in a really lousy ice bath, covered it up and 4 hours later finally pitched the yeast from a smack pack that was probably 30 seconds from bursting. The wort was a little too warm for my liking, so I'm really hoping I didn't kill all of my lovely yeasties, but only time will time. For now, I'll just have to RDWHAHB and keep watching my Apfelwein ferment.
It's a beautiful thing.
