Terrible brew day

[geoffey]

Had one of my wits ever brew days today since switching to electric. I've recently taken up BIAB and the was my third batch on the new system. Prior to this I did about a dozen batches on my HERMS system.

Things started well, but after mash in I started having problems with my pump losing prime. This gave me problems through the whole mash. I think the issue was a combination of a new BIAB bag as well as making the mistake of trying to FWH with pellets while recirculating. I use the same hop screen that Kal recommends on electric brewery.com and I seem to remember reading that you can't recirculate with it.

Eventually this caused a cavity of air and I dry fired my element for about a minute. A nice burning smell clued me in. I think there was also an issue with my new bag cause when I pulled it up to investigate the burning smell I noticed it took a LONG time for the wort to drain from it. Really weird.

I continued on, just to ride it out and see if by chance I get good beer. When I pulled the bag I realized I had forgotten to calculate grain absorption when determining how much water I needed. So then I needed to deal with top off.

Then I forgot half an ounce of hops at 0 min.

Then I realized I had my PID in manual mode the entire mash. (No wonder I kept over shooting my temps)

Then, after overcoming all of that I go to drain the wort and basically can't because the hop screen is clogged. Needed to resort to siphoning. I was doing a no-chill batch and realized after siphoning that my tubing unused wasn't rated for hot temps. So I think I'll have a nice plastic odor with this beer.

Very humbling brew day. At least I learned a lot.

 

[oneandahalfshepherds]

I hit my thumb with a sledgehammer and blew it out, three stitches later im doin ok. Ill trade your day for mine



Thumbs up

 

[shuckit]

That sounds like a mess. Next time will be better.

 

[mattd2]

That sounds like a mess. Next time will be better.

Who were you replying to oneandahalfshepherds or geoffey?

 

[Cbaddad]

You both need a beer

 

[BadNewsBrewery]

My last brew day I was doing 3 back-to-back-to-back batches, got my 2 pumps switched up, and thought I turned off my sparge water pump when I actually turned off my wort pump (due to the switch up). Ended up overflowing my mash tun and dumped grains and water onto the floor as it overflowed. Luckily the beers are all fermenting well and within acceptable ranges.

Then last night I punctured a hole through my fingernail when I got distracted while reloading ammo and the depriming pin made itself known...

I feel your pain. Both of you.

 

[oneandahalfshepherds]

Ouch... Reminds me of a simpsons gag "in soviet russia, ammo primes you"