The brew gods hate me

[Glynn]

Had another crappy brew day today. I completely over shot my mash temps by 10 degrees and had to stir my @$$ off to get it down to temp. I lost a brand new thermometer today that i just took out of the box when i dropped it in to my mash tun at the end of my mash causing me to spew a long line of obscenities that i am sure my neighbors didn't care for. At the end of my boil i went to hook up chiller to my garden hose only to find out that sprayer was stuck on the hose so bad that i destroyed both of em trying to remove it. so after another long line of you know what i decide to go get the hose that's in the front yard but as i am removing the nozzle it breaks off taking the hose end with it. By this time I'm like wtf. cant i get through a single brew day without it being a TOTAL cluster f@$*. so after a trip to the hardware store for a new hose i finally get my brew chilled and put up. I decide i need to relax and have a home brew but as I am reaching in for a bottle i spy the whiskey and decide beer just wasn't gonna cut it.

 

[velorider11]

Easy friend. After all that, you got your wort into the fermenter and will probably have excellent beer. You've successfully overcome adversity and perservered until the end to achieve your objective. Congratulations! Take a walk or a bike ride and enjoy the late summer weather while planning your next batch and give yourself a pat on the back. And don't forget to share with those neighbors who put up with you.

 

[frazier]

I've had days like that. I tend to get pretty wound up when brewing, which is why SWMBO heads for the other side of the house.

Which reminds me, I owe her a batch of cider.

Cheers!

 

[sidepart]

I haven't had too many incidents yet. Lately though I've been clumsy as all hell with liquids.

OOPS! Hot wort all over the kitchen floor.

OOPS! Pour hot strike water into my mash tun only to find I had somehow opened the spigot against some cabinetry.

OOPS! Filled up a bucket with water to clean it out, leaks everywhere because it was the bottling bucket without a spigot.

OOPS! Forgot to tie down the end of my chiller and it snakes all over my sink spraying water everywhere.

Yesterday I was pouring a sample of beer from an Erlenmeyer flask into my graduated cylinder (for the hydrometer) and I poured the whole thing NEXT to the cylinder instead of in it. It was a RIS too so it got everywhere made a huge visible mess. I about hucked my flask.

 

[BuddyWeiser]

My last brew day, right during the middle of my mash, a leg broke off of my propane burner. I was just sitting there thinking about beer when BAM! the whole 10 gal pot crashed to the floor in my garage. Luckily, it fell against a box and spilled only a quart or so of wort. With wide eyes I gawked at the half tipped over pot sitting there on top of a broken grill (still burning) with wort all over the floor and sputtering on the flames. I quickly got everything turned off, moved my brew inside, and said a prayer to ward off the brew day demons lurking around trying to ruin my fun and spoil my beer! Here's to surviving

 

[Glynn]

The worst part was watching a brand new digital thermometer die on its first mash

 

[supermoth]

My brew day two weeks ago was the most frustrating in recent memory. I had purchased a bazooka screen to put in my kettle because I wanted to use my homegrown hops, but I forgot to attach it. This resulted in an hourlong series of failed attempts to get the cooled wort from kettle to carboy, a lot of cursing, and a lot of wort ending up everywhere except inside the carboy. I realized that it's good to expect some hitches any time you change up your routine.

I also realized that you have to do whatever you believe will appease the brew gods, whether that's wearing your lucky socks, or for me, playing Grateful Dead until midway through the boil. It must have worked yesterday, because it was one of my best brew days yet. It has me jazzed for the weekend to come so I can get brewing again!

 

[sidepart]

Oh dang...I didn't even think about how I'm going to transfer my wet hop ipa from the pot to the fermenter this weekend. Not sure my strainer is big enough for 1lb of hop trub.

 

[Homercidal]

I have had some pretty frustrating days. Nothing major, mostly just lots of little things I should have prepared or taken into account that made the brew day MUCH longer than necessary. Honestly, at a certain point you start to get good at RDWHAHBing.

For the hot mash, next time try some ice cubes. MUCH quicker than just stirring.

And I've lately starting using copper scrubbies on the end of my dip tube so keep the hops out of the fermenter. Works GREAT! I'll upgrade to SS one day, but the is fine for now. It was a lifesaver for those batches that had whole hops.