When things go wrong, it can still come out OK.

[Brewiz]

Home brewing is one of the only hobbies I know of that when things go wrong the end result can still come out OK and in this case better than I expected. On 3/19 I was going to do a 10 gal Pale Ale all grain (my sencond all grain) a buddy of mine was going to come over and help, but he had to work that day. So I got my son to help with cracking the 29 lbs of grain and help me set up. While heating up my stike water to what was suppose to be 173 I was playing on my laptop (here on this site) and over shot my temp by over 10. Well I figured doughing in with that much grain, it would cool down to my target of 155 or so, but no it went down to only 160 and on top of that I didn't have hardly any room for more water in the mlt. The only thing I could do was keep stirring hoping that it would hurry and cool down to under 155, well it finally got down but I was more that half way thru the mash. When I finshed my sparge I had a OG of 1.075 and after fermentation a SG of 1.028. I really thought it was going to be too sweet (to many unfermentables)but last night I kegged about 8.5 gallons of the best beer I have ever brewed, I can't wait for it to carbonated so I can really get a good taste of it.
I love this hobby.

 

[chillHayze]

Amen to that brotha. I've uber screwed up on my first two batches, but they both are quite drinkable and you can only learn from the experiences.
Here is a story that will make you feel better: In my first batch, I thought you were supposed to BOIL the grains. So I did - with the rest of the wurt - for an hour. Now that puppy has some serious tannin flavor goin on, but it seems to mellow out with time.

 

[skifast1]

I second that 'Amen'. With my first batch I was so nervous I ended up steeping twice the amount of grain and broke my hydrometer within 10 seconds of opening it for the first time. Thank goodness for Papazian's mantra and this forum - I just went with the flow and ended up with a fantastic first brew.

 

[cweston]

On my second batch, I made a mistake w/ the amount of DME, and added LME to compensate. But I measured wrong or something. TThe OG of that batch ended up high, and since I had used more LME than I meant to, the next batch ended up low. (I didn't have any other ME on hand).

Both came out great.