Worst brewday ever!!

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Yooper

Ale's What Cures You!
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Whatever can go wrong, will!

Let's see- stuck mash, stuck sparge, pH meter malfunction (and not under warranty by about 1 month), Thermapen malfunction (it's been "iffy" since I got it), clogged pump, under on volume (due to stuck mash and sparge and clogged pump), burned my hand, and have grain and mash all over my laundry room floor.

And it's not over yet!

Days like today make me hate brewing, I swear.

I spent quite a bit of time on the phone with the Milwaukee tech support about the pH meter, which has already gone through two electrodes and never did work right from the beginning. (Got it for Christmas). They can't really help me. as the second defective electrode they sent me is out of warranty because they sent it to me in March.

The Thermapen "forgets" to work after it shuts itself off sometimes, and has from the beginning as well. Today, it wouldn't "remember" to work even after taking the batteries out a few times until just now.

I have no idea of the mash pH, the temperature of my sparge water, the chilled wort temperature, or anything else.

My back hurts (24 pounds of grain, plus 9 gallons of mash water is HEAVY to move four times), my burned hand hurts, my laundry room floor looks like a mashtun exploded on it while my feet stick to it, and today I hate brewing.


I guess electronics don't like me, or else I just have the worst luck in buying them.
 
Glad to hear even the seasoned pros have days like this. I bet the beer still turns out great, and at least you got to brew on a Monday! I spent the day with too many patients and too few staff! I'd trade if I could
 
Oh noes!

That's my worry about going towards electronics for my brew set-up. The main reason, though, is that I am poor... so I have stuck to hydrometers, electric cooking thermometers, refactometers, etc.

I used to use all sorts of lab equipment when I was in the Forestry school up at MTU, and I always knew which labs to go to for testing SG, pH, weight, etc, as some machines just hated me.
Just think of the brew as a mystery beer. It'll turn out, be great, and you won't be able to ever re-create it! (or you might, if equipment keeps failing. If so, rejoice for faulty machines! :D)
 
That stinks Yoop! We've all been there for sure.


I wish I could brew on a weekday:)

I'd rather have a bottle in front of me than a frontal lobotomy. -- Tom Waits
 
I know the feeling! Last brewday was a huge mess! I was making an RIS, and then i was going to make a smaller beer with second runnings. Due to my equipment setup I left the mash tun on top of my inverted trash can (added height for gravity feeding), well right as I was about to chill my RIS after its boil, the mash tun (which had been fine for 90 minutes) decided to fall for no reason! HOT Sticky wort all over the garage floor, my feet and a bunch of other places it shouldn't have been! I was on record brewday pace to until that happened

I find my brewdays go better when I have no other commitments and I can relax and slowly go through the motions. Whenever I try to be quick i run into problems. Sounds like it was the perfect storm for your equipment malfunctions tho! Take a break for a couple of weeks and get your equipment setup back in line. I think we both know you'll get the itch to brew again.
 
Sorry to hear you had such a rough brew day. Sometimes it seems when one thing goes wrong more things follow. I've kept my setup pretty simple over the years. So there's not too much that can fail in my system. But even then, things still go wrong from time to time. There's nothing more to do than just breathe, fix the problem, hope for the best, and move on to the next batch. I hope everything turns out well with this batch despite what all happened.
 
Oh man that stinks. I'm probably due for a day like that. The worst part of that for me would be the mess on the floor. I have never brewed indoors, and never will since any mess outside can be hosed down quickly. I do make messes, including boilovers and valves left open.
 
Homebrew and I had our first fight the other week and had to take some time apart to think about things. Glad to hear it happens to the best of us, although not glad that you had to go through all that!
 
Sounds like a mess, Lorena. Good thing you have all that soap! :p

You made me laugh. Almost.

The brew is finished- 10 gallons of all centennial IPA with an OG of 1.060.

On a side note, not only is my laundry room floor totally clean, it's now sanitized as well. :D Pouring star-san back into a jug when not looking means most of it goes on the floor. :drunk:

My pH meter is soaking in vinegar per tech support. I think it's shot, though, and I'm not happy. It was always "funny" and I'd have to recalibrate several times in a brewday (Milwaukee ph56) but it worked alright after they sent me the second electrode. It's either buy another electrode, send it in (and still buy another electrode if they find that is what is wrong) and pay the shipping, or buy a new (different brand) pH meter. None are great choices. :mad:

The thermopen I have to send in, but I really hate to be without it. I use it for soaping, and it works fine then. It only gets messed up when it turns itself off when it's left open (like on brewdays). I've changed the batteries, and it didn't fix the issue.

Right now, I'm sitting at my desk, feet up, drinking a rye pale ale (kitchen sink recipe I posted here: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f12/kitchen-sink-rye-pale-ale-345619/

That beer really turned out well, and right now it's clear and beautiful with great lacing on my glass. Of course, that means the keg will probably kick today with the luck I'm having.
 
Sorry to hear you had such a rough brew day. Sometimes it seems when one thing goes wrong more things follow. I've kept my setup pretty simple over the years. So there's not too much that can fail in my system. But even then, things still go wrong from time to time. There's nothing more to do than just breathe, fix the problem, hope for the best, and move on to the next batch. I hope everything turns out well with this batch despite what all happened.

I think that's what happened to me, though! I had like 5-6 brewdays that went like clockwork, in fact I even remarked, "This is WAY too easy!"

I'm going to widen the gap on my barley crusher- it was flour that was stuck under my false bottom that clogged up the works for the mash and sparge. I might go to .035" after this.
 
Yooper said:
I think that's what happened to me, though! I had like 5-6 brewdays that went like clockwork, in fact I even remarked, "This is WAY too easy!"

I'm going to widen the gap on my barley crusher- it was flour that was stuck under my false bottom that clogged up the works for the mash and sparge. I might go to .035" after this.

That's been my experience. When it seems almost too easy, I have a day where something goes wrong. I had a stuck mash on my last batch. First time in the 7 yrs I've been brewing. I guess I was due one. On top of that, my propane burner crapped out on me. It was a freebie from my dad and I never really liked it for the same reason he gave it to me. It's one of those ones with the dial timer on it. This time the dial melted off because it got too hot and then it didn't want to stay lit and I had to mess with it and rig something up to keep it lit, all while my wort was just coming to a boil and I'm trying to prevent boil over. It wasn't fun, but I know things could've been worse.
 
I remember your post last year on what pH meter you should get. Try the Weiss 6250. It's only about 475 shekels with all the trinkets. I have mine for a about 9 years and it hasn't given me any problems. I keep a spare electrode. The original is still fine. I keep the electrode in the solution all the time. Never letting it dry out. It will be the last one you'll need to buy. A very accurate thermometer is a Weiss DT 52A. The price is right for the quality. Mine is about 20 years old and is extremely accurate. I use two bead probes. I like two temp probes for decoction mashing. One in the mash tun and one in the decoction kettle. The thermometer is very rugged. I rather meters with plug in probes and long leads. To keep the meters away from wort and water....Too bad about the stuck sparge and what went with it. Maybe try to pump water into the tun drain, before anything else.
 
Even with all that fuss, it sounds like you still had a shorter brew day than me... ;)
 
sorry to hear about your day, the good thing is you will still end up with beer and tomorrow is another day:)
 
Sounds like my Citra brew day from a month ago, a complete clusterf*ck from the beginning because I couldn't find half my **** and because my burner kept blowing itself out. Ended up doing a short boil, essentially hopbusting a ****ton of hops, but still have essentially zero bitterness.
 
Sounds like my Citra brew day from a month ago, a complete clusterf*ck from the beginning because I couldn't find half my **** and because my burner kept blowing itself out. Ended up doing a short boil, essentially hopbusting a ****ton of hops, but still have essentially zero bitterness.

For tomorrow's brewday, I just will relax and enjoy the day. Oh, and loosen the gap on my mill. :D
 
Sorry to hear about your bad brew day. Could be karma, your "likes" are unbalanced. The Yin/Yang thing.
My worst brew days are still way ahead of my best work days. ;)
 
I have bad luck with electronic measuring devices as well! I decided to invest in a digital thermometer one time... after the brewday was done, I thought some of the temps it was reading were funny, so I stuck the thing in my mouth. Apparently, I had a fever of 112 degrees! I went right back to the good ol' dial thermometer that I can easily calibrate with a glass of ice water
 
It will be the best beer you ever made... and wont be able to duplicate it !

Cheers
Pat

That is true- this beer will NEVER be duplicated (I hope!).

It's bubbling away right now at 68 degrees, and seems none the worse for the experience. I, on the other hand, and going to the chiropractor tomorrow to have my back, neck and shoulders put back together. :D
 
Yoop, I have a buddy that is an award winning brewer and every time I have watched him brew his brew days go like the one you just had, we call his home brewery Cluster f--k brewing, it's amazing that his beers are even drinkable.

I built him a new system that I have yet to see him brew on...I'm afraid to see what he might do to it !
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