Worst. Brewday. Ever.

[mac21]

Alright...so I'm doing a bit of venting in good nature about a terrible brew day to just make myself feel a bit better. I was brewing a belgian blonde for my buddies bachelor party. I'm a part time pastor so I don't make a ton of money and I keep my house pretty cold this time of year...fermentation doesn't do well at 60 for many of the brews I'm making so i brewed at a friend's house which is better insulated and has an affordable heating bill. So...here goes:
1) Forgot the hops and have to drive an hour each way to my house to get them (no homebrew shops close by)

2) Forgot burner after getting the hops and had already mashed in...so didn't have two hours to drive back for the burner. Luckily another friend about ten min away had a burner.

3) My friend's burner wasn't powerful enough to bring the sevenish gallons to boil and so my wort only reached 115 degrees F.

4) Because it didn't reach boiling, it didn't boil off the gallon/gallon and a half to reach OG

So...all of this is the worst brew aka brewfail I have ever had. I was hoping to hear some other brew day fails to commiserate with! What stories do you have?!

 

[IvanBrew]

Ouch! At 115 F you also didn't isomerize any of those hops, so you have pretty much zero IBUs...

My worst brew day in recent memory was an Oatmeal Stout I did last year. I had the first stuck mash I've had in a LONG time. Happened during recirc during the mash, so I had to run to the LHBS for rice hulls and then stir them in constantly for half an hour to get it to quit sticking.

After the boil my pump wouldn't prime again and it took me 15 minutes to get that resolved. Then I pumped through my chiller, which apparently wasn't cleaned well from the last batch, and I saw chunks of mold coming out into the fermenter.

The batch was a total loss, and thanks to the goofs, cost me the whole day.

Ever notice that "learning experiences" are universally painful? lol

 

[Gameface]

Do they make propane burners that underpowered? What's it used for normally?

I've had times when I tripped the safety cut-off on the propane regulator that brings the propane output to a trickle. Is it possible that's what happened? If it does you need to close the regulator and the main propane valve and try again by opening the regulator valve more slowly.

 

[ManhattanProjectBrewing]

Well.... As they say, "Victory loves preparation." And, of course... My favorite. "Good Judgment comes from experience... and experience comes from BAD judgment." Not all was lost; lest, you didn't learn anything from this? Yeah, I pretty much sound like a *%&# right now but.... Ok, I'm sorry... My condolences. I hate to see a good blonde go to waste [Get yer mind outta da gutter peoples… He’s a pastor for goodness sake].

Cheers Mate.... Cheers to you. If I were closer I'd give you my Belgian I just kegged.... Heck, PM me your address and I'll send you a six pack. Fo' reelz.

-JM

 

[lowelldw]

I am a noob and was thinking of maybe brewing a batch tomorrow but reading this make have 2nd thoughts.....I have not had what I would call a worst brew day yet!!!!

 

[aiptasia]

Preacher, there's a French term for how to properly prepare for any brew day.

Mise En Place.

It means, get all of your stuff organized and together where you need it in the measured, exact amounts that you need BEFORE you need them. It's an old professional chef's term for getting all of your utensils and ingredients prepped and together before you ever begin cooking.

The same applies to brewing, especially location brewing. I usually pack everything up I need in my car the day before. I measure and label everything going into the wort and double check my equipment list to make sure I have everything and that it's clean and ready to use. My location brew days have to go off without a hitch for the very problems you were having.

Pretty sure you learned your lesson on that one. Better beers are yet to come.

My worst brew days recently also involved a friend and his stuck sparge. His drain tube collapsed under the grain filter so he had to borrow my mash tun to finish his sparge. That meant scooping out pound after pound of scalding hot wet grains into my previously used (and not cleaned out well) mash tun. Then, he just plain forgot some of his hops additions. He's named it his FUBAR stout and it should be finished fermenting in another week or so.

My issue seems to be with killing lizards while location brewing. I have a 100 foot garden hose that we have to string together with other hoses. I have a multi-head tap that enables us to run over eight wort chillers simultaneously if we have to from one garden hose, but the problem seems to be that both anole lizards and pink geckoes love to live in it when it's not in use. Even if I flush the hose out, the little guys manage to cling to the inside long enough to think it's emptied out. Then, while running a wort chiller or two, there will be this sudden reduction of water pressure.

That'd be the dead lizard hitting the wort chiller 3/4" thread nozzle. Whee! I've recently made two "lizard killer" ales.

 

[mac21]

Hahaha lizards...hahaha that's great! I misspoke when I said 115. I meant 195 which is a significant difference but not enough to get a boil. Seven years of brewing but it's what happens when corners are cut and prepwork isn't done. Thanks for the stories, good to know even veterans make mistakes or have a bad day. lowelldw, good luck with your brew! ManhattanProjectBrewing I'm going to pm you my address for sure! Happy brewing and looking forward to some more good stories!

 

[djfriesen]

195 makes me feel much better. 115 wouldn't even have been enough to kill stuff that would have infected your beer later. With 195 you should be ok from that standpoint.



AG or extract? Extract should be ok. If it was AG, you'll probably have some DMS issues.

 

[mac21]

It was AG. It's going to have some issues for sure. aiptasia that's the truth. Hopefully as I continue to 'learn' some of it will stick. As they say, "A lesson learned is a lesson earned!" At least it makes me feel better anyways! :rockin:

 

[BrewWNC]

Resurrection.

I live in the middle of nowhere so getting supplies would require an 1 hour round trip driving plus time shopping. Keep that in mind.

Started raining when I brewed today and got roof water in the mash tun (not alot and Im not worrying...but still).

Dropped one of my lab thermometers during mash-in. It broke.

Grabbed my electronic thermometer. Screen apparently stopped working. So fail. Had to use a meat thermometer that only goes down to 100.

Started to fill my cooling bucket and prep the wort chiller and the next thing I know I have no water coming from my hose..or any faucet in my house.

I have well water so I figured a quick reset would do the job. Nope. Turns out its major problem and Ill be waiting for professionals. So I currently have zero water. Took forever to chill the beer with bags of ice.

Dropped the utensil I was using to rehydrate my yeast in the container with the yeast (should be good but Im worried).

And to top it all off I hadn't cleaned my carboy yet. So that was fun. I dread cleaning my kettle tomorrow.

 

[IslandLizard]

Resurrection.

I live in the middle of nowhere so getting supplies would require an 1 hour round trip driving plus time shopping. Keep that in mind.

Started raining when I brewed today and got roof water in the mash tun [...]

Yeah, sounds like you had a lot of fun testing Murphy's law. But in the end you made beer! It's all worth it. Find an appropriate name for this brew to make it memorable, e.g., 7 Plagues IPA, Murphy's Paled Law, or so.

 

[BigPerm]

Find an appropriate name for this brew to make it memorable

Name idea: Beer on a wet tin roof

Seriously, if my brewday tomorrow goes anything like this, you guys are to blame for me having read this. Sheesh.