Soton
some random guy
Sorry this is a bit long but I needed it for therapy
My brew day from hell started on the Friday evening before brew day ( well technically I suppose it started in the week when I missed off the dextrose from my grain mail order and had to pay package and postage again for it) I got my Grainfather out ready for my brew day where it had been stored for 3 weeks since my last brew, I like to boil a bit of water in it the night before just to be sure its clean and clear of stale water ect, thats when I noticed a rather nasty nasty smell coming from it, I store all the chiller ect inside it when I am not using it, so with the unpacking came a what the F******* hell is that stink!, inside at the base where the side meets the bottom one of the seams had a small black gunky looking mark! wow a lot of stench coming from such a small thing
I grab a washing up brush and clean it up then run it through a Grainfather clean after that no mark, no more smell...........except 14 hours onwards on brew day morning a mild funky smell is coming from what should be a clean Grainfather and a new black mark in the same place
Right out I go into the garden and jet wash the offending seam and force out what I think must be some small bits of old grain, all black and gritty looking, after god knows how long I am satisfied that its clean, but of course I am now running behind time and I promised Mrs S that I would be out of her way, ahh well no problem its a nice day I will brew outside by the tap and the store shed, I got the little camping table out and set up all that I should need, no sooner then I am set up Mrs S needs to get some super duper cleaning gear rom the shed.........where all my stuff is set up Grrrrr, ok move stuff, set up again then at last its beer time :thumb: add water, heat strike water, grind grains, drop mash basket in place, mash in grains, slide mess cover on grains, put heavy overflow thingy over overflow pipe.........hmmmm wheres the thingy!,search high and low, ask Mrs S, nope she hasn't seen it.....but it was here when I set up...I checked! search again, then it dawned on me I could of left it in the mash basket when I had to move everything when the light of my life just had to get her cleaning gear out........SH*T, ok empty mash into fermenter, put back into Grainfather re-mashing looking for thingy, no sign of it, oh hell I will just have to carry on without it and hope its ok, 10 minutes later my good lady finds it in with her cleaning gear....how the hell did....oh never mind, fit thingy and smile,
plug in sparge water heater, then sort out and ready the the additions, come out and wonder why the water heater is still cold, dam a shut off on the extension lead has tripped off and the mash has stopped....FFS..... restart....watch.......need the toilet....come back and its all off again (why god why?) go and find two more extension leads and plug them in from two places
Mash all done on to the boil, four hop additions all laid out in order ready to go, just starting boil, eldest daughter wants help order build in wardrobe doors and insides.....really now...."yeah I have them on the phone now so what will I need" run through that add hops Wow I can multitask
Then a minor family crisis happens involving the other half's niece and live in boyfriend, her mum is out for the day can she come round and have a shoulder to cry on......sure no problem, she turns up with kids in tow who then generally disrupt everything, ask a lot of questions....any other day (sob) I start to get thrown off what I am doing then one knocks over one of my hops..... I don't say a word but if looks could kill....some how its my fault for "not putting them in a safe place"!!!! now I am in just a bit of a tizz, go measure out some more hops inside, alarms going off for additions adding them but not sure where the hell I am in the brew......I think I might of let myself be distracted! I suddenly realise I haven't started to sterilised the counter wort chiller, starting to panic now so rig that up and get it under way, alarm goes off phew got that sanitised in time, start to chill wort into the fermentation bucket, finally its going ok, quickly go inside crack a beer have check on the niece, she all ok, good good, go back out to find the water in has blown off the tap Nooooooo its NEVER done that before, worts a bit on the warm side now, no problem I will put it in the brew fridge for a while before I add the yeast, an alarm goes off!!! whats that for?? then it dawns on me thats the flame out alarm for the last hops!!!
Oh no I only did a 3 quarter hour boil......what the hell, to late now I will add the missing hops when dry hopping and as I missed the Iris moss I will try Finnings before I cold crash and that as they say was that........Thank God
Ahh well life is sent to try us, but why all in one day
My brew day from hell started on the Friday evening before brew day ( well technically I suppose it started in the week when I missed off the dextrose from my grain mail order and had to pay package and postage again for it) I got my Grainfather out ready for my brew day where it had been stored for 3 weeks since my last brew, I like to boil a bit of water in it the night before just to be sure its clean and clear of stale water ect, thats when I noticed a rather nasty nasty smell coming from it, I store all the chiller ect inside it when I am not using it, so with the unpacking came a what the F******* hell is that stink!, inside at the base where the side meets the bottom one of the seams had a small black gunky looking mark! wow a lot of stench coming from such a small thing
I grab a washing up brush and clean it up then run it through a Grainfather clean after that no mark, no more smell...........except 14 hours onwards on brew day morning a mild funky smell is coming from what should be a clean Grainfather and a new black mark in the same place
Right out I go into the garden and jet wash the offending seam and force out what I think must be some small bits of old grain, all black and gritty looking, after god knows how long I am satisfied that its clean, but of course I am now running behind time and I promised Mrs S that I would be out of her way, ahh well no problem its a nice day I will brew outside by the tap and the store shed, I got the little camping table out and set up all that I should need, no sooner then I am set up Mrs S needs to get some super duper cleaning gear rom the shed.........where all my stuff is set up Grrrrr, ok move stuff, set up again then at last its beer time :thumb: add water, heat strike water, grind grains, drop mash basket in place, mash in grains, slide mess cover on grains, put heavy overflow thingy over overflow pipe.........hmmmm wheres the thingy!,search high and low, ask Mrs S, nope she hasn't seen it.....but it was here when I set up...I checked! search again, then it dawned on me I could of left it in the mash basket when I had to move everything when the light of my life just had to get her cleaning gear out........SH*T, ok empty mash into fermenter, put back into Grainfather re-mashing looking for thingy, no sign of it, oh hell I will just have to carry on without it and hope its ok, 10 minutes later my good lady finds it in with her cleaning gear....how the hell did....oh never mind, fit thingy and smile,
plug in sparge water heater, then sort out and ready the the additions, come out and wonder why the water heater is still cold, dam a shut off on the extension lead has tripped off and the mash has stopped....FFS..... restart....watch.......need the toilet....come back and its all off again (why god why?) go and find two more extension leads and plug them in from two places
Mash all done on to the boil, four hop additions all laid out in order ready to go, just starting boil, eldest daughter wants help order build in wardrobe doors and insides.....really now...."yeah I have them on the phone now so what will I need" run through that add hops Wow I can multitask
Then a minor family crisis happens involving the other half's niece and live in boyfriend, her mum is out for the day can she come round and have a shoulder to cry on......sure no problem, she turns up with kids in tow who then generally disrupt everything, ask a lot of questions....any other day (sob) I start to get thrown off what I am doing then one knocks over one of my hops..... I don't say a word but if looks could kill....some how its my fault for "not putting them in a safe place"!!!! now I am in just a bit of a tizz, go measure out some more hops inside, alarms going off for additions adding them but not sure where the hell I am in the brew......I think I might of let myself be distracted! I suddenly realise I haven't started to sterilised the counter wort chiller, starting to panic now so rig that up and get it under way, alarm goes off phew got that sanitised in time, start to chill wort into the fermentation bucket, finally its going ok, quickly go inside crack a beer have check on the niece, she all ok, good good, go back out to find the water in has blown off the tap Nooooooo its NEVER done that before, worts a bit on the warm side now, no problem I will put it in the brew fridge for a while before I add the yeast, an alarm goes off!!! whats that for?? then it dawns on me thats the flame out alarm for the last hops!!!
Oh no I only did a 3 quarter hour boil......what the hell, to late now I will add the missing hops when dry hopping and as I missed the Iris moss I will try Finnings before I cold crash and that as they say was that........Thank GodAhh well life is sent to try us, but why all in one day
