Worst Brew Weekend in my Career

[D_Rabbit]

So I think part of my issues for this brew weekend started on Thursday when I bought my grains. When the guy crushed them I felt like they weren't crushed enough. They just didn't look right to me and this was the first time I have ever felt like that while looking at dry crushed grains. They still looked to in tact and not crushed enough. I figured I was just being paranoid and let it go.

Saturday night I got ready to bake my pumpkin and realized I was still 20oz short. Not sure how I screwed up that calculation. I went to the store at 830pm and bought another can, 29oz, of pumpkin puree. I got home and broke out my scale to weigh it all out and my battery was dead on the scale. Had to make another trip to the gas station this time for a 9v battery.

Brew morning was a bit chilly but no big deal. The annoying part of the morning, and my last few brew days, has been the wind. 10-15mph winds with 20mph gusts.

Had issues with my burners for some other reason today. For some reason it wasn't giving me that rip roaring jet sound and sounded like I was tripping the safety mechanism in the tanks which wasn't allowing me to get a full flame. Figured out I was just opening my valve on my stand too fast and that was tripping it. Problem solved.

Not sure what else is going on but for some reason I am not getting a temp reading over 152 with my brand new thermometer with the mash. I was adding 180 degree water to my mash toward the end as a semi fly sparge and the grains kept reading 148ish. Was getting annoyed. At that point I was almost done with the sparge so it wasn't a big deal but I am hoping my temps weren't too off.

Biggest issue of the day was my stuck mash. I got about 5 gallons in the boil kettle when the flow stopped. At that point I really couldn't figure out anything to do. Thanks to my other thread I will remember to try some counter air and blow in to a tub in to the manifold and see if that works next time, hopefully there isn't a next time. I ended up using a paint strainer bad and dumping the remaining few gallons in to a paint strainer bag and than dumping that liquid in to the boil kettle.

Took a reading with my refractometer and it was around 6.6 brix for pre boil, which put me on target for my 1.046 OG. So I wasn't too worried about the grains at that point.

Toward the end of my boil I noticed the flame was getting a little lazy again. Figured out my tank was just low. Switched that out and was good for the last 20 minutes again.

Got my pump and chiller all set up. I just bought a temp prob and some quick disconnects for the chiller so I can use a thermometer in it to track the temp. WORKED GREAT.... AS LONG AS YOU REMEMBER TO PUT THE THERMOMETER IN THE OPENING PRIOR TO OPENING THE VALVES!! DOH! Luckily that only resulted in a few ounces lost before I got the thermometer cramed in there.

While filling my fermenter I took another sample for the refractometer and the Brix came back at 7. That made me a little worried since my pre-boil was at 6.6. At that point I filled the test tube and used the hydrometer. OG came in at 1.022. Exactly what I thought!! This really sucked for 2 reasons.
- WAY BELOW MY GRAVITY, now I had to boil some DME, which wheat is all I had on hand and add that to the fermenter.
- I don't know if I was way below gravity due to the stuck sparge or due to the grains not being crushed properly. I am leaning more towards the grains because it didn't get stuck until I had almost 5 gallons already collected.

After clean up I waited to pitch the yeast since I still needed to get my gravity up. I went to the kitchen and boiled up some DME. While doing that I figured I would clean a few dishes in the sink. Bad idea, BOIL OVER!! Not my freaking day! I had 2.5 quarts of liquid in a 12 quart pot and it still managed to boil over. CRAP all over the stove top which instantly became lava rock solid on the stove. That took me about another hour to clean off.

Finally got the DME chilled and added to the fermenter. At this point I put a blow off tube on because I am not testing my luck past this point. I am ready to throw this batch in the potomac!

Well, 10 days in primary, rack to secondary for the spices for another 7 days and than keg. If this turns out great there will be no way to replicate it at all. If it turns out decent and not infected I will be astounded!

I need a simple batch for my next recipe so I can figure out if it was the grain crush issue or the pumpkin.

Im going to bed now. I am mentally exhausted. This was literally my worst brew day in my career.

[Kealia]

Ooof, sorry to hear it. Some days you're the windshield and some days you're the bug.
Hopefully in the end there are more of the former than the latter.

Fingers crossed that it all works out well on this one.

[Beer-lord]

Bummer but now it can only get better.
You'd never know the good if it weren't for the bad so get back on that horse ASAP.

[FedoraDave]

Some brew days are like that.

But you know what? You'll have beer in the end. Beer does its thing.

RDWHAHB, man.

[Inkleg]

Sounds like it going to be THE BEST BEER EVER! Good thing you documented the whole messed up process so you will be able to replicate it again.

Sorry about your brew day from hell Dan, we all get them from time to time.

[Crazy Climber]

Something goes wrong on every brew day. It sounds like you just happened to get about six brew day's worth of headaches all in one! But, it also sounds like you're on top of the things that could be headaches again in the future (grain crush, stuck sparge) so maybe you'll benefit from this experience in the future.

[philm00x]

What CC says is true! Hell, today I was bottling my IPA and I did t realize the spigot on my bottling bucket was open so I started spilling beer on the floor.

[Crazy Climber]

What CC says is true! Hell, today I was bottling my IPA and I did t realize the spigot on my bottling bucket was open so I started spilling beer on the floor.

If I had a nickel for every time......aw, never mind!

[D_Rabbit]

The good news is that my beer was fermenting like crazy by noon today. Good thing i opted in for the blow off tube. 3" of krausen within 24 hours of yeast pitch without a starter is pretty insane!

[D_Rabbit]

And it continued!! Transferred to my keg and was getting ready to add the spices and realized....... my wife threw them out in the move!! I swear I had seen the spice container prior to making this beer and now I can't find the spices anywhere!! Kegged it anyways and will buy the pumpkin spice tomorrow night and make a tea with it and add to the keg thursday or friday.

This batch needs to disappear fast because it has been a nightmare!

[Dawg LB Steve]

Get that keg carbed up and have a block party get rid of it quick! Or you can send it my way!

[truckndad]

You're going to taste that thing and wonder, damn, this is great. How the hell did that happen??

[DaYooper]

And it continued!! Transferred to my keg and was getting ready to add the spices and realized....... my wife threw them out in the move!! I swear I had seen the spice container prior to making this beer and now I can't find the spices anywhere!!!

That is one reason why I have my kitchen spices and my brewing spices with both being in completely different locations. There has been many a time when I learned too late that either they have been used up or pitched for being "old."

[D_Rabbit]

So i was adding some notes to this file so I know how bad I went wrong in specific areas. While doing that I went back and looked at my notes from the prior times I made this recipe and it seems that the very first time I made this as a BIAB I had the same efficiency issues and had to add 8oz of DME to the fermenter for a 2.5 gallon batch. Quite impressive since I had to add 16oz for a 5.5 gallon batch. I am thinking my terrible efficiency is just a byproduct of using the pumpkin in the mash. Will have to create a new process for this specific recipe and increase the 2 row to make up for the efficiency. The good news is that the spices were added today so another week of aging and I will toss it in the kegerator and pop on the CO2. Hopefully will have a couple growlers to bring home over the thanksgiving holiday.

[D_Rabbit]

Just a quick update on this. Besides the fact that my bear looks like a wheat due to the DME the taste and smell are fantastic. Pulled my first pint last night, well my 3rd or fourth (first few were pulled to clear the settlement), and gave it a try. The aroma is fantastic! A lot of cinnemon and nutmeg. The flavor is just as good if not better! The spice tea is what I think really makes this recipe. The recipe alone gives it the backbone and malt to add and hold the great flavors. Even with such a terrible brew day the beer itself is fantastic. I knocked on my neighbors door who has been looking forward to it and gave him a pint. Probably the best compliment a brewer could ever get.

"This might be one of the best pumpkin beers i've ever tasted"

I guess if they all turn out this way I can live with a day of maddening issues