It was three weeks in the making. A 10-gallon batch of vanilla stout, my wife’s favorite, had been pushed back and pushed back due to life getting in the way. Kids getting sick, unexpected out-of-town guests and otherwise shifting priorities conspired to push this brew day further on the calendar. Then it happened. My work schedule lined up to allow me to work a half day on Opening Day. My Cincinnati Reds were hosting the Pirates and I was able to get the broadcast at home. My wife agreed to take charge of the kids so I could squeeze in the brew (it didn’t hurt that I was brewing her beer). A glorious day of baseball and beer was ahead of me.
Everything finally lining up probably should have been a warning. Nothing ever works out that nicely. Problems started innocently enough. I had a small spot of yeast stuck on the side of my plastic fermenter. No big deal. I can’t use a brush since that would scratch the plastic, but I can spin a wet washcloth inside to wipe it off. This particular gunk was stubborn. It took more than 4 innings to get the speck completely off of the fermenter. But the Reds were up 2-0 at that point and my water was heated and ready for the mash.
I moved the water I needed for the mash into the mash tun at the next commercial break. A rain delay gave me the window I needed to crush my grain and get the mash started. After ensuring the HERMs system was working properly, I returned to the game to watch the Reds blow the lead then retake the lead in the 8th. A quick 9th inning secured the win for the Reds and I went to the garage for the remainder of the brew day. Or so I thought.
Near the end of the mash I heard my wife calling for me. I head back into the house and look out the window to see that our street has been barricaded by police and have their rifles trained on a neighbor’s house. I send the family back to the rear of the house in case something goes down and return to the garage. Because beer.
The rest of the mash and during the mash out I am keeping one eye on the situation out front and one eye on the brew system. I start the long sparge and continue to check on the street. Nothing seems to be happening. I get my hops together for the boil and settle in watching my pre-boil volume slowly rise.
The situation outside seems to have diffused. Police just milling around in the street and the barricade gradually disappears. We appear to be in the clear and my wife throws together a late dinner. The boil proceeds smoothly except for a minor boil-over. After quickly eating my dinner I start prepping my fermenters and setting up the hoses for the chiller. With 5 minutes left in the boil I see it. My hop screen and stainless elbow to reach the bottom of the boil kettle are sitting on a chair by the brew stand. F@*#!
With all of the distractions of the day I had forgotten to reassemble to interior of the boil kettle after doing a clean. Now I had 11 gallons of boiling wort and my normal routine of getting the wort chilled and in the fermenter can’t happen. I grab my immersion chiller and throw it into my sanitizer bucket. It is really only built for 5 gallon batches, but it will have to do. I rearranged my hoses to accommodate the immersion chiller and toss it into the boil kettle.
One problem down. Now I need to figure out how to get the wort out. The kettle plus wort is easily over 100 pounds so I won’t be lifting it to just pour it into the fermenters. That is usually my go-to method when something goes wrong. I ran into the house to get my auto-siphon and put that into the sanitizer bucket.
Now it was a waiting game for the immersion chiller to slowly cool the wort. It is only a 25 foot coil, so it is built for 5 gallons at most. Add to that that the out hose for the water is not very long so I had to direct it into a 5 gallon bucket. This kept me busy shuffling a couple 5 gallon buckets in and out of the garage. When the wort hit about 110 degrees Fahrenheit, I called it. I would take advantage of the cold night air and my fermentation fridge to cool it down the rest of the way.
I got the siphon started into the first fermenter and started cleaning the mash tun. It was a little nerve racking constantly looking up to the fermenter to make sure I stopped it in time and put the hose into the 2nd fermenter. I made the swap with no issues and went back to cleaning the mash tun. Of course I nearly miss the 2nd fermenter filling up but managed to stop it in time.
I cleaned out the boil kettle and got the hoses and pumps run clean with hot water. I did a quick check on the fermenters just by putting my hand on the side of it and was pleased with how it was cooling down. Now is when it hit me that I had not prepped the yeast. My Wyeast smack packs were still sitting in the fridge. Sigh. At this point what more could I expect. I smacked the yeast and called it a day with my brew. I’ll pitch in the morning to make sure everything was at the right temperature.
This brew day went sideways worse than when I’ve drank one too many during the day. I had only had one beer, but I was so distracted I was missing critical (and simple!) details throughout the day. Maybe I shouldn’t be so hard on myself. Who really considers needing yeast to brew beer?
Oh and did I mention I woke up with a bad cold the next day?