Worst Ever Brew Day

[Vlad the Pale Aler]

Had the day off today and had it all planned out
.
Bottle the Belgian strong, boil up the second runnings from that brew that have waited patiently in the fridge to do a partial pilsener while at the same time running another piece of equipment (that cannot be mentioned here).

The Belgian tasted off, a sort of lactic sourness, shit! I decided to bottle it anyway in the vain hope it might get better. The source of the infection was in the internal freezers drip tray of the 200 yr old President fridge. Start scrubbing boy.

While I was piss farting around calibrating a fridge thermostat the immersion chiller was quietly filling up the boiler due to a rusty hose clip that would not tighten up fully, but she'll be right. Aaaargh! In the bin it goes.

Just for curiousity I stuck 4 thermometers into a bag of ice. Yep you guessed it, 4 different readings, a standard glass stick thermometer, 2 digital probes and a tel-tru. Is it any surprise I dont hit my targets every time.

So thanks for listening, I am now going to get bloody well drunk.
:angry:

 

[sluggerdog]

So thanks for listening, I am now going to get bloody well drunk.
:angry:

[post="48263"][/post]​

HERE! HERE!

ME TOO!~

 

[Guest Lurker]

Hey Ian just relabel the Belgian as a lambic. Sounds like a very annoying day. I guess you have bent the chiller so the connections are outside the pot? Did you have some water in the bag of ice to be sure that all the thermometers were definitely in contact with something at the same temp? Having a beer with you at the moment.

 

[roach]

Just for curiousity I stuck 4 thermometers into a bag of ice. Yep you guessed it, 4 different readings, a standard glass stick thermometer, 2 digital probes and a tel-tru. Is it any surprise I dont hit my targets every time.

:angry:

[post="48263"][/post]​

Vlad,

What was teh temp variation between the thermos. I use a DSE digital probe, and am gonna get a tel tru for the HLT eventually, and so interesting to know the change.

Cheers
Roach

 

[Vlad the Pale Aler]

The bag of ice was bashed with a hammer to crush an area and all thermos put in the same area

tel-tru -14
digi 1 - 9
stick - 8
digi2 - 2

:chug:

 

[dicko]

Hi Vlad,

Sorry to hear about you bad brew day. It's even worse when it is a day off work.

Just one note that the "Tell Tru" is adjustable.
When I got mine it was way out and I boiled water and recalibrated it to 100 deg c.
It is adjustable with a little "allen key" on the side.

Glass stick type thermometers can vary a lot IME (in my experience) but I have got an industrial digi therm like the fridge blokes use and I feel it is pretty accurate. It has two scales. One reads really quickly but uses more battery power and the other setting is slower but saves the battery. The slow one can be deceiving if you dont wait for the reading to stabilize.
I know how you feel with a bad day but the next one will be better!! :lol:

Cheers

 

[jgriffin]

The bag of ice was bashed with a hammer to crush an area and all thermos put in the same area

tel-tru -14
digi 1 - 9
stick - 8
digi2 - 2

:chug:

[post="48275"][/post]​

Damn that's a lot of variation. When i buy digital tyre guages, i insist on testing 3 and make sure they all give the same reason, so i can be reasonably sure.

Wonder if you can take a bag of ice and a thermos of hot water next time you go to buy a thermometer?

 

[pint of lager]

When testing thermometers at zero, you want an ice water slurry, not just ice. I tested a stack of glass stem thermometers some time ago, there was definitely plenty of variation, I think the worst was 2 deg out.

Boiling water at sea level is 100 deg C. Another spot to check.

But you really want them accurate at the mash temp. The cheapest way I found, was to use a digital thermometer for humans. This is very accurate at around 40 deg.

Sorry to read about your bad brew day. Here, have a virtual beer.

 

[barfridge]

I have a bad brew day story to tell. I attempted a double brew day, and all was going smoothly until I wanted to move the freshly boiled wort off my gas burner so I could heat the sparge water for batch #2 (mental note: get more burners).

Due to my dodgy crate on a table setup, the boiler was just a bit too high to lift comfortably with an overhand grip. So I attempted an optimistic underhand lift, and dropped it halfway down.

The damage:
- large dent in bottom corner of SS boiler
- approx 4 litres of wort on the ground
- a very painful burn all the way down my left arm, running down the inside of my forearm and across the back of my hand to my fingers. There's only one tiny blister thanks to keeping it in ice for the past 4 or 5 hours, but it's not something I really recommend doing for fun

I have learnt my lesson, let my stupidity be a lesson to you all.

 

[big d]

thats no good barfridge.ditch the crate and use a stool.no on second thoughts dont use the stool.it brings back memories of your stool comment at big al's brew day.

cheers
big d

 

[PeterS]

I have a bad brew day story to tell. I attempted a double brew day, and all was going smoothly until I wanted to move the freshly boiled wort off my gas burner so I could heat the sparge water for batch #2 (mental note: get more burners).

Due to my dodgy crate on a table setup, the boiler was just a bit too high to lift comfortably with an overhand grip. So I attempted an optimistic underhand lift, and dropped it halfway down.

The damage:
- large dent in bottom corner of SS boiler
- approx 4 litres of wort on the ground
- a very painful burn all the way down my left arm, running down the inside of my forearm and across the back of my hand to my fingers. There's only one tiny blister thanks to keeping it in ice for the past 4 or 5 hours, but it's not something I really recommend doing for fun

I have learnt my lesson, let my stupidity be a lesson to you all.

[post="70507"][/post]​

Barfridge, I certainly sympathise with you for I have been there and done that. The strange part of this story is that most of us heard about these kind of things before, yet we go ahead and do it all the same. I can still not afford to make a better system than what I have, but I have learned to keep the kettle on its stand and bail hot water to my HLT with a 2L jug. I of course also learned to have a suitable glove on my hand for prevention as I do it. I wish I could hurry up with my next stage set up and have a March pump or something.

Have another Beer in the meantime to ease the pain, I am having one just thinking about it...

:chug:
PeterS....

 

[Sean]

My worst brewday was similar, except it involved about half gallon of boiling water poured over a bare foot.

Very painful and involved limping for about a month.

I've been very careful with boiling liquids since.

 

[Doc]

I feel for you Barfridge.
It scares me even now the way I used to balance all my kit on top of BBQ's, old bed side tables, and side tables. Even the laundry basket trolley at one stage. And still having to pick the boiler up to allow it gravity feed into the fermenter. Aaaarrrgh.
Beg, borrow or steal (but I didn't say that) to bring your system up to the right height (or even purchase a cheapo pond pump) to make it safer.
Having kids around is what spurred me on before I or more importantly they got hurt.

Doc

 

[warrenlw63]

Commiserations and a touch of empathy Barfridge. Sorry to hear about some of your hard work being wasted.

I used to do something similar with my mashtun. Being a 38 litre round cooler, combined with 9kg grain and 25 litres of water. I used to lift it from the ground up onto a shelf containing a stool. It always required one leg on an aluminium ladder and the other on the wobbly bench to get the mashtun to the required height to drain.

Really hurt my shoulder big-time one day due to the clean and jerk motion required to lift it. Thankfully with a new stand that's all a thing of the past. Spend the extra coin on some creature comforts, you'll never look back.

Warren -

 

[Gerard_M]

What if you tried to apply the same safe working conditions, that you use in your place of employment, to your brewing. Safety boots( I wear gumboots) not thongs. Heat & chemical resistant gloves. If you are not allowed to pick up a 20 kilo load at work, why pick up a similar weight of boiling liquid at home!?!
OK rant over I am sure that you have wives that can nag you
Cheers
Gerard

 

[AndrewQLD]

I feel for you Barfridge, luckily i have not had that problem (touch wood), but do know what a painful burn feels like. Paranoia (spelling ?) is a good thing in the brewery.

hope you heal soon.

Andrew

 

[muga]

If you are not allowed to pick up a 20 kilo load at work, why pick up a similar weight of boiling liquid at home!?!

[post="70550"][/post]​

It won't lift itself unfortunatly

 

[Vlad the Pale Aler]

Hope it was'nt your drinking hand that was injured Jeff, now that would be a tragedy.

 

[barfridge]

Here is the outcome of the injury, it's not half as bad as it could have been. I really was lucky.

 

[Guest Lurker]

Those photos dont really do it justice. I've seen the scars in person and they are an angry painful looking scarlet colour.