Comments on: Brewday Gone Bad: My Greatest Fear

By: Michael Reinhardt

Michael Reinhardt — Sat, 27 Feb 2010 18:25:09 +0000

You will never brew a horrible beer with good sanitation but you could ruin a great one without it. It is absolutely paramount that you clean.

By: Jim

Jim — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 20:35:35 +0000

So cleanliness is next to godliness? Good to know. I think I’m going to be crazy about sanitation, as i’ve had an infected beer recently and I don’t want my babies to turn out like that!

By: Michael Reinhardt

Michael Reinhardt — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 19:58:34 +0000

I love the smell of the malt, so that’s not a problem. Also, I’ve never had a bad batch of beer. I think saying that you will is somewhat of a myth. If you pay attention to sanitation (the most important thing), then it doesn’t happen. You may have a beer that isn’t what you were hoping it was but sloppy sanitation is the number one killer.

By: Jim

Jim — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 14:02:36 +0000

I’m curious to see if we’ll stick with it as well. I hope so-I’m excited to see how it turns out and i want to learn what goes into making each style.

I thought about the wort smell (been on a brewery tour before) and got an outdoor propane burner for cooking our wort. Hope fully that’ll take care of that and it comes with the added bonus of making me feeling like a moonshiner sitting out in the woods cooking a batch.

By: Rachel

Rachel — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 13:28:29 +0000

I purposely stayed out of the conversation about whether to brew or not. If it’s something you want to do, you should just try it. We tried it about 15 years ago and it was fun at first. We had a really good batch to start with and had one that didn’t turn out so great. It is a huge mess and a huge time commitment and the smell of malt in the house was overpowering for (I say weeks) a long time (my husband says it wasn’t weeks and he liked the smell). As Marvin said, you can expect bad batches and I just think it wasn’t worth it. Future LD beer brewing: I say no way! That’s why God made Trappist monks.

By: nate

nate — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 19:47:46 +0000

thanks…I gotta be more careful. I still haven’t laid down my bike, but it’s an old rust bucket from the ’70s.

By: Jim

Jim — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 19:14:14 +0000

“What to Expect When You’re Expecting to Brew” would be an awesome book, Don. The Beer Doctor is IN!

By: Jim

Jim — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 19:13:52 +0000

I’ll send you my new one as soon as I realize it’s too small to brew 10 gallon batches and I need a keggle instead…

By: Don

Don — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 18:54:26 +0000

While you’r at it Jim, I could use a brew pot too…

By: Don

Don — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 18:53:05 +0000

Is there a “What to Expect When You Are Expecting to Brew” book Jim can buy!

By: Jim

Jim — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 18:50:18 +0000

Too late for that, Don…

By: Jim

Jim — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 18:49:44 +0000

Yeah, I’m getting that feeling, too Scott! I just want to do everything I can to be prepared. You’d think I was delivering a baby!

By: Scott-TheBrewClub

Scott-TheBrewClub — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 18:46:03 +0000

Sorry Nate, I think we both meant the same thing. It does indeed suck, but I suppose it happens to everyone at some point – kinda like dropping motorcycles.

Jim, it seems your first batch is going to have to be stellar to get Don off your case!

By: Don

Don — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 18:34:25 +0000

Cha Ching, Cha Ching…Hear that sucking sound Jim? Hold onto your wallet!

By: Michael Reinhardt

Michael Reinhardt — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 18:30:53 +0000

Thanks for the compliment. I think the EZBREW oven would do the trick. Papazian’s book is great. Stephen Synder’s book is also very useful.