Okay...so this just comes in from another brew friend who has been soooo looking forward to this weekend. He has had life happen and has been unable to brew for about 6 months. All kinds of planning went into this brew day. He has teamed up with a brand new club member who is very enthusiastic to get going.
His email.....
Oh my. What a day. Last night I discovered that my thermometer battery was dead and someone broke my hydrometer but didn't tell me. Too late to go to harvest, couldn't get ahold of Paul to borrow one. Went to town, couldn't get ahold of Paul still, but got a battery. Told Craig later that he needed to go in early and buy me one. He agreed but failed to tell me about baseball practice in the morning. Ended up calling Paul W and told him to come an hour later for brewing. Seriously grumpy by now. Go get the hydrometer myself. Paul gets here, we start the mash water heating. I walk into the garage, hear a crash. My rolling cart I use to brew with that had shelves for all my gear went for a ride down the driveway and dumped on it's side spilling everything out. I walked up fully expecting the new hydro to be broken. Somehow, it got hung up in the shelf and didn't hit the ground. A miracle. It's 10:15 now, and I have a facial twitch. I decide it's time to start drinking. Give Paul a beer. I decide a beer isn't strong enough to fix my facial twitch. Get my rye whiskey from the shop and have a couple good belts. Mmmmm! Much better... The brew proceeds. Beer is being drunk. Mash goes well, but discover the well is now dry and there's no magic water left for the second running. Almost start crying. Briefly consider hari kari, but settle on more whiskey instead. This helps. I ask Paul, expert on all things water, how hard the river water is. He says its pretty hard by this time of year. I drink more rye to clear my mind. Screw it, I say. Let's use river water. So we do, and things get considerably better from there on out in spite of having to send a kid to town for propane for the bbq'er. Burgers were great. Beer was cold. Got more gravity than I expected. Diluted a little. Hit my final gravity. Took forever to chill, but finally managed 75. Oh well. Like I really give a tinker's damn about that anymore.
Relax, don't worry, have a home brew. Or whiskey if you already have a good facial twitch going.
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Gremlins I'm telling you! You all be careful out there.......