I remember that it was sunny outside and I had been inside brewing most of the day. I had taken the brew pot off the stove and set up my immersion chiller before heading into the backyard to enjoy the break. Twenty minutes later, I sauntered back in to check the temperature, and that’s when I encountered the mess. A hose clamp had loosened and water leaked into the pot, diluting the wort and overflowing onto the floor. I cursed through the cleanup and mourned the batch that I lost.
I wish I could say that was the only time things have gone wrong for me, but, like most experienced brewers, I have a list of mistakes and misadventures. Some of them I can blame on equipment failure, like the chiller or the time my false bottom collapsed at a Big Brew event. But others were my own fault, usually from inattention or not thinking things through. It turns out that brewing a batch of mead during the “down time” of mashing an all-grain beer is prone to process overload when both batches need focus at the same time. And a keg for funky sour Belgian beers should probably have the gaskets and O-rings swapped out before being reused for that Helles that lagered for six weeks.
It’s pretty much inevitable that something will eventually go wrong. When it does, it’s worth taking the time to figure out exactly what happened. Don’t waste your time beating yourself up. Instead, I recommend following Charlie Papazian’s useful advice: “Relax. Don’t Worry. Have a homebrew.” Pour yourself a beer and conduct a post-mortem. Start from the beginning and look at what happened.
The first step is to figure out the root cause of the problem. Often, it’s obvious: shattering a cool carboy by pouring hot wort into it is pretty straightforward, but other cases, such as my false bottom collapse, can be a little trickier. I had to play detective to work that one out. It happened while I was recirculating my mash, which I had done numerous times before. Prior to this, the bottom seemed sturdy enough, but this time the legs had buckled. Finally, I tracked it back to my new pump, which had a stronger draw than the old one. It had pulled the grain bed down and crushed the false bottom into a pancake.
Once you have a good understanding, the next step is to look at how you might have caught things before they became critical or how you could prevent the problem in the first place. Process checklists are great for reminding you of everything you need to do and when to prepare for upcoming steps. Pre-flight equipment checks can verify that everything is ready to roll. For example, do you have enough propane on hand and have you checked the hose clamps on the chiller? Other solutions may be more specific: No playing fetch with the dog next to the brew kettle and burner and turn down the pump flow during recirculation. Whatever you come up with, write it down and remind yourself the next time you brew.
Of course, the most important thing is not to let a setback stop you from brewing. Over the years, you’ll grow as a brewer by facing these kinds of problems head on. You might even end up with some great stories. Did I ever tell you about the time I saved a batch from becoming glass grenades by learning how to vent a swing-top bottle very quickly?