One of those days...

[wetdog]

Decided to do a Londonish Pride based on GW's recipe and as we lose an hour on Sunday I thought I would do an overnight mash to balance it out
1) filled the mash tun with strike water only to see my manifold sat on the worktop
2) found I was 200g short on Crystal so had to top up with pale malt
3) phone battery flat, so no pictures
4) digital thermometer knackered, reading air temp at 66C (sun was out but I'm sure it wasn't that hot)
5) 1st runnings - stuck. Stirred, no good so attached a pipe to tap and blew causing a geezer of mashed grain to rain on me. had to empty the tun to find the manifold had come apart.
refit, refill, continue.
6) 2nd runnings stuck but a stir and a blow got it going (no geezer this time)
7) digital timer not working - flat battery
had the boiler outside, started raining half way through but luckily not for long
9) the SO4 I intended to use smelled bad but lucky I had a a packet of Nottingham so disaster averted

Finally got finished and tidied up at about 3pm so the overnight didn't get me finished any sooner but hey ho, these things are sent to try us. At least thats another brew in the bag, things can only get better...

[StrangeBrew]

No doubt you've had better days!

For a digital timer solution download Cool Timer for your pc/laptop!
You can change colour and alarm sounds. Mine plays Start by The Jam.

[Scooby]

Look on the bright side....

Your luck was in on No8
You're are now in credit so the next years worth of brewing will be trouble free

[wetdog]

Your luck was in on No8

Oh yeah, I almost forgot..
10) hadn't got the hops I thought I had so had to mix and match

now I'm done

[Tony01]

christ almighty .. broken any mirrors lately?

Just as a matter of interest, do you always smell your dried yeast? I just rip open the SO4 packet and bung it in. Now I'm thinking that maybe I should stick my nose in the packet!

Glad you managed to get through it and that you can discuss it openly!

[wetdog]

Just as a matter of interest, do you always smell your dried yeast? I just rip open the SO4 packet and bung it in. Now I'm thinking that maybe I should stick my nose in the packet!

I didn't up until last year when I put a bad yeast into my fermenter - I happend to smell the empty packet after putting it in and it was bad.
now I always smell it and taste it before putting it into 6 hours of work!

[Tony01]

Good advice then ... I will be doing the same thing from now on!