First brew day; 2 Catastrophes - Both w/ Wort Chiller

[maximus4444]

So I decided to brew the 3F ZD clone recipe (Extract/pm). This is my first brew ever. Everything was going well. I was doing a full boil starting with 6.5 gallons. The boil went well. No boil over issues. (My wife was thankful for that)

Here comes the cool down. I borrowed a wort chiller from a fiend. I had tried the ice bath method in a test boil of just water; and that didn't go fast enough.

Wort chiller was sanitized during the boil. Connect the hose. Turn it on. And it is working like a charm. Until about 10 minutes in when my hose breaks. Hose water al over the floor. Scrambling to not make a complete mess, I throw towels down all over. Crisis number 1 averted.

Then I notice there's water coming from the vinyl tubing that's attached to the chiller. I try to push the hose on and then tighten it; but the tubing pops off the chiller.

Hose water spraying everywhere. I was dying laughing. I got the lid on the wort quickly. Hopefully it's not ruined. But definitely learned some lessons.

 

[freisste]

Every time I borrow something from a fiend, something goes awry.

 

[maximus4444]

Ain't that the truth.

 

[RobInOre]

Every time I borrow something from a fiend, something goes awry.

Maybe you meant "friend"
You are right either way. I try to only borrow ideas, then I can make or buy my own stuff.

 

[aprichman]

All things considered it sounds like a pretty good 1st brew day - after a few more you'll get all the kinks worked out

 

[Knkbrand]

my best beer so far to date had about a half gallon of hose water added at cool down due to a crack in the tubing of a chiller I was borrowing. Turned out to be my best beer to date! In the end rest assured it will be beer, and probably pretty damn good beer at that!

 

[Murphys_Law]

While not brew related, I feel your pain/humor! Another hobby of mine - aquariums. I have a "Python" which hooks up to the sink and used to clean my tanks. Turn valve one way and its a suction. Turn the other way and it refills the tanks

Last weekend I had TWO hose failures and well, a flooded wood floor. Wife wasn't pleased but tried to see the "good side". We now have a clean floor!

 

[maximus4444]

Yeah, I'm not terribly worried. All I can do is wait. It's producing plenty of bubbles. Can't wait.

 

[ImpendingDisaster]

Last brew day in February I stuck my wort chiller in the kettle to sanitize it and didn't notice that the vinyl discharge tube was touching the outside of the kettle near the bottom. Melted a good chunk of it to the pot. One emergency cut and reconnect later and all was well, but I did burn a few fingertips. I successfully avoided that issue this morning, though.

I did notice in Feb. that when I stuck the cooler in the kettle the boiling stopped and it took ages to get it going again. This time, before I put the cooler in or connected it to the garden hose, I grabbed the input end with some pliers and poured some boiling water from an electric kettle through the coil. Didn't even burn myself. I put the kettle and pliers down, then picked up the coil to put it in the kettle, and burned a few finger tips...

 

[compumasta]

You never know, hose water might become your secret ingredient!

 

[MattyIce]

I was concerned about scorching my vinyl chiller lines. Now I just soak the chiller in a sanitizer bucket with everything else I keep sanitized on brew day instead of boiling it.