Why do you hate brewing?

wps-hbt
Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum

Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
Bartp

Bartp

Well-Known Member
Joined
Jun 25, 2008
Messages
88
Reaction score
13
Location
Morgan Hill
What about brewing do you dislike the most?

Obviously we love brewing, that’s why we’re here. But there are things we could go without.

The reason I ask is so we can identify what causes homebrewers the most pain, and as a community try to solve it.

Also, there are lots of entrepreneurial types around here. Maybe voicing our pains will spark some innovations that will make our lives easier.

My biggest pain is cleaning after a 6-8 hour brew day. Cleaning the kettle is the last thing I want to do. I would appreciate suggestions and maybe your own innovation/process that made cleaning up easier.

What do you dislike?
 
Bartp said:
What about brewing do you dislike the most?

Obviously we love brewing, that’s why we’re here. But there are things we could go without.

The reason I ask is so we can identify what causes homebrewers the most pain, and as a community try to solve it.

Also, there are lots of entrepreneurial types around here. Maybe voicing our pains will spark some innovations that will make our lives easier.

My biggest pain is cleaning after a 6-8 hour brew day. Cleaning the kettle is the last thing I want to do. I would appreciate suggestions and maybe your own innovation/process that made cleaning up easier.

What do you dislike?
Click to expand...

I think everyone hates cleaning. If there were a maid service offered just to clean my equipment and allow me to continue smashing beers on brew day, I'd sign-up in a heartbeat.

I have an aluminum kettle and use steel wool to clean it after brewing. It doesn't take any longer than 3-4 minutes. I clean it outside, usually, in the driveway because I have a hose there and the water runs into the grass/woods.

The biggest PITA for me is moving my equipment upstairs from the basement so that I can brew in the garage...then having to bring it back down after brewing is over with.

Big bonus: I have no choice but to pass by the kegerator when I am hauling equipment - whether it's upstairs or downstairs. Makes for a great brew day, every time!
 
Bartp said:
My biggest pain is cleaning after a 6-8 hour brew day. Cleaning the kettle is the last thing I want to do. I would appreciate suggestions and maybe your own innovation/process that made cleaning up easier.
Click to expand...

There's nothing I really hate about it, as long as I set aside the time to do it. Sanitation can be stressful for me just because I really go all out. The entire house gets a StarSan bath.

I never understood what takes people so long to clean up after a brew day. One new addition I stumbled across recently though, is amazing. We just moved into a new house and I am able to brew outside. My father in law bought us this stupid little "power washer" attachment that goes on the garden hose. It isn't rip paint off wood power, but it makes cleaning kettles and MT's a breeze.
 
ncbrewer said:
What bothers me is not a particular task, but the ever present possibility of an infection. I had one and did not enjoy the experience.
Click to expand...

Totally agree, nothing worse than spending 2-3 weeks and ending up with a funky beer. Especially when it infects the plastic fermenter and plastic hoses. Multiple batches ruined, time wasted, and money dumped into new equipment.

Luckily no infection here in few years (knock on wood) due to paranoia from last experience.
 
Honestly what gets me is often space. Which is something I hope to fix when I have a house of my own I want to build something to house all my brewing stuff and keep it clean.
 
Remmy said:
I think everyone hates cleaning. If there were a maid service offered just to clean my equipment and allow me to continue smashing beers on brew day, I'd sign-up in a heartbeat.
Click to expand...

Lol. BrewMaids, Uber style. Too small of a niche?
 
The_Glue said:
Getting water everywhere in the house. Then the endless wave of bitching about soon to be warped furniture and things like that.
Click to expand...

YES! I used to have a small 900sqft condo with tiny kitchen. Did not stop me from brewing 10 gallon all grain in it, but after few major spills (aka, pump blew spraying kitchen with hot wort), I had to upgrade to a larger house. Money well spent :)
 
Bartp said:
Lol. BrewMaids, Uber style. Too small of a niche?
Click to expand...

If they dress-up, even better.

On second thought, I should just make SWMBO dress-up and clean for me and reward her for it after she's done, or something.
 
For me, bottling. I need a better bottling setup with a nice deep sink, abundant counterspace, and a floor/counter capper. Hopefully in the new house. Right now, after oxycleaning the bottles I rinse, StarSan, and fill them in the bathtub (in case there are any spills) with my fermenter raised on a bath stool. Then cap using my trusty dual lever Red Baron.

It is an hour of bending over which my old back is liking less and less.

But, we are moving into a new house in a few months with a dedicated workshop, so I will tough it out :ban:

While I am continually tempted to keg, I usually gift about half of my bottles so having them in giftable format makes things easier. Otherwise I would have to drink them myself... which... er... would that be bad?
 
Washing/sanitizing bottles is for sure the most boring thing for me. If it involves bottle-brushing moldy ones and removing labels, it's x2 worse...
 
Recipe guesswork. Everyone's palate is different. Often you can find very contradicting advice or ideas about ingredients you have no experience with yet. Generally the result is enjoyable but not exactly as predictable as I'd like.

Eventually experience should resolve this though so I don't know if it's that terrible.

Oh, keg leaks suck too. Nothing worse than having an O-ring go bad and closing the door to your kegerator bumps the fitting just enough for you to find your floor covered in beer and your CO2 tank empty...
 
Everything that happens after the boil. Chilling, sanitizing, transferring, cleaning.

PS. and I love brewing so the title of the thread is a little off.
 
1. Making starters- I know they're super important but it just requires too much work before brew day-I moved to a borosilic flask, which helped a little bit with cleanup but the things love to foam over even with foamcap. Pre-canned starters are fantastic including the MoreBeer starters in a beer can, but the price point is WAAY off from where it should be.

2. Wort separation- Removing chilled wort from hops and break material has historically been the most painful and aggravating part of my brewery. Switching to a whirlpool kettle and buying a stainless hop spider makes for a brew day with 50% less pain.

3. Cleaning out the mashtun- tippy dump is an incredible invention!

4. Bottling Kegging everything and then using a Blichman bottling gun is a mild improvement.

5. Waiting for natural clarification ESPECIALLY with lagers and hoppy beers, waiting for natural clarification just takes FOREVER. The final pint in every keg is how I want the whole keg to be. I'd love to start filtering but I know the pain that's involved in filtering-I still don't know of a truly good and fast filtering option that doesn't waste a ton of beer.


Adam
 
The only problem I have with bottling, is that I can not for the life of me, get them to carbonate nicely. I use a priming calculator and take very good care to make sure it is evenly distributed. No matter what I do, it is never just right. It wouldn't be a big deal since I prefer to keg, but I do enjoy having bottles on hand.
 
Mine was not cleaning, it was setting up and tearing down. Most people asked me why I didn't just leave things set up in my kitchen since I can eat at the coffee table and I don't have others bitching at me when I do. I never did leave things set up just in case someone did come over and we wanted to sit at the table. Although it wasn't cheap, I pretty much did away with my biggest hate by getting a dedicated brew space. Now it is the cleaning but that is because I am still finding my way through the entire setup and system looking for the right way (for me) to do things.
 
+ 1 on bottle carbing. Moving to kegs soon so will hopefully take the lucky dip between a flat and over carbed beer.

Cleaning after brew day and bottle cleaning. The thoughts of a cold one after though is enough to help. I love brewing, its just parts that put a bit of a dampner on the day
 
hoppyhoppyhippo said:
Honestly what gets me is often space. Which is something I hope to fix when I have a house of my own I want to build something to house all my brewing stuff and keep it clean.
Click to expand...

Bartp said:
YES! I used to have a small 900sqft condo with tiny kitchen. Did not stop me from brewing 10 gallon all grain in it, but after few major spills (aka, pump blew spraying kitchen with hot wort), I had to upgrade to a larger house. Money well spent :)
Click to expand...

Try living with two people in about 550 sqft. And 2 cats. And I still have 13 fermenters currently full. But yes, space is an issue for me. Although hopefully moving out west where space is a little cheaper in the near future.

But like many others, I hate cleaning and sanitizing. Mucking out the tun and kettles, setting up, putting away, etc. I like brewing, I like geeking out on science, I like recipe development, I like drinking. Just hate the tedious busy work.
 
I hate it when i need to pay attention to one thing like a kettle almost boiling over and the dog keeps barking because he knows I'm really focusing. Racking into keg my dog goes crazy because he can see me staring into a bucket for 10 minutes. I could add the wife along with the dog because i could be juggling 5 gallon batches and she'd still bark at me to get something out of the kitchen for her.

Also needing to hit the head sucks when stuff is on the stove top. Either way things could get messy.

Fun times brewing!
 
I can't think of anything.

Lugging the equipment out of the basement? I do that on Friday evening before a Saturday morning brew session and that job is accompanied by beer and tunes. And it really doesn't take that long.

Cleanup? I hose things out and scrub the kettle and turn it upside down on the brew stand to air dry. Doesn't take long at all and it's easy with the garden hose. I suppose it is a bit of a chore in the winter when I can't use the hose, but not bad.

Putting stuff away is accompanied by beer and tunes, so that's not so bad.

I keg, and kegging is always accompanied by beer and tunes.

Making starters is a snap because I pressure can wort. The pressure canning is a snap too.

Really, I can't think of any part of the process that I "hate."
 
In order of degree of hate (i.e., hate most to least)

Waiting for the damn strike water/brew kettle to heat up - Not a big deal during the winter, but in the summer I brew in my garage with the door up. I live in south Louisiana and the heat index is over 100 for pretty much 4 months straight. The humidity is unbearable as well. Add a couple of propane burners and my garage gets melt-your-face-off hot. If I brink a beer to drink while I wait, it's usually piss-warm in about 5 minutes.

Cleaning - Everyone hates this and it's a huge PITA. Washing kettles, pumps, hoses, hop spider, paddle, etc. after your brew day is otherwise finished is no fun.

Bottling - I rarely do this any more, but it's a pain to bottle, even from the keg. If my wife is around and willing to help, it's a lot better, but still...kegging is so much easier to me.
 
Carrying stuff around. My equipment is in the basement, so I have to carry it upstairs. Then, downstairs when done. Brewing is a workout anyhow, this makes it tougher. But I do need the exercise, so while I hate it it's not "bad."
 
I hate the waiting for beer to be done to see if it turned out good. The other complaints I don't really share. I am lucky the house we bought this spring has a small shed that I can store my beer making supplies in and getting a big pot and burner so I can make beer out side has been a big plus. Cleaning is not too bad, I clean as I go and when I am done with something I put it back in the shed so it is out of the way. Bottling can be a pain but my wife loves racking and I do the capping so we can put away 5 gallons very quickly :tank:
 
I hate how fragile the little tip in my racking canes are. No matter how careful I am I end up breaking that little piece thus making the racking cane completely useless. If someone could invent a more durable racking cane that would def make my brewing life easier. I've only been brewing for about 11 months now and I'm on RC #4.

PITA

Distant second is like everyone already said, the cleaning up part. I just don't feel like scrubbing and washing after I've been making beer for 5-6 hours. Sometimes I get lazy and leave the kettle and MT to clean days at a time later. Which adds to the level of aggravation because trying to scrub dried trub and gunk of the sides of the kettle is a real B.

Other than those two things I really enjoy brewing!
 
It used to be bottling, but I've improved some of my equipment so the process runs a little faster.

Now it's only really the bottle-cleaning process that annoys me. I have enough to spare now that if I run into a moldy one, I'll usually just pitch it instead of bothering to scrub it out. There isn't much that bothers me besides that.
 
Currently, the biggest PITA about brewing from my perspective is #1- Lack of adequate space to brew apart from a cramped kitchen. #2- Not being able to upgrade my equipment from extract or partial mash to all grain brewing due to reason #1.
 
Remmy said:
If they dress-up, even better.



On second thought, I should just make SWMBO dress-up and clean for me and reward her for it after she's done, or something.
Click to expand...


If you figure that one out let me know....it would be a godsend if you got SWMBO clean my brewing equipment.

For me the biggest pain is I'm stuck on 120v so I have to use two circuits. Once I get a house a control panel rebuild is in order.
 
maurtis said:
For me, bottling. I need a better bottling setup with a nice deep sink, abundant counterspace, and a floor/counter capper. Hopefully in the new house. Right now, after oxycleaning the bottles I rinse, StarSan, and fill them in the bathtub (in case there are any spills) with my fermenter raised on a bath stool. Then cap using my trusty dual lever Red Baron.

It is an hour of bending over which my old back is liking less and less.

But, we are moving into a new house in a few months with a dedicated workshop, so I will tough it out :ban:

While I am continually tempted to keg, I usually gift about half of my bottles so having them in giftable format makes things easier. Otherwise I would have to drink them myself... which... er... would that be bad?
Click to expand...


Look under the DIY section for malfets bottle washer....makes cleaning and sanitizing the easiest part of the whole process.
 
I hate the inflammation on the right side of my abdomen from cirrhosis of the liver due to having 100 gallons of beer in the brew room and on tap at all times.
 

Similar threads

Gunshowgreg
  • Poll
Do you consider electric/automated brewing equipment to be cheating?
2
Replies
69
Views
3K
JAReeves
JAReeves
HBT_Admin
Winter Brewing Plans?
Replies
29
Views
1K
mac_1103
mac_1103
F
i dont brew to style
2
Replies
52
Views
3K
Danny Wallace
Danny Wallace
Bobby_M
An appeal to Northeast U.S. Homebrewers
2
Replies
65
Views
3K
Draft Master Flash
Draft Master Flash
SFC Rudy
Secondary Fermentation Yes, no or maybe?
Replies
10
Views
714
hottpeper13
H
SSBrew 300

Latest posts

Back
Top