Got a great tip for your fellow brewers?

[Roger Greene]

Always close the manifold drain before sparging. Loosing all hot water half-way through is no good.

[GlacierBrewing]

Always ensure the various plugs are DRY before making the connection!

While brewing, filtering, cleaning, etc. stay at least one or two steps ahead of your process so you don't have to play catch-up.

Don't forget to sing once in awhile as you are scrubbing out the inside of the mash tun. These tanks have GREAT acoustics!

Prost!
Dave

[kai]

Don't forget to sing once in awhile as you are scrubbing out the inside of the mash tun. These tanks have GREAT acoustics!

Have to agree with that one, though our spent grain chute points right at the hospitality area and I'm still not entirely sure how much sound carries through it.

[chaser]

always have your brewery keys on you. nothing like accidentally locking yourself out of the brewery at 5am on a sub-zero temp February morning while the hlt is being topped off.

[fa50driver]

Do: "Double valve" any hoses that will contain hot liquid that will need to be disconnected such as CIP, HX outlet to HLT, etc. It will save both product and your hands.

Do: Get a gym membership. Starting a brewery will lead to elevated consumption of Beer.

[Guest]

Make sure you have empty grain bins before mashing in

Make sure you have empty spent grain bins before starting the brew. It is a realy pain in the ass to scramble to empty bins when you are the only one at the brewery so you can refill them. Just happened to me this morning, my farmer neglected to bring me empties.


Michael Uhrich
Carter's Brewing

[Eric Brewer]

1) A banana a day will keep the cramps at bay.

2) Rubber boots require long socks. Really long. Compression socks are good.

3) Keep a complete change of clothes in a sealed plastic bag at the brewery, along with a new disposable razor, a toothbrush and toothpaste.

4) A sleeping bag and two short stacks of pallets makes decent bedding on hell-nights.

5) When brewing for an audience, don't brew your trickiest 9.2% abv RIS or IIPA. I got reamed on this one today. If I ever do this again, I'm brewing my weizen -- light grain bill, rice hulls, complex enough to make me look like a wizard. (Today -- stuck mash, bad sparge, didn't hit target gravity, had to use a bucket of syrup, and then my heat exchanger clogged solid. Thankfully everyone left before vorlauf.)

6) Doesn't matter how long the day was, get the worst of the mess off the floor and into the drain. Coming back to a sticky mess the morning after a 16-hour day just isn't fun.

7) Gold Bond Medicated Powder.

[Jephro]

look three times

Pretty sure I have already mentioned this, but its worth mentioning again.

Before you open/close valves, discinnect hoses, turn on pumps, stick your bare hands in liquid... etc.

Look at everything and ask yourself 3 times what action you are performing and if everything is, at the present time, the way you think it is and should be.

SAVE: yesterdays brew (post boil-WP) had my hand on the kettle bottom out to the maifold when I stopped, looked and saw 2 valves on the manifold open. One was 8" to my left at eye level.

FAIL: Using brewhouse pump to CIP FV's (CIP pump in shop). Left the kettle CIP valve open after draining manifold and blew caustic into tomorrows brew water... DOH!! .. it was already hot too. Such a waste.

[liammckenna]

In no particular order:

1/ Spell your name in the snow at least once a year.
2/ Walk in green grass with naked feet. Remember how it feels.
3/ Learn to sing louder than your CIP pump.
4/ Have regular sex with your significant other.
5/ Yeast like music. Give it to them.
6/ Give a brewery tour to children (no samples of course).

Pax.

Liam

[Larry Doyle]

If, perchance, you CIP a tank with hot liquid, consider leaving the manhole door open. If you don't, you and your tank might collapse.

If you like to live dangerously, try the following: Use your potable water system as a chemical highway where chemicals are mixed in a water stream and then dispensed. And by all means rely on those checkvalves that never work when you need them. For some day when you least expect it you'll find soap and chemicals in all the wrong places.

And don't stop there. Make sure your plumbing systems are very complicated and interconnected. If you try hard enough you can have beer coming out of your drinking fountains and "other venues."

[froptus]

Heating a cool/cold tank causes pressure. Cooling a warm/hot tank causes a vacuum. Either way leave the manway open or at least a large valve or your tank will explode/collapse. I've never seen an exploded tank but I did see a collapsed, brand new 100 bbl fermentor. What a shame that was and very embarassing for the brewery.

[BrewinLou]

Keep your fingers away from the bottom manway hinge on the Mash tun when it is first opened. Getting your digit stuck in there while the spent grain is coming out is darn painful and hard to remove.

[Pompeiisneaks]

Keep your fingers away from the bottom manway hinge on the Mash tun when it is first opened. Getting your digit stuck in there while the spent grain is coming out is darn painful and hard to remove.

The only thing I can say is OW... I cringed at this one.

[HinduKush]

In no particular order:
5/ Yeast like music. Give it to them.
Pax.

Liam

My yeast is a fan of Primus/anything Claypool, but is doing quite nice with Janis, Zappa, and Jane's Addiction today. Peace.

[beejay]

Yes!!!

In no particular order:

1/ Spell your name in the snow at least once a year.
2/ Walk in green grass with naked feet. Remember how it feels.
3/ Learn to sing louder than your CIP pump.
4/ Have regular sex with your significant other.
5/ Yeast like music. Give it to them.
6/ Give a brewery tour to children (no samples of course).

Pax.

Liam

Sound advice.