Home of the BrewNosers

Golden rule of home brewing: don’t start making beer in the morning before you have had a coffee, as you make too many stupid mistakes.

Kathleen is away this weekend. We have a plastic thing that sits on top of a cup and holds a coffee filter, and she asked if she could take it with her, and I said sure…she’s gone off to some wilderness, out of the way yoga thing.

Half awake this morning, I eventually found the old bodem in the back of a cupboard. I put coffee in it, no idea how much, boiled the kettle, poured the water on ...all’s going well.

There wasn’t enough water in the kettle, in fact there was very little, so I carried on with mashing the coffee, and decided all would be well, as I’d do a sparge.

It wasn’t so easy to get more water in the kettle as I have my cooling lines hooked up to the sink going to my fermentor/brew kettle. The sink tap has a pull out spray head, and I take the sprayer head off and attach the cooling line to the hose that pulls out of the tap. Any way I disconnected the water line, but decided that I didn’t need re-attach the spray head. I put the kettle in the sink and turned on the tap. The hose recoiled with the high pressure and sprayed me from head to toe, soaking my pyjamas. I got hold if it, just after the nick of time, and shoved it in the kettle spout, and burnt my thumb on the kettle spout in the process.

I now have my coffee. I’m sitting here, having changed into my other pyjamas, the ones that have no buttons left on the front of them, in a cold house, because the heating has only just come on, drinking a very strong coffee, burnt thumb, and I’m wondering…if you can’t make beer before you have had a coffee, what are you supposed to have before you start making a coffee?

The answer of course is a beer.

Sounds like good advice - I always have my first sip of coffee before starting up the burner.
Mash is already underway.

to both of you.

Big fan of the early morning mash in.

I start my brewday at around 4 am. I have a timer on my electric system and sometimes I forget to add this or add that when I mash in. I hate it when I forget stuff. Funny though, it is usually after that I start to make coffee and run downstairs to add brewing salts or whatever I forgot. Maybe coffee should be made first, then brew.

Bah, do what I do and suck back a beer... Breakfast Stout anyone?

Wish I were brewing today.. it is really a nice day here.

McGruff wrote:I start my brewday at around 4 am. I have a timer on my electric system and sometimes I forget to add this or add that when I mash in. I hate it when I forget stuff. Funny though, it is usually after that I start to make coffee and run downstairs to add brewing salts or whatever I forgot. Maybe coffee should be made first, then brew.

Jeez, I thought I started early! I love having the whole brew day and cleanup done by 11am.

McGruff wrote:I start my brewday at around 4 am. I have a timer on my electric system and sometimes I forget to add this or add that when I mash in. I hate it when I forget stuff. Funny though, it is usually after that I start to make coffee and run downstairs to add brewing salts or whatever I forgot. Maybe coffee should be made first, then brew.

Sounds like an opportunity to make a permanent pre-brew checklist on a whiteboard. Check each item off as you complete it, then the final item is "turn timer on" (unless you have another step after turning it on). Any repetitive process can benefit from a checklist, even open-heart surgery!

Ben, Don't know about open heart surgery, you're scrubbed, and not checking off on a list (now the pen please nurse ), assisted at a few. I think before taking off in a jumbo jet is the one with the classical check list, but not sure they write it down and tick it off, I think it's a memorized list. There are a few pilots on here I think, so they would know. I still think you need at least a slightly functioning brain before you start. If not coffee, at least an adrenalin rush.

Wish I could brew today, perfect day for it weather wise, maybe I can school those marine semester students in homebrewing instead of fisheries.

GuingesRock wrote:Ben, Don't know about open heart surgery, you're scrubbed, and not checking off on a list (now the pen please nurse ), assisted at a few. I think before taking off in a jumbo jet is the one with the classical check list, but not sure they write it down and tick it off, I think it's a memorized list. There are a few pilots on here I think, so they would know. I still think you need at least a slightly functioning brain before you start. If not coffee, at least an adrenalin rush.

This is a bit of a shift from the intent of the thread but I'll bite. Pilots love checklists. There's one for literally every conceivable situation on an airplane. Over 90% of physicians want the person operating on them to use a checklist, but fewer than 20% of surgeries are done with a checklist. Surgeries where checklists are used have resulted in significantly lower complications, such as forgetting tools inside a patient (a common problem.) If you're curious about all of that stuff, Atul Gawande's "Checklist Manifesto" and "Complications" are a good start.

Interesting discussion and quite relevant to avoiding brewing screw ups. I suppose I have a check list of sorts, as I have everything lined up on the counter in order. Forgetting to take the OG sample is a frequent one for me, maybe because it is less important, but annoys me all the same. So I make sure I have a mug on the counter to remind me to grab a sample, even though the real mug is in the starsan bucket.

I have never known an instrument to be left in a patient in 30 years, so I don’t think it is a “common problem”. It usually hits the national news when it happens, so maybe it appears to be common. The ritual swab and instrument count, performed by an OR nurse in a loud voice, pointing to each as she counts, with another observing, before closing, is standard practice (I'm talking about the UK here, but presume that's done in the US also). It's taken very seriously.

So is it to be a mental check list or a written one for those early morning brews. You’re probably right, a written one may help, but that’s sort of the brew sheet. I have a tendency to sit, relaxing with with my morning coffee or tea, thinking everything is ok, letting the world pass by, and would probably forget to check the check list.

Do the pilots have written check lists or do they memorize them all?

Pretty sure pilots have written check lists, as I've seen them done and its also proof that something was done.

Isn't a memorized checklist totally defying the point of having a check list? To ensure routine tasks are performed every time and not forgotten? Not even sure a "memorized checklist" is even considered a check list? Isnt that just what you would do anyway?

You can have "mental check lists" that you learn, and discipline yourself to go through in your mind. Not sure if that meats the true definition of a check list though. Probably not.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Checklist Other formats are also sometimes used. Aviation checklists generally consist of a system and an action divided by a dashed line, and lack a checkbox as they are often read aloud and are usually intended to be reused.

Pre flight check list here and reasons behind it: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pre-flight_checklist

I think Ben is right. A check list is needed, whether it is a chalk board, a line up of items on the counter, or a brew sheet, or a combination. What ever form a person finds works best for them.

Pilots have written checklists, but you need to have the key emergency checklists for the aircraft memorized (they're pretty common across each category of aircraft). Mnemonic devices help, for example diversions (picking a new spot to land in a medium-priority emergency) are "Circle circle line, heading distance time, call check home" and each of those stands for a thing or two that must be completed.

More to the point, and getting away from pre-flight preparation and operating rooms

What do the Microbreweries do, where the stakes are higher, to minimize costly human errors?
Coffe and……?

GuingesRock wrote:More to the point, and getting away from pre-flight preparation and operating rooms

What do the Microbreweries do, where the stakes are higher, to minimize costly human errors?
Coffe and……?

I use the brew sheet from Beersmith for brew day. With a bit of tweaking, you can have all your steps, reminders, and checks all on the same sheet as your ingredients.