Hardcore brewing... Any stories?

I was wondering what you meant by"hardcore brewing"...you'd be surprised, a lot of brewing takes place over night...especially for larger breweries/ones run by eccentric folks.

 

I once brewed on a January day that never topped 20F. Took a while to get the wort to boil, but chilling was super fast. I put the kettle in a snow bank and went from boiling to 60F in 3 minutes with my wort chiller.

 

Not much in the way of stories for me, though I was mashed in for the barleywine I brewed this summer by about 6:45am so that I'd be done in time to attend the Weyerbacher Sour Black release.

 

I'm in an early-morning brewer, and live in Vermont. Brewing in 5 degree weather is not unheard of. Have to be careful to keep hands dry, as it's instant pain when wet. At least the chilling takes no time at all.

 

I brewed one batch on a cold, windy rainy day (as rainy as it gets in colorado on a march afternoon) worst part was my propane kept freezing up which made it hard to keep a boil going. I have since moved to brewing inside the garage with the doors open. Will one day attempt a two batch brew day.

 

Once fired up the HL kettle at 5am on a March morning. Minus 6 at the beginning, but up to a balmy 12 above by the end of the brew day. It's really not that unpleasant if you own some warm clothing (and stay close to those burners), except 1. the water hose will freeze if you don't use it every couple of minutes; 2. your chilling water will instantly freeze, so make sure that's not happening someplace inconvenient; 3. your hands can get pretty cold cleaning up.

We have since built a small stoop right outside our attached greenhouse and this is where I boil now, allowing me (and the hose) to spend most of the time in the greenhouse.

 

I brewed a sub par beer once, let a bottle sit for way too long, and it was terrible, but DRANK IT ANYWAY. Pretty hard core if you ask me .

 

I once brewed an imperial RIS in the mouth of an active volcano while fighting the Taliban with a pick-axe and simultaneously punching a bee's nest and arguing that perhaps Anheuser Busch deserves some credit for their consistency.

 

I brew outside below zero Fahrenheit all winter... Welcome to the Canadian prairies.

 

Where do you get cold water for your chiller on a volcano???

 

Evaporative cooling would be my guess

Incidentally a great way to cool beer in the desert is to wrap it in a shirt and pee on it--takes a while but it works

 

One year, when truly strapped for time, I brewed on February 30th. It was like time stood still for everyone but me.

 

In all seriousness, there was an article in a recent BA magazine about a guy who brewed beer at a base camp on Mt. Everest. Pretty hardcore if you ask me.

 

I've had sex during the mash a couple of times.

I also listen to a good amount of hardcore while brewing.

 

I radioed it in and Rambo came by in a military chopper and dumped a bunch of ice cubes over me.

 

I love the two batch brew day. I do extract with specialty grain so it is not nearly as hardcore as AG but it is still a long day. If I could get my chill times down or get a second kettle it would be perfect. Having two full batches at the end of the day feels great and saves some set up and breakdown time. The one rule I try to follow which probably makes me a non hardcore brewer is to not open my first beer until after the 60 min hop addition of the 2nd batch.

 

Brew session I was involved in, but not the injured party. A fellow Falcon invited me over to brew on his spiffy system and said "Come on over in the morning and we'll brew"

Problem being that he was a ex-Army Ranger and I'm a computer programmer. "Morning" has relatively different meanings for us.

So I show up to his place at 9AM (on a weekend that was stupendously early for me!) and he'd already started milling when he cut off the tip of his finger in his mill. So, when I pulled up, there he was out front, finger wrapped in paper towels above his head and exhorting me to get to brewing because all the ER was going to do was exactly what he was doing.

 

Aaaaaaaaaand we have a winner