So today was my first day brewing all grain. Tried the “Haze Craze” kit from morebeer just to make things easier. Things started off pretty good. Although my brewing partner was a no show. Hit my temps well, things going smoothly until…time to whirlpool. My pump got clogged with a big whole cone hop. So that went out the window. Turns out it was clogged In the pump head. So then my big mistake… I cooled and put the wort into a plastic 5 gal bucket snapped the lid on and shook the aerate. Holy crap that lid was on there tight. Broke it trying to get it open to pitch the yeast. Ugh. Fml. So now what. Well I transferred to my corny keg. With a QD attached to the post and a tube connected going into a bucket of sanitizer, will that be sufficient you think? What else do I need to do? Please tell me I haven’t ruined this brew day completely lol. Any help would be greatly appreciated!
Fermentation in corny is fine. Your airlock setup seems fine. Only question is there enough headroom for krausen? It may clog your QD. That’s not a huge problem since the keg is meant to hold high pressure. But, you should keep an eye on it. If it clogs pull the release valve occasionally to vent pressure.
PS. Sounds like a successful brew day. The problems you had could happen to anyone. Good job.
When I transferred I only put in probably 4.75 gallons to leave headroom. I hope it’s ok. It’s been a whirlwind of a day. I feel like I was constantly adapting Bc I had made a mistake. But I took good notes. So hopefully those mistakes won’t happen again. Thanks for your help!
Taking good notes makes the day a success no matter what. You’ll learn something. A nightmare experience with a bucket lid once led me to buy an expensive, unitasking tool I may never use again. But I’ll never have damn bucket beat me again either. Enjoy the fruits of your labor!
That’s all part of the fun of home brewing. Problem solving. Adapting. Improving. The reward… great beer.
On the first occasion I brewed all-grain, I mistook how to sparge and ended up dumping five gallons of hot water on top of my drained grain bed… and ended up needing to add a pound of DME to my brown ale to make it something resembling beer.
In my next brew, I found out my wort chiller had a small leak in the worst way, when it completely watered down a batch.
In the middle I’ve had stuck sparges, stuck mashes, and yes, I’ve even had to crack the carboy back open to add yeast.
And yet, I just put my 13th batch of the year yesterday. It’s all going to make you a better brewer in the long run… or at least, I just tell myself that! 
What you did on that first batch was batch sparging, which can be an extremely effective, time saving method.
That’s what I thought, but apparently dumping all of it in at once absolutely killed my efficiency. I was under the impression that dumping one large batch sparge will do that. Is that not necessarily the case?
Now when I batch sparge I do two equal additions of water - usually 2.0 to 2.5 gallons - and drain entirely before I continue. I had terrible luck with a false bottom so I just drain as slowly as possible with a mash screen and get in the neighborhood of 70% effiency. Yesterday I was at about 76% if I remember correctly.
Although, now that you mention it, I’m wondering if maybe that chiller wasn’t leaking BEFORE I found out about it…hmmm…
I do a single batch sparge and average about 83% efficiency. See www.dennybrew.com for further info.
Well, it sounds like my issue must have been elsewhere then. Thanks!
@jfclem62: I’m assuming you transferred to the corny keg for fermenting. Did you do that simply because your lid broke? I mean, how broke was it? As long as it covers the bucket mouth and somewhat keeps things from getting into your beer you don’t need it to seal tight in order to ferment. You could cover your bucket with tin foil if all else fails and the beer will ferment just fine.