If my first couple of brew days went as bad as today, I never would have kept at it. Heated my strike water to 168* and doe in. Put my thermometer to check it, 113*. Apparently, my PID’s weren’t calibrated properly. So, I add almost 3 gallons of boiling water to bring it up. The best I got was 140* so I let it ride. While doing the sac rest I decide to recalibrate the PID on my boil kettle so I out my thermometer down in it. At this point I have three thermometer all showing different temps. Finally get it failed in. I proceed to run my wort off, no sparge water due to an already thin mash. At about 180* I realize my thermometer is still in the bottom of the kettle. I finally get a decent boil. At 203°. So much for calibration. Finally congress time to chill, and I realize I have no where for my run off water to go. Had to put the end out the house in a bucket and dump it five gallons at a time. I ended up with 4.5 gallons of 1034 wort. Not the be I wanted to brew. Guess I need to do A LOT more experimenting and calibration the system before next brew day.
Oh well. I still made beer. And that’s a lot more then my lazy a$$ neighbors did today!!!
Ouch! Sorry to hear. Been out of town for ten days, so really first day back on forum. I have 5 gallons of Doppelbock to bottle as well as 11gallons of wine. I have 4 fresh packs of yeast straight from the vault that will all be here in the next week, with no likely time to brew for next 2 weeks. Hope my next brew day(s) go better than yours. You’ve been out of it for a while, it will come back. Taking time off then starting with new equipment is likely always going to be a rough go of it. Good luck on your next batch weazletoe
Sorry to hear it went so poorly! But it wouldn’t be a new system without some difficulties. Maybe do a run through with just water to check all the temps.
I was expecting a real go of it being a new system, scratch built too boot. But this was crazy. These PID’S are killing.
I fell right back into being. I knew what had to be five and when it was just a matter of making it happen with this equipment.
Been there, done that! I’m not on my third brewing setup, and I’ve learned that the first several batches can have wild differences from expected gravity. I’m now to the point where I’ll try and stick to recipes that aren’t affected much by this. Some stouts, saisions, and APAs that are bordering on IPAs work well.
Maybe you should consider it a test-run, working-out-the-kinks day rather than a brew day. 
It took me several batches to get comfortable when I got a new system 12 years ago. And now I’m doing it all again having recently switched to LoDo. Don’t be afraid to dump something if it doesn’t meet expectations. I’d also stick to simple (less expensive) beers until you get dialed in. Dumping a big IPA with 10 bucks worth of hops would be a bummer…
Chin up and keep learning!
For sure. I have no plans of stopping. I did a wheat beer, so not a lot of $ invested in it. and like I said, “I made beer today. What did you do?” I’ve only ever dumped two batches. One a lager that got infected. The other, Santa’s Help. Because it sucked. (Sorry Denny) With the low gravity, I’ll just chalk this one up a a session beer.
I told my wife the same thing last night about a test run, instead of a brew day. I thought I had it all dialed in, but clearly not. I’m hoping to get a dry run in this week some evening. My big concern, though, is why my RTD’s are showing such a huge swing and inconsistency.
It’s all rise from here.
Yeah, that sucks. Hang in there, it gets better from here.
I did a small one gallon BIAB batch stove-top for recipe development, chilled it, drained it to my glass jug fermenter. No yeast. I totally forgot I didn’t have any yeast and the brew shop was closed. I close it up and put in the basement fridge. Next day I grab the yeast on my way home from the brew shop, and when I get home my son says, “Dad, I threw out that nasty ice tea downstairs!” So now I had yeast and no wort.
That’s great! LOL
Well…we won’t mention the time I used my new wort chiller. Turned on the water and started grabbing stuff to clean, up went downstairs when I heard screaming ten minutes later. Turns out there’s some pressure on that thin hose and the hose flung itself out of the sink and drained probably about 30 gallons of water into the kitchen before my wife walked in and saw it. I got in trouble. Big trouble.
I assume you will be shopping for military schools?
Sorry about your sucky day. Though I’ve been there, I was just thinking about how smooth and relaxed today’s brew day was. Ended up at 87% mash efficiency, 80% brewhouse efficiency, 5 gal of Yooper’s FYB @ 1.058 in the fermenter.
Covered my chest and stomach in 2nd degree burns, did a boil over of about a gallon (didn’t turn the burner off all the way, left with the intention of doing a “no chill”).
Hang in there, Weaze - you’ve got enough brewing under your kilt to know that you’ll hit your new groove soon enough! Just try to stay away from the Jolly Ranchers! 
Brew on!