One HELL of a brew day

I was weary of another double brew day, I have been knocking out two beers at a time for about the past 4 months, but I felt today was different and in my gut I said just brew one. Ignoring my inner self I moved ahead as planned and brewed the double batches. Stupid!

As you can see in the earlier post I started my brew day at 8 am and was chugging along through my first beer, right on time. I was cooling the Schwartzbier and was getting ready to mash in on my IPA when a buddy called and asked to do lunch, I figured I had an hour so I went for it. Well that is when it went down hill. I went out to get into my car and it won't fully start ( I think I have a fuel filter or pump problem). So I have to wait for my buddy to pick me up. Lunch goes well nice and quick. When I get home I start my sparge water and at about 140F my propane runs out. Now I have a car that doesn't work and no propane. So I call AAA and have a tow truck pick up my car (another 30 minutes wasted) and take it to the repair shop. I then picked up my propane tank and hoofed it down the three or so blocks to the store to grab a new one and walked back. Mind you it is probably about 75F today and so it was rather warm lugging a full propane tank around the neighborhood ( I can only imagine what people passing by were thinking). Back at home I hooked up the propane and began to reheat my sparge water. I got it up to temp and away I went back on track and only 2 hours behind my normal schedule. As I began to cool my IPA wort, I noticed my dog Kelby acting as if she had just eaten something nasty, and buy was it! See Kelby is highly allergic to Bees and because she can't tell the difference between them and other insects, she tries to catch and kill them. So now I go into medic mode and I give her a dose of Benedril, this usually works. However, within 5 minutes she is puking and panting. I have seen this before and it is not good. This is usually where I run her to the vet, but I am sans car. Now what, my dog is gonna die if I don't get her some help. My fiance is on her way home, but Kelby then takes a turn for teh worse and she starts to show signs its getting worse, she essentialy becomes a limp dog. Lucky for me she is only 25 pounds. I call the ER vet and tell them we are on our way. I run to the neighbors house and ask for a ride (it is about 11 miles away and I am really worried at this point). Kelby continues to puke on the car ride except this time it is on my lap. We finally make it. My awesome neighbor saves the day and the vet tech is waiting at the door when we arrive. Kelby is fine about an hour and a half later. It is now 7:30 pm and I still haven't finished brewing, but my dog is alive and so I am happy. My fiance cooks me her amazing mac and cheese and I finish up, at 8:30 my 12 and a half our ordeal (brew day) comes to an end.

I learned some important things today. #1 cut my plants that have flowers #2 Don't try and brew 2 batches in one day unless I have help and a functioning car, #3 Get a doggy Epi pen (the vet actually gave me a perscription) and #4 There are much more important things in life then brewing, I hope the extended cooling of my partially cover IPA that had two tiny moths in it comes out, but hey if it doesn't at least I have my dog sleeping peacefully right next to me.

More on the actual brews later in the week. I will also include some pictures.