Over the years of brewing I've decided that beer can be very forgiving. They are so many mistakes I could talk about, but I would be typing all day. one that comes to mine when I first started brewing.
After a trip to Costa Rica and drinking Imperial beer, I decided to try and duplicate Imperial beer and I know it's a lager made from corn. Son and daughter in law are visiting and plan is to go to breakfast. Knowing the woman won't be ready until 10 Am and most brewing seasons last about 5 hours, we start at 5 Am. Everything going perfect grains in with lots of maize, temp dead on at 154 degrees. Open valve to start draining tun into boil kettle, flow about a quart and stop draining. Start by blowing in drain tube to clear stuck sparge, drain another quart and stops again. After doing this several times decide the only way we are going to get the wort out of the cooler is to pour it from the top. First we try carefully pouring the wort directing into the kettle. It's hard to be careful with a 10 gallon cooler full of grain and wort, end up with half wort and half grain in the kettle. Next step is to borrow wife's strainer, this works but me and son have to trade off picking up cooler several times to empty strainer of grain. Now we have to remove the grain from the the boil kettle. The only pot large enough is my wife's pressure cooker stored in the basement. After searching and finding the pressure cooker, strain out the wort, and return the grain back to the tun. Sparge time and worrying about the sparge getting stuck. Wife and daughter in law are awake from all the noise finding pressure cooker and want to know if we are done yet. Are you done yet continues for the next several hours. Batch sparge flows perfect and rest of brew went as planed. Beer turn out perfect and we all had lunch instead of breakfast. Lesson learned rice hulls.