I've been steadily brewing since my last visits to here. Still not as refined and as scientifically accurate as I should be, but 9/10 of my brews (over 30 total now) have been lovely drinking.
Couple of classic mistakes;
-Milling my main malt of the bill, then measuring out my specialities without milling and chucking them straight in,
-Forgetting the entire hops schedule until the last 5mins of the boil,
-Hydrating a lager yeast and an Ale yeast at the same time on the same bench and using each in the others intended batch.

But there's been progress too;
-Got the missus to make up 3 bags out of a roll of Swiss voile in the easy "circle shape" as shown by one of our more knowledgeable contributors, and it's worked a treat, much less trub, and easier to clean than the bag I was using which cost me 5 X more,
-Less time cleaning equipment, now I've got my brew day better worked out,
-Better understanding of my regular recipes, and why they work for me.
-I've started kegging which has been a revelation with the stout spout, but I also realise that I should continue with bottling, especially for certain batches,
-Yeast starters, what a great way to split and save, now have a stir plate and a couple of flasks,
-I'm becoming more active in my local brewing community, helping to organise a case swap, and looking into starting a local brewing club.

Happy days gentlemen, happy days.

Hey Muggy,

That’s an interesting read...

I’ve made mistakes too. Especially when trying to do extra things that should have been done before, but end up needing to do on brew day. In particular CLEANING (kegs, fermenter, etc.). The more that gets added to my brew day activities, the more chance that something goes South.

Similarly I’ve forgotten to add a 10 or 15 minute hop addition and suddenly it’s flame-out time. In this case I added the hops and extended the boil time. Changed the recipe to reflect longer boil time and longer bittering hop addition. It worked...

My wife likes to flatter me to others, calling me “an award winning homebrewer”... Which I suppose is true, but not all of my brews have been award winning - that part is also very true! Oh well, this has been a fun hobby!

Thanks for sharing your ramble.

Yep, plenty of mistakes so far, but with those came the odd triumph

Hey Muggy

I actually cringed aloud (if that's a thing) when I read you missed a whole hop schedule and only realised with 5 x mins to go! ouch!

Doing side by side batches and throwing the wrong things in is a bummer. My outmeal stout become an FWHopped American Stout one day because of that

Anyway hope you're enjoying your creations

cheers
Nick