The Doomed Brew...
If my last brew turns out to be drinkable, I think I'll call it Murphy's Law Ale (fitting since it is an Irish Ale). The number of things that have gone wrong is frankly quite staggering...
It started with burning my malt extract. I talked about this in "Burnt Malt - How Bad Off Is This?". That was just the beginning. I remembered that I needed to aerate the wort around midnight after brewing, so I skampered down to where I keep the carboy and gave it a bit of a shake. All looked good when the next day I looked and saw a rather healthy fermentation.
Then I started to prepare for a two day trip out to Vegas for a conference. When I left, the krausen was getting close to the neck of the carboy. This is a 6.5 gallon carboy, so I figured that it would be OK, but told my wife to call me if it started getting much higher.
She called while I was in Vegas, but I wasn't able to get back to her until well after things got very messy. She called our neighbor who helped with the brewing, but doesn't know anything about brewing. He decided to transfer part of the wort from the carboy to one of the large plastic buckets I have for brewing. This was done using a wine thief (which was unsanitized) and was slowly moved splash by splash at the peak of its fermentation into the unsanitized brewing bucket.
He took my lead to use a little bit of vodka in the airlock, but decided to use orange flavored vodka as it was all that was available. Of course a decent amount got into the transferred wort.
So when I got home I decided to do what any home brewer would do - I cracked open a beer and decided to do a smell and taste test. This taught me a very valuable lesson...if you have just a little bit of wort in a brewing bucket which has been fermenting for a day and a half, do not stick your head in the bucket for a smell. The smell is so strong that it nearly knocked my backwards.
I took a small taste test and did indeed taste a bit of a burnt flavor as well as a waxy overtone to the beer, but it seemed as if it would be worthwhile pursuing still. So I decided to take a gravity reading as I am getting close to being done with fermentation. The gravity reading was nearly impossible to take as the hydrometer was constantly sticking to the side of the tube. I did get a reading of 1.06, but the hydrometer was acting funny the whole time.
I soon found out why - somehow the hydrometer broke - and not just a crack, but a full three part break. How it happened? I have no idea. So at this point I have no idea other than watching the airlock if fermentation is done. I think before I transfer to the secondary I'll take another taste test and really consider whether I want to continue this brew. Its not that big of a deal if I throw it out, I can start a new brew pretty easily (and would actually like to).
Then again, I do like the name "Murphy's Law Red Ale".
wow...that is a streek of bad luck.
Better luck on the next one.
Sounds like you need a Blow off tube. I here is a picture of a Belgian double that I did that a blow of tube wasn't even enough (the one on the left). I had the tube running into a half gallon growler (usually I use a gallon jug) with about two inches of water in the bottom needless to say it was a very active and vigorous fermentation. The beer turned out to be one of the best that I have brewed! Usually they don't blow off this much, but having a blow off tube you don't have to worry as much about watching the krausen level, as the run-off goes in to the tube.
Yep, I thought about the blowoff tube far too late. That's OK, though, lesson learned. Its still been a fun brew regardless of the outcome.
Definitely invest in a blow off tube. They are cheap. End of story.
I cringed when I read "unsanitized"... might as well just put dirty water in the bucket too. Given what all you have stated, I will be VERY impressed if your beer turns decent.
The burnt smell is probably there to stay. I have burnt extract before, but not to this extent, and mine came out alright. All you can do is wait and see. As for the strong hit when opening the fermenter, that's not unusual at all. This has happened to me several times. There is a lot of positive co2 and alcohol building up in there. In fact, I would be suspicious if you didn't smell anything.
As for your broken hydrometer, you know they are still made right? Go buy another one. Problem solved.
At this point, just wait and see how it turns out. Maybe it will be alright? I've had some very questionable batches that came out good. Only had to throw out 2 so far.
And as for your friend who uses unsanitized buckets and such -- fire him! He violated a major rule there. Unsanitized fermenters and other things should be a felony.
Let us know how it turns out.
I may throw it out this weekend depending on how the taste test goes. I only have so many bottles and I don't want to use them up with a brew that has obvious off-flavors. We'll see about that, though.
I have found the whole ordeal to be rather entertaining. Hey, what good is brewing if you can't have some fun? 
Nothing hurts like throwing away a brew.. ouch!
Which is worse - knowing your brew is doomed from the get-go or having a stellar brew get botched right before bottling?
We both are in a tough position! (I think my yeast is dead after an extreme and prolonged temp increase)
Webby, this is the stuff all great brewers have in their background...If you didn't have stories like these, why would a person want to keep trying.
Cheers
Well, I've decided to dump the batch. Its all good, though - I'm excited to give things another try. 1/4 of the fun is making the beer (3/4 is drinking it 
). I picked up a fairly simple Scottish 80/-. I'm really excited to try this beer, so I'll be paying extra special attention to it. I figure I'll get a few more brews in under my belt and then start experimenting with new methods.
Out of curiosity, I'm considering steeping my grains in a pot other than my brew pot. The reason for this is that the water called for when steeping grains (1.5 gallons) is usually rather shallow in the brew pot. I would figure that having a thinner, smaller pot would allow me to get better extraction from the grains. What do you guys think? Is there any reason I can't transfer over to the brew pot after I've steeped my grains? (possibly passing the liquid through a mesh strainer to help clarify it even more?)
Should be no worries...I've done it before. One thing to watch out for is on a large pot that ends up being shallow you have a better chance of caramelizing your steeping grains. Plus an advantage with a separate pot is that your main portion of your brew can continue to heat up past the normal 152 F range while your grains are steeping....little bit of a time saver. Plus, if you heat this main portion up to ~176F you can use it to sparge over your steeping grains back into your boil kettle...