mojo_wire

Recipes 

Brewed a pilsner, pitched a 2L starter and left to to ferment at a perfect 50 f. It takes 3 days to start and is the slowest fermentation ever, like 1 bubble in the airlock every 5 seconds for 2 weeks. I check gravity and it has dropped from 1.047 to 1.028. I realize I pitched Wyeast San Fran Lager yeast -- as in "not designed for cold fermentation".

I moved it to a 65 degree room, it took off, and I'll probably transfer to lager tomorrow.

Bazaar

Recipes 

I mostly brew with spring water from the grocery store. It comes in 1gallon jugs and is pretty cheap, so I tend to use it for everything--mashing, sparging--whatever.

During one of my first AG attempts, I overshot my sparge temp, and I was well in the upper 170s. I didn't want to add ice, so I reached for a gallon of spring water, just to see how much I could get the temperature to drop. Glob, glob, glob. Then I realize I've just added half a gallon of whole milk to my mash.

Well, of course I didn't collect it and instead made a nice first wort batch of some high gravity brown.

MarcusKillion

Recipes 

brew day yesterday. blonde ale AG . Beer Smith says pre boil gravity 1.046 . I get 1.070 . Guess my mash is better then they think . so I am wondering what to do with the rest of the wort I will have after thinning down for 6 gallons at a reasonable gravity for US05. I start boiling and run out of propane . Got another bottle , no problem , right - wrong . It is almost empty . Runs out right before the 45 minute hop addition . I run down to the store and get another but 30 minutes goes by . Boil again and add hops . Oh , also during the boil time boil over 3 times clogging up parts of my burner . Going to have to take it apart to clean. time for the 30 minute hop addition . I decide to go with .5 instead of .25 . I grab the wrong hops and dump in .50 of 11.7% bittering hops instead of the 7% flavor hops . Decide it may come out too bitter so I shut it down in 5 minutes losing about 20 minutes off of my 75 boil . cooled , put in fermenter . Tossed about 1 1/2 gallons and added in 1/2 gallon of water to make about 1.70 gravity . Only had one packet US05 so I used that rehydrated and sprinkled Nottingham in with it . Did not stir really enough for oxygen for that high gravity but thought I would stick in a tube through the air lock hole after the foam settled down and then pump some pure oxygen in . Turned out my bottle was empty . Just let it go . Put a large tube on the air lock to a bottle of sanitizer and it went crazy fermenting .
Hope it ferment out good and gives a high ABV and a good flavor .
Will post my Blonde recipe sometime .

bleme

Recipes 

After a brew day like that, you really need to go buy a lottery ticket. You are WAY overdue for a change of luck!

DrunkleJon

Recipes 

Just consider that one a brewday from hell to weigh any other that you consider to be bad against.

__________________
On Deck: Black Lager (im stalling on this one for some reason), Octoberfest/Marzen
Fermenting:Apfelwein, Pale Ale
Kegged: Breakfast Stout, Cream Ale, Apfelwein, ESB
Bottled: American Amber/Red Ale

MarcusKillion

Recipes 

Update on post #683 .. I just realized that I also forgot to add in the 10 minute hop addition of Kent Goldings .

manneken

Recipes 

Use Poland spring

phineascoates

Recipes 

It seems like its too difficult and nervous as well in making beer. There's a whole lot of questions runing in ur head if its gonna turned out great?what if it taste bad? You can't really help yourself from getting worried about it. Can u give me some tips and guidelines in doing so, so that i can help make a beer that really tastes great as if its made from an expert brewer.

bleme

Recipes 

There are more 'tips' than you can read in a week and half of them will disagree with the other half.

It really boils down to are you having fun or not?
When you find something that works for you, stick to it. If something doesn't, try something else.

Worry will just give you ulcers, and then you wouldn't be able to drink beer...

half_whit

Recipes 

+1

Relax an have fun. Beer is resilient stuff. The more we try to screw it up, the more it likes to prove us wrong. And believe me, someday you will screw up. Don't worry. Just laugh and learn. For your learning and amusement, let me share my yester-brew day...

I was doing deathbrewer's Hoegaarden partial mash clone recipe. I was taking my time. I was planning ahead. I was falling in love with the smell of cracked coriander. I was drinking homebrew. I was drinking homebrew. I was... You get the point. Mash went great. Everything was going smoothly. 90 minute hop schedule finished, dumped into bucket, chilled to pitch temperature. Now things go downhill

Vial of yeast still in the fridge. No worries. Input the lid on the bucket for a while and stick the vial in my pocket to warm up. I come back and pitch. Forgot to take an og. I take one... 1.02. Wut? That's when I see the two pound bag of extract sitting on the counter. After five minutes of swearing and debating dumping, I start up a gallon of water on the stove. Boiled the extract by itself. Somehow one gallon managed to boil over the 4 gallon pot when i turned my back. Stuck the bottom of my wort chiller in the pot and got it cool enough to add in to the rest of the batch. I added a little extra extract to make up for the fact that I now have 6 gallons of god knows what HOPEFULLY fermenting in my closet. Rigged up my first blowoff tube ever (seemed like a good idea for this one) and if I don't keep it in the closet the cats are sure to get curious.

Though I sanitized everything (except the yeast vial. Always forget that one), I probably have this beer every possible chance to fail. Out of my hands now! What's the worst that could happen Dumping would be a waste of possibly good beer! Well just have to wait an see

__________________
Planning: Roasted Nut Brown Ale
Primary:
Secondary 1:
Secondary 2:
Conditioning: "Summer SMaSH" faux-pils
Consuming: Slut-Gaarden, Nutella Stout, "Hey, Blinkin!" ESB?