steelerguy
Well-Known Member
So I am brewing up my third batch of beer. This was my most ambitious project so far, a big Belgian Golden Strong Ale. I put forth a lot of time building a stir plate and making a yeast starter so I can have a lot of yeast to pitch.
Now that I have a couple batches under my belt I am getting the process down. I get everything sanitized and start my boil. It all goes well, sitting outside enjoying the weather, drinking a couple beers, while tending to my boil. Once it is all done I hook up the hose to my chiller, start it up, it all looks good so I leave to start getting the fermenter ready...I am hooking up a temp controller and heater for the first time. I mess around with that stuff for awhile and then head back out to my beer after about 10 mins to check on things.
As I approach I hear a hissing noise...ah oh, I look inside the pot and the damn hose that connects to the copper has sprung a leak and is shooting hose water into my wort. I quickly pull the chiller out, but I have no idea how much water it dumped in there...unsantized water also...from an outside hose... I was so pissed off, the temp was still about 130 so I can only hope it was still hot enough to kill most of the potential baddies. After dumping over $60 in ingredients in this batch, plus the controller and heater costs, plus the time to build a stirrer and culture the yeast, I was pretty pissed. I don't think a chiller should fail on the third time using it.
I toyed with the idea of just dumping the beer. I worked in a lab so I am a sanitizing freak, the idea of hose water in my beer just irked the hell out of me. I decided to not dump and just see what happens. Cooled the brew pot in the sink with cold water but it went soooo slowly. After a couple hours I finally gave up and put the wort in the fermenter and pitched the yeast at 80 degrees. I was afraid to keep waiting knowing that any bacterial or other crap was getting a big head start the longer I waited. Plus it was getting late now and I just was feeling defeated. I was expecting to top off with a gallon and only had to use a half...so maybe a half gallon or so of hose water got in...no real way to tell.
Checked on it this morning (8 hours after pitchign) and it is at 72 degrees (in a 60 degree basement) and it is super active with a few inches of krausen. So at least the yeast went to town quickly and with a 1.088 OG there is a lot of sugar to munch. I can only hope the yeast quickly out compete anything else that might have gotten in.
Not sure if it was a good idea to pitch at 80 or if I should have waited longer even with possible contamination. Anyway...sorry about the rant...just was a disappointing brew session, especially for my first "big" beer. Sucks even more that it was due to a equipment failure. Hopefully it still turns out alright and I can laugh about it later. At least I got a good name for the beer out of it...Belgian Hose Water.
Now that I have a couple batches under my belt I am getting the process down. I get everything sanitized and start my boil. It all goes well, sitting outside enjoying the weather, drinking a couple beers, while tending to my boil. Once it is all done I hook up the hose to my chiller, start it up, it all looks good so I leave to start getting the fermenter ready...I am hooking up a temp controller and heater for the first time. I mess around with that stuff for awhile and then head back out to my beer after about 10 mins to check on things.
As I approach I hear a hissing noise...ah oh, I look inside the pot and the damn hose that connects to the copper has sprung a leak and is shooting hose water into my wort. I quickly pull the chiller out, but I have no idea how much water it dumped in there...unsantized water also...from an outside hose... I was so pissed off, the temp was still about 130 so I can only hope it was still hot enough to kill most of the potential baddies. After dumping over $60 in ingredients in this batch, plus the controller and heater costs, plus the time to build a stirrer and culture the yeast, I was pretty pissed. I don't think a chiller should fail on the third time using it.
I toyed with the idea of just dumping the beer. I worked in a lab so I am a sanitizing freak, the idea of hose water in my beer just irked the hell out of me. I decided to not dump and just see what happens. Cooled the brew pot in the sink with cold water but it went soooo slowly. After a couple hours I finally gave up and put the wort in the fermenter and pitched the yeast at 80 degrees. I was afraid to keep waiting knowing that any bacterial or other crap was getting a big head start the longer I waited. Plus it was getting late now and I just was feeling defeated. I was expecting to top off with a gallon and only had to use a half...so maybe a half gallon or so of hose water got in...no real way to tell.
Checked on it this morning (8 hours after pitchign) and it is at 72 degrees (in a 60 degree basement) and it is super active with a few inches of krausen. So at least the yeast went to town quickly and with a 1.088 OG there is a lot of sugar to munch. I can only hope the yeast quickly out compete anything else that might have gotten in.
Not sure if it was a good idea to pitch at 80 or if I should have waited longer even with possible contamination. Anyway...sorry about the rant...just was a disappointing brew session, especially for my first "big" beer. Sucks even more that it was due to a equipment failure. Hopefully it still turns out alright and I can laugh about it later. At least I got a good name for the beer out of it...Belgian Hose Water.
