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FSR402

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Mother ^$*)% Son of a )(&_%$ God ^%# it.. I can't )(^%#ing believe it.. What a (&_^ing pain ing the *^&.....



I brewed today and what could go wrong did... I'm so F^*%ing pissed off.

Roll back a few days....
Thursday I was going to make my starter. I got home from work, let my dogs out, feed them and headed out to meet with my running group for a short run. Ran 5 miles then stopped at the LHBS for a few things I needed for this brew.
Got home at 8:45pm (just starting to get dark) I walk in the house and OH F*CK!!!. I left the back slider wide freaking open. Both my cats got out... The wife is going to kill me...
I got one of the cats back right away. She was hanging out in the back yard. the other (my cat) is gone and no where to be found. I managed to get her back at a little before midnight. So I did not get my starters made.
I then Friday night had to skip going to the drag strip and racing so that I could stay home and make two starters for today's brew.

Today's brew....

I figured I could do two brews and really only take a few hours longer then just one.
Got a late start,
The first batch, I missed my mash temp by 10*, so I added boiling water to get the temp up (adding 20 minutes to the mash) then I mashed out and still did not hit my temps. Got done with 8 gallons pre-boil.
Started the brew pot with brew #1.
Cleaned out MLT and pre-heated it as I did with the first brew.
Went to add my first hops to the brew and dropped the bag dumping out half my hops. Had to pick up as much as I could (whole leaf) and then weigh it to make sure I was ok yet.
Mean time my mash water for brew #2 got to hot. I added a little tap water to bring it down Mashed in at 10* hotter then Beersmith said to and I hit my temp right on.

The rest of beer #1 went fine.
Went to drain the MLT and I got a stuck sparge. I messed with it for an hour trying to get it to drain. Then I scooped out the grains out into a strainer then into a bucket. Found that my manifold had come apart. I put it back together and dumped the grains back in. Then I guessed at how hot my sparge was going to need to be with all the F**king around I did and all the heat loss.
I did not even bother checking the temp. I put the water in, stirred, and drained.
The rest of the brew (boil) went fine. Started to drain it thru my CFC and after about a 1/4 of a gallon, bam, it stopped. My CFC was F**king plugged.. Mother F**ker....
I quickly sanitized my IC and got the brew chilled down and in the carboy as fast as I could... Total time, 9 F**king hours......

Here is the real kicker and slap in the face.
Brew one, I got 63% efficiency.
Brew two (with all the problems) I got 75% efficiency. What the F**k?:mad:
 
You might want to back up a bit and streamline your process before taking on a double batch day.

CFC plugged? How did you separate your hops before?
Infusion water too hot, try a remote probe thermo with temp alarm.
Missed mash temp by 10F? Using any software to help you figure out infusion temp?
 
Ah man, I have had brew days like that. It seems that one problem attracts the next, and each catastrophe encourages another. But if everything tastes good coming out of the fermenter, I bet you will remember this day with a few good chuckles! Anyways, sorry to hear that things didn't go as smoothly as they could have. Hopefully you at least have some good ideas for the future on how to streamline things!

Hope that beer turns out!

P.S. It sounds like hitting temps has been a problem -- do some tweaking with your equipment profile in Beersmith -- I bet that solves it.
 
Bobby_M said:
You might want to back up a bit and streamline your process before taking on a double batch day.

CFC plugged? How did you separate your hops before?
Infusion water too hot, try a remote probe thermo with temp alarm.
Missed mash temp by 10F? Using any software to help you figure out infusion temp?

I use Beersmith.

I was not saying that my water eneded up to hot, I was saying that to hit my rest temps I had to go in hot. I went in with like 4.5 gal @ 170* and hit a rest temp of 145* so I added 2 gal @ boil to get it up to 153* I was even using 3 different thermometers at the same time because I just could not believe I missed it by that much. It was not that bad the last brew but then again it was over 90* that day and only 65* this day.

Here is something that will make you smile.
When I got into bed I got to thinking. My CFC did not plug. Yes, it did stop flowing but it was not pluged. I freaked out and thought it was pluged
22_yikes.gif
and went to plan B as fast as I could.
Anyways, what it was was this.
I had the end of the CFC stuck in the short post on the carboy cap so that I kept things as sealed as I could. I "forgot" to pull the cap off the other post. :drunk: So once it built up enough pressure, it stopped flowing. <beating head on desk>
 
Dude, the worst brew days often turn out to be the best beers.

As for your strange OG thing.

First things first, modify your equipment in beersmith so that it gets the correct temp for your setup. Obviously that 2nd strike water temp was the right one.

Also, every time my false bottom clogs/separates or whatever, I always get a better efficiency on that batch and end up over my gravity (I have beersmith set up at 75%). I think that all the remixing and sloshing of the grains provides for better efficiency. I'm thinking maybe I should mash in one cooler, then lauter through the another one after a healthy pour, might improve my effficiency up over 85%!!!
 
I actually think your issue was grist temp. Like you said, ambient was 65 when it was more recently 90. I once left my milled grain in a bucket in the back of my pickup overnight and missed the temp by 16F because I mistakenly left the grist temp at 70 in BTP when it should have been 55.
 
Bobby_M said:
I actually think your issue was grist temp. Like you said, ambient was 65 when it was more recently 90. I once left my milled grain in a bucket in the back of my pickup overnight and missed the temp by 16F because I mistakenly left the grist temp at 70 in BTP when it should have been 55.
Well before I even added the grains to the MLT I took a temp of the grains and the MLT I pre heated with 160* water for 20 minutes. I then put those temps into beersmith and got the numbers I needed.
Why I'm losing that much temp I'm not sure. Maybe it's that I can't get the water in there fast enough. I would say that it takes all of 5 minutes to drain the HLT into it.
 
FSR402 said:
I would say that it takes all of 5 minutes to drain the HLT into it.
I guess that's the beauty of a keg MLT and heating the strike water already in there. Can you not just dump it from your HLT into the MLT?
 
Lil' Sparky said:
I guess that's the beauty of a keg MLT and heating the strike water already in there. Can you not just dump it from your HLT into the MLT?
I could but the HTL is over my head and holding that much water that dang hot over my head does not sound like fun to me.
 
Man, I am sorry to hear about your crappy day. I bet the beer comes out fine and you will be able to laugh about your rotten brew day. All of us have had days where things just didn't go right. What keeps you coming back are the brew days that are smooth as butter, and the beer is great. Chin up and get back on the horse.
:mug:
 
uglygoat said:
cats are outdoor pets in my book, better to leave them outside. :)

Irresponsible pet owners that let there animals wonder free to walk on peoples cars, get into trash, garages and endanger themselves and others should be ticketed and *****-slapped.

On a side note, I just tapped the keg of IPA I did (my 2nd AG brew) and it is DAMN GOOD...

I'm going to do another brew this weekend and see if I can get this a little better.
Yesterday's brew I tried to do a mash-in, mash-out and it was a pain. The other Ag brews I just mashed in then sparged. Those went way better.
 
FSR402 said:
Irresponsible pet owners that let there animals wonder free to walk on peoples cars, get into trash, garages and endanger themselves and others should be ticketed and *****-slapped.
quote]

Come on, tell us how you really feel, lol.:)
 
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