Tough day on planet earth...

I decided to brew up a Belgian White clone yesterday. The only good thing about it was that I finished in time to watch the games. It was finally winter weather here so I had loads of trouble keeping my sparge water at the right temp (bounced between 160 & 187) What a surprise, my efficiency sucked and came up short of 5 gallons, let alone the 6+ I was looking for. I tried a test rig for pumping sparge water to keep everything on the same level and I couldn't regulate the pump enough to keep a slow trickle so I had to keep turning it on and off. Had a helluva time getting clear runnings on Vorlauf. Since this was my first Wheat I started to wonder if the runnings I got were as clear as they would get. I realized that I neglected to purge the water from my garden hoses so I had hoses full of ice and had to defrost one of them in the laundry room sink to use my chiller which also meant that I had to use that sink for the cold water supply which meant I had to keep the door cracked (see "winter weather" above, SWMBO not happy) On top of that, the Patriots lost Hmmmm, maybe I should build a HERMS and avoid some of these issues???

At least it's bubbling away happily. I hope to have a good tasting brew even if it only turns out to be a 3.2 beer.

Dang. You know, I got a bottling spigot that was to be installed on one of my primaries (the only free one). So I had to cut the hole in the bucket. No biggie, done this a million times before (cutting holes, etc). Had my Oatmeal Stout in the last 15 minutes of the boil, and disaster...in my haste I f00ked the hole slightly and the gasket wouldn't seal properly . I ended up rigging it by placing a piece of foodsaver bag material flush on the hole, duct taping the thing in place tight and then adding a support material over the hole area along with an old bicycle tube around the fermentor bucket to keep pressure on the outside. Grrrr. It is bubbling away happily, I did see a few drops of liquid...hopefully the stupid fix will hold! What a pita...and the rub is I KNOW BETTER.

the rub is - don't ferment in plastic .

Steve973 said:

the rub is - don't ferment in plastic .

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Not trying to be coy or offensive here, but what is it that folks have against fermenting in plastic? I honestly can't say when I open a bottle of my beer that I say "Wow, just gotta love that plastic flavor!". Aside from scratches holding infections, I don't see what the problem is with it. Most of our food these days is stored in plastic containers/packaging anyhow. If it were a taste issue, then by all means I would say hands down, don't do it! But, and maybe I am missing something, to me I can't tell the difference.

I know what you mean I plan on posting my comedy of errors from my first brew this past Saturday so everyone can get a good laugh. Just don't have the time right now.

It's mostly the threat of infection. Obviously, many people have luck with fermenting in plastic. I just don't want to take the chance. I wasn't seriously criticizing you (or anyone else). To each his/her own. That's what's cool about homebrewing. Your beer, your way.

Steve973 said:

It's mostly the threat of infection. Obviously, many people have luck with fermenting in plastic. I just don't want to take the chance. I wasn't seriously criticizing you (or anyone else). To each his/her own. That's what's cool about homebrewing. Your beer, your way.

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Sorry, couldn't tell from your post where you were coming from. I have thought about using glass carboys myself, but they are a pita and a hazard. Then lots of folks say not to use better bottles for primaries (I guess cleaning issues? not sure though). I wasn't trying to justify using plastic over glass, just ahh you get what I am saying

You know Hopfan, I came this close (insert picture of me holding my thumb and forefinger in the 'this close' position) to using an impeller pump setup for transferring wort this weekend. I just didn't have the heart to proceed. Maybe if I get enough time to tinker....

zoebisch01 said:

You know Hopfan, I came this close (insert picture of me holding my thumb and forefinger in the 'this close' position) to using an impeller pump setup for transferring wort this weekend. I just didn't have the heart to proceed. Maybe if I get enough time to tinker....

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I posted a pic of the test rig in my gallery. I have a Pony pump with brushes that I am using a dimmer switch to drive. The other one is a food grade mag drive that I plan on using wide open. Right now, I'm just playing around with it to see how it works and toying with ideas on how to incorporate it into a system. Once I get my head around how I want to do it, I'm goiing to build a brew stand and finalize it.

duct tape is your friend! two weeks ago i found myself missing a drilled rubber stopper as i stuffed about six gallons into a six gallon primary.... que sanitized sandwich bag and duct tape. bingo, she blew the next day, all over the place, but i managed to scrounge up a stopper and rig the blow off tube....