Gyaaah, I dont think RDWHAHB is strong enough to fix this

I suppose to start off I should introduce myself a little. In college I did a little extract brewing with friends for a few years but then I got married, graduated, had a kid, moved a thousand miles away from home, you know, the kinds of things that tend to put the brakes on virtually any hobby. Anyway I finally started to get back into brewing and decided to jump into all grain. So I got a few books and spent a lot of time lurking on this and other forums to learn what I could. So far I have only done 2 batches (3 if you count my current failure but more on that later) but both have come out fantastic. Emboldened by my previous successes I decided to try for a 11 gallon batch where half would become a vienna lager and half would become a saison. I even decided to throw a double decoction in the mix to see if I would be able to do it.

Fast forward to this morning when I decided to brew because I had the day off, everything goes great, pull my first decoction and add back to the mash and overshoot by 2 degrees(149 vs 147) which I figure isn't too bad. After that the only other issue is I overshot my target gravity going into the fermenter but everything else was spot on. Going into the boil everything was great but about 50 minutes into a 90 minute boil I started to pick up an acrid smoke scent. I didn't think anything of it because our neighbors smoke like a chimney but after everything was chilled I noticed the smell was coming from the kettle.

Turns out that the paint strainer bag that I used for the pellet hops got caught underneath the dip tube in the kettle and turned into a nasty charr glob that made all my hard work taste like a sweet tea made from used cigarette butts. 7 hours worth of work suddenly shot and 11 gallons of wort turned into lawn fertilizer. Now I have 2 starters sitting in my fridge and I don't know if they will last until I can brew again.

Sorry for not providing anything constructive but i felt I just needed vent.

Thanks

Damn, that really blows. Sorry about the crappy luck

RDWHAHB is strong enough to fix anything. In this case, have lots of homebrew. Preferably some from your first two batches. Sorry for your loss.

PS. Let me reiterate: lots of homebrew.

that sucks

maybe you can make a couple mini brews with the starters. Any extract on hand?

+1 on a couple quick extract brews to use the starters and make you feel better. On the other hand, you can pop a starter in the fridge, decant, put it back in the fridge and it'll last for quite a while.

I wouldn't worry about the starters, when you want to use them again, just make some fresh starter wort, cool it, decant the previous starter wort and dump the new stuff in on the day you are brewing next. They should be fermenting away by the time you pitch. I'm planning on making this my standard practice since I never know what I'm going to get with a yeast package and I'd prefer to find out before the brewday.

good reason to scrap the paint bag and do a whirlpool.

sorry about your loss. I'd be mega pissed and full on drunk about it.

Im on my way already to 3 sheets to the wind.

I think I might rettry this next week only simplify evertyhing and leave out the decoctions and deff the strainer bags. I have never been able to get the whirlpool method to work for me but I suppose it wouldnt hurt to try it again. luckily i had enough final runnings from the mash that diddnt go into the kettle that I have boiled down to 1.030 to refresh the starters if need be.

Nothing at all wrong with strainer bags. They just need to be secured.

Yeah, that really blows.

Your starters will be good until you get the extract batches going.