My Worst Brew Day Ever

Brewed for the first time since March today. What a disaster.

Let me give you a little background first. My brew setup is a 10 gallon Igloo round cooler and a turkey burner with a Sankey keg. I always preheat my mash water with a heatstick. I also use a stick to raise temp when step-mashing. Always worked great. Well this time I thought I'd be like Tim the Tool Man and get MORE POWER. I built me a second heatstick, this one 2000 watts instead of 1500. I also made it straight instead of angling it 90 deg.

So I'm mashing and everything is going swimmingly, and it's time to step up the temp. I put in my new stick and step away for a couple of minutes, two or three at the most. Suddenly I hear water dripping onto the ground. Yep, my new heatstick burned a hole right through my MLT!!!!!

After several exclamatory words that one should never say on a Sunday, I raced down to my beer room and grabbed my old plastic primary fermenter and finished the mash in that, muddled through the sparge and am now starting the boil. Surprisingly enough, my preliminary gravity seems to be right on. But the wort has a burnt smell and flavor, so it should be an interesting brew. It was going to be a DecemberFest(since it will never be ready by October) but with the burnt flavor I'm not sure what I will call it. Any Ideas??

So now I'm without an MLT. I have an old Coleman cooler in my attic that we never use anymore, I might try that. Bummer, though about my 10 gallon Igloo. A moment of silence, please, and run your flags at half staff for awhile.

That is a real bummer, Man. Sorry to hear about it. I just came in from adjusting my flag and wanted to write a few words of condolence.

I have a feeling that burnt plastic taste is going to be real hard to get use to. Better luck next time. Ever think about using steam. It works.

That sux like an Electrolux!

Well I pitched yeast. OG 1.050. Not what I had hoped, but it goes with the rest of the day. To top things off I broke my *&^%ing hydrometer. The wort tastes like someone put in a bunch of Liquid Smoke. I'll probably end up dumping it, but I'll let it ferment and then see. Maybe it's time to find a different hobby. At least the Bock I'm drowning my sorrows in turned out good. Cheers

Man... (chuckle)..... ahh..... I actually think I would have done the exact same thing..... well on the positive side you did say if you had to do it over again you would get a rectangular cooler... man that is so cool... even God can't drink Bud and reads Homebrewtalk.com to make better beer!

Amazing what more time can do to cure a beer. I've had brews that were gastly at 4 weeks. Downright good at two months and great at three months. Unless you just have to utilize the bottles or kegs for something better, don't give it the drain pour.

The mark of a really good brewer is one that can miss one style only to hit another dead center. I once made a Weiss beer that picked up a lacto bug and ended up being an award winning Berliner Weiss. Usually the beers that turn out the best are the ones where something unexpected happened and then every wants you to make it again. It may end up as a really nice Scotch or Scottish Ale with a hint of smoke or be a nice Schenkerla type Rauch or Rauch bock. I'd wait and see what happens by December...


Good luck and as a wise man once told me... If you weren't gonna learn from it then you shouldn't have made that mistake.

Bum Fudge said:

............Usually the beers that turn out the best are the ones where something unexpected happened and then every wants you to make it again......

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Yeah that's possible, but I'll be damned If I'm gonna wreck another MLT tryin to replicate it..........:cross: