What you are about to read or more likely skim over is a humbling experience from a newbie brewer on his fourth brew (5 gal extract, partial boil w/ steeping grains).
Sorry for the length, but maybe someone else can either laugh at my noobish mistakes or learn from them. As you read this, please imagine the Benny Hill music or whatever comedic music suits your fancy.
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So I had about 4 1/2 hours to bottle my Scottish 70 and brew my Russian Imperial Stout then I had to pick up the kids. I thought that was enough time, even though each task separately from start to finish has taken me 2-3 hours. Heck I know what I am doing, I have brewed three different times and bottles twice, haha. I rationalized that in my other brew days there has been a lot of idle time while waiting for water to warm up, I could bottle then. I could do this...SWMBO (she is not a big fan of my newly discovered homebrewing addiction) will never find out...
Start time: 1:00-1:30
Take LME out of fridge in place in warm water. Mix priming sugar solution for Scottish 70 (henceforth S70), and heat up for boil. Water for 2.5 gallons is put on medium to start the long slow process of heating up. I also boil two jars to harvest yeast from the S70. I go downstairs, take my FG reading on the S70 (OG 1.04 -> FG: 1.009). Run upstairs, turn off the priming sugar to cool. Run downstairs and sterilize bottles.
Time: 1:30-2:30
Put Russian Imperial Stout (henceforth RIS) steeping grains in mesh bag, water at 140...eh close enough so I decide to start the steeping. As I do that steeping grains fall out into now semi-cooled priming solution. Damn! Re-boil priming sugar to be safe. When it boils for 5 minutes, I then put the pot in a water bath to cool quickly and throw into bottling bucket. Siphoned S70 into bottling bucket. Damn this is taking forever! Starting to panic about temp on steeping grains and can't leave due to not wanting to get trub/slurry in bottling bucket. Finally finishes siphoning. Run upstairs, grains are at 165...sonofabitch! I kill the heat, throw some cool water into it to get the temp down to 155. Resume steeping and go downstairs. Harvest yeast into two jars, approx 5 oz of slurry in each jar. Begin racking and capping, 1 case down...go back upstairs, remove specialty grains and jack up the heat to get to a boil. Go back downstairs finish bottling. Do a quick rinse and soak of primary fermenter and bottling bucket.
Time: 2:30 (2hrs before I have to go) - 4:15
Water was boiling upstairs, killed the heat added 6lbs of LME and then turned on heat again. Figured I had enough time to properly clean the primary and bottling bucket, dump Star-San into primary to wait out the boil. I smell roastiness...hmm...run up-stairs....boilover! @&*! (I naively believed boil-overs could only happen on the hop additions). This is a serious issue as SWMBO will never allow a brew session again if she were to see that mess. I switch the kettle to the other side of the stove and try to get as much of the wort as I can before it cooks or cools on to the stove. Throw in my hops as I am cleaning up. Cleaning up will continue for nearly an hour but Bar Keepers Friend did the trick.
4:00
@$&! I am behind schedule, now have 30 minutes before I need to leave and 15 minutes still left in boil. Add the next LME addition and wait for the water to come to a boil. It comes to a boil with 5 minutes left. Ugh. I ran downstairs and started the ice-bath. Timer beeps.
4:15
15 minutes before I am supposed to leave. Kettle is carefully brought downstairs, (I had visions of slipping down the stairs or on the basement floor which was wet from Star-San and water due to my rushing). Thrown into ice-bath and I carefully fill a smaller bucket on the other side of the sink to fill up swamp cooler with cool water. During this time I carefully stir the wort with the thermometer in the kettle and use my hand to move the ice around the kettle on the outside. PLEASE GO FASTER.
4:30 (I should be in the car now)
Wort temp is at 110F. Damn. Ok, I will just be a bit late picking up the kids, day care closes at 5:30 I can leave around 4:45 and still make it with some time for traffic. I will get the dirty looks but whatever, as long as SWMBO doesn't find out I am golden.
4:35 (approx)
Wort temp is 100F, dump Star-San out of Primary into my Star-San bucket and fill with 2 gallons of cold water. Pour wort into primary, and top-off to 5 gal line. Take OG reading (1.089). Take temp with my wife's digital thermometer as the brewing thermometer was covered in wort... probe was put in Star-San) and now at 80F. When returning thermometer to Star-San, I drop it....and the unit's LCD goes dead. Now SWMBO will kill me will need to replace that ASAP w/o being caught. Placed bucket in swamp cooler (48F water all the way to 5 gal line) in a desperate attempt to speed up.
4:45
I am pushing my luck here. Even if I leave now, if I hit traffic I will be late, and we have to pay $5 /per min per child. SWMBO would castrate me......cleaned the brewing thermometer (rinsed in water and sanitized in Star-San). Temp is at 74....slurry is Wyeast 1728, looking for a 58-60F range. What am I going to do?
4:50
ABORT I MUST GO NOW
Put on lid and an airlock with Star-San just to be safe. Run upstairs and change, jump in the car @ 4:54 and go. Spend the whole time driving kicking myself but I got to daycare at 5:28.
6:15
Returned home. Got the kids settled quickly, and ran downstairs, swamp cooler had risen to 59. Figured that the wort is roughly the same by this point. Aerated the wort and cracked the lid and pitched approx 8-10oz of slurry. Attached blow off tube. Ran upstairs started dinner.
7:15
House smells like hops and SWMBO hates that. She comes home, sees the mess in the basement, kids haven't had a bath yet, I get the silent treatment. So far I am still safe on the boil-over and the digital thermometer.
Lesson learned: Never rush a brew day or bottling day. Just when you think you know enough about this hobby you will humbled.
Sorry for the length, but maybe someone else can either laugh at my noobish mistakes or learn from them. As you read this, please imagine the Benny Hill music or whatever comedic music suits your fancy.
-------
So I had about 4 1/2 hours to bottle my Scottish 70 and brew my Russian Imperial Stout then I had to pick up the kids. I thought that was enough time, even though each task separately from start to finish has taken me 2-3 hours. Heck I know what I am doing, I have brewed three different times and bottles twice, haha. I rationalized that in my other brew days there has been a lot of idle time while waiting for water to warm up, I could bottle then. I could do this...SWMBO (she is not a big fan of my newly discovered homebrewing addiction) will never find out...
Start time: 1:00-1:30
Take LME out of fridge in place in warm water. Mix priming sugar solution for Scottish 70 (henceforth S70), and heat up for boil. Water for 2.5 gallons is put on medium to start the long slow process of heating up. I also boil two jars to harvest yeast from the S70. I go downstairs, take my FG reading on the S70 (OG 1.04 -> FG: 1.009). Run upstairs, turn off the priming sugar to cool. Run downstairs and sterilize bottles.
Time: 1:30-2:30
Put Russian Imperial Stout (henceforth RIS) steeping grains in mesh bag, water at 140...eh close enough so I decide to start the steeping. As I do that steeping grains fall out into now semi-cooled priming solution. Damn! Re-boil priming sugar to be safe. When it boils for 5 minutes, I then put the pot in a water bath to cool quickly and throw into bottling bucket. Siphoned S70 into bottling bucket. Damn this is taking forever! Starting to panic about temp on steeping grains and can't leave due to not wanting to get trub/slurry in bottling bucket. Finally finishes siphoning. Run upstairs, grains are at 165...sonofabitch! I kill the heat, throw some cool water into it to get the temp down to 155. Resume steeping and go downstairs. Harvest yeast into two jars, approx 5 oz of slurry in each jar. Begin racking and capping, 1 case down...go back upstairs, remove specialty grains and jack up the heat to get to a boil. Go back downstairs finish bottling. Do a quick rinse and soak of primary fermenter and bottling bucket.
Time: 2:30 (2hrs before I have to go) - 4:15
Water was boiling upstairs, killed the heat added 6lbs of LME and then turned on heat again. Figured I had enough time to properly clean the primary and bottling bucket, dump Star-San into primary to wait out the boil. I smell roastiness...hmm...run up-stairs....boilover! @&*! (I naively believed boil-overs could only happen on the hop additions). This is a serious issue as SWMBO will never allow a brew session again if she were to see that mess. I switch the kettle to the other side of the stove and try to get as much of the wort as I can before it cooks or cools on to the stove. Throw in my hops as I am cleaning up. Cleaning up will continue for nearly an hour but Bar Keepers Friend did the trick.
4:00
@$&! I am behind schedule, now have 30 minutes before I need to leave and 15 minutes still left in boil. Add the next LME addition and wait for the water to come to a boil. It comes to a boil with 5 minutes left. Ugh. I ran downstairs and started the ice-bath. Timer beeps.
4:15
15 minutes before I am supposed to leave. Kettle is carefully brought downstairs, (I had visions of slipping down the stairs or on the basement floor which was wet from Star-San and water due to my rushing). Thrown into ice-bath and I carefully fill a smaller bucket on the other side of the sink to fill up swamp cooler with cool water. During this time I carefully stir the wort with the thermometer in the kettle and use my hand to move the ice around the kettle on the outside. PLEASE GO FASTER.
4:30 (I should be in the car now)
Wort temp is at 110F. Damn. Ok, I will just be a bit late picking up the kids, day care closes at 5:30 I can leave around 4:45 and still make it with some time for traffic. I will get the dirty looks but whatever, as long as SWMBO doesn't find out I am golden.
4:35 (approx)
Wort temp is 100F, dump Star-San out of Primary into my Star-San bucket and fill with 2 gallons of cold water. Pour wort into primary, and top-off to 5 gal line. Take OG reading (1.089). Take temp with my wife's digital thermometer as the brewing thermometer was covered in wort... probe was put in Star-San) and now at 80F. When returning thermometer to Star-San, I drop it....and the unit's LCD goes dead. Now SWMBO will kill me will need to replace that ASAP w/o being caught. Placed bucket in swamp cooler (48F water all the way to 5 gal line) in a desperate attempt to speed up.
4:45
I am pushing my luck here. Even if I leave now, if I hit traffic I will be late, and we have to pay $5 /per min per child. SWMBO would castrate me......cleaned the brewing thermometer (rinsed in water and sanitized in Star-San). Temp is at 74....slurry is Wyeast 1728, looking for a 58-60F range. What am I going to do?
4:50
ABORT I MUST GO NOW
Put on lid and an airlock with Star-San just to be safe. Run upstairs and change, jump in the car @ 4:54 and go. Spend the whole time driving kicking myself but I got to daycare at 5:28.
6:15
Returned home. Got the kids settled quickly, and ran downstairs, swamp cooler had risen to 59. Figured that the wort is roughly the same by this point. Aerated the wort and cracked the lid and pitched approx 8-10oz of slurry. Attached blow off tube. Ran upstairs started dinner.
7:15
House smells like hops and SWMBO hates that. She comes home, sees the mess in the basement, kids haven't had a bath yet, I get the silent treatment. So far I am still safe on the boil-over and the digital thermometer.
Lesson learned: Never rush a brew day or bottling day. Just when you think you know enough about this hobby you will humbled.