Pain in the %$(!

Well...I finally got to brew with the converted Keg yesterday. I did the Imperial IPA and did a full 5 gallon boil. Lots of hops so my wife was happy I did it outside.

It started out when I saw that the bag of dry malt had fallen onto an old co2 tank and punctured. Luckily I didn't lose much.

ANYWAY....I put my bazooka tube on so I could minimize the crap going through the spigot, and then got going. Took forever to boil. Then, the wort chiller didn't sit fully immersed because of the tube. AFter that, pouring the wort into the fermenter was a slow process because the tube was gunking up and because...the worst part...the damn spigot is a little bit too high. (I'll be tilting to get the rest of the beer out.)

So...after all the precautions I just had to siphon the damn beer into the bucket. Pretty chunky stuff and who knows how it's going to come out. Should be interesting.....

As long as you didn't get any infections, you'll be all right, man...

Everyone has his own opinions or whatever on brews that don't turn out well, but with enough care, you can get something REALLY good out of what you made.

A little gelatin, some good amalayse enzyme, and a lot of time, and I had what I'm drinking now. Heh. Mooncalf Porter

Well if you want to put things in perspective and have a good laugh you could check out my thread of the first AG I tried. I mean look at the aviator.... that Miso soup looking brew was supposed to be 5 galons there Had a lot of fun.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=8276

I certainly know the frustrations of everything seemingly going to Sh*t. I can't think of one person who this has not happened to every once in a while so your in real good company really.

You know in the end, I think it will turn out great!

I put the chiller in the kettle then thread the bazooka between the coils. I still have clogging problems when I pile in the hop pellets. Sometimes one must suffer for their art.

Robbw said:

the worst part...the damn spigot is a little bit too high. (I'll be tilting to get the rest of the beer out.)

Click to expand...

Your bazooka tube should be mashed against the bottom of the keg...I use a bazooka t and what I had to do was run a pipe from the spigot to the center of the keg, then a 90 elbow, then a short piece of pipe to put the bazooka down on the bottom of the keg. Attach a hose to the spigot after cooling to create a good siphon during draining and it will siphon out nearly all the wort.

Well alrighty! Thanks for the encouragement and assistance.