First no-chill batch disaster

...but it had nothing to do with the no-chill.

Finished up a good, solid 90 minute boil and AS i started whirlpooling I knocked the inside of the ball-valve tap on my plastic boiler promptly knocking the tap out of the boiler causing the wort to begin spewing everywhere.

I had already sanitized my cube prior (I know some people say you don't have to but I had the time to spare and can't see the harm) so I quickly poured the entire batch of wort into the cube. No time to let the whirlpool settle so the cube was filled with the hops, trub, absolutely EVERYTHING that was in the boiler

As if that wasn't bad enough, after about 30 minutes I discovered that the cube was leaking too

I then had to pour the entire cube into the only other free vessel I had (sanitized too at least) which was a bucket used for bottling and sometimes fermenting. The pouring most definitely resulted in a huge amount of aeration in my very very hot wort

*sigh*

Oh well. It's still gonna be beer, perhaps just not the best. Might end up being the beer I drink after 4 or 5 better beers

Cliffs:

1. Boiler started leaking during whilpool
2. Had to transfer contents including trub to cube
3. Cube started leaking
4. Had to transfer cube contents into fermentor with mass aeration of hot wort
5. Still optomistic about the results

rough, man. hope it turns out. also: plastic boiler?

Yeah, plastic.

It's an electric boiler a la the australian Bucket O' Death. It's a 50 litre drum with 4 electric kettle elements in it, 2x 2400W and 2x 2200W.

I'm sure it's gonna come out just peachy as long as I managed to avoid an infection somewhere along the line. Might not be the clearest beer ever but aesthetics are for sober people

Brutal. Maybe a good time to solder that bad boy on? Can't say since I don't use keg boilers (yet...muahahaha), but you have my condolences.

CalmYourself said:

...but it had nothing to do with the no-chill.

Finished up a good, solid 90 minute boil and AS i started whirlpooling I knocked the inside of the ball-valve tap on my plastic boiler promptly knocking the tap out of the boiler causing the wort to begin spewing everywhere.

I had already sanitized my cube prior (I know some people say you don't have to but I had the time to spare and can't see the harm) so I quickly poured the entire batch of wort into the cube. No time to let the whirlpool settle so the cube was filled with the hops, trub, absolutely EVERYTHING that was in the boiler

As if that wasn't bad enough, after about 30 minutes I discovered that the cube was leaking too

I then had to pour the entire cube into the only other free vessel I had (sanitized too at least) which was a bucket used for bottling and sometimes fermenting. The pouring most definitely resulted in a huge amount of aeration in my very very hot wort

*sigh*

Oh well. It's still gonna be beer, perhaps just not the best. Might end up being the beer I drink after 4 or 5 better beers

Cliffs:

1. Boiler started leaking during whilpool
2. Had to transfer contents including trub to cube
3. Cube started leaking
4. Had to transfer cube contents into fermentor with mass aeration of hot wort
5. Still optomistic about the results

Click to expand...

Who in the hell said this? FWIW, dont take any advice they give... just saying.

The Pol said:

Who in the hell said this? FWIW, dont take any advice they give... just saying.

Click to expand...

Mostly research from the AussieHomeBrewer Wiki and forum:

Cubes are sanitised by the heat, there is nothing in them to contaminate the beer, especially if you leave little or no headspace.

Click to expand...

But I hardly ever take anything on the intarwebz at face value. Gotta work through it myself first and make sure it makes sense to me hence I sanitized the cubes anyway - there just wasn't any benefit in not doing it.

CalmYourself said:

Mostly research from the AussieHomeBrewer Wiki and forum:


But I hardly ever take anything on the intarwebz at face value. Gotta work through it myself first and make sure it makes sense to me hence I sanitized the cubes anyway - there just wasn't any benefit in not doing it.

Click to expand...

I dont see where it sayes that you dont sanitize them first. What it does say, to me, is that anything left after sanitizing should be effectively killed by the heat. Sanitizing is NOT sterilizing, there are still critters that live in there, which is why a fast start to fermentation is preferred... the faster the yeast outgrow the other guys, the better off you are (in a chilled beer)

The heat in the wort does help to further sanitize, but I have never run into anyone that ONLY uses the hot wort to sanitize.

Good thing I Sanitized then too. Thanks!

Anyway, just pitched 30 mins ago (4 days after boil) and already have airlock activity (I know, I know, not a ferm. indicator).

Mashing second no-chill batch right now

CalmYourself said:

The pouring most definitely resulted in a huge amount of aeration in my very very hot wort

Click to expand...

Fear not. HSA is a myth (a boogie man, bugbear, bullbeggar, goblin, specter) as far as homebrewing is concerned.

Any oxygen youv'e introduced will be taken up by the yeast at fermentation. You're 1000x more likely to introduce oxidation at the time of packaging, i.e. bottling or kegging.

Reference: the head of the Brewing Science program at UC Davis, Dr. Charles Bamforth in this Brew Strong podcast:
http://www.thebrewingnetwork.com/shows/475

Nice to know! So now the only issue I have is all the trub that went in, but I'm not really concerned about that. Should settle out just fine when I rack to secondary or the bottling bucket.