Stupid cold weather....

Brewed a doppelbock this Saturday and since I wasn't doing a decoction mash I decided to do a 2 hour boil. It was 55° out when I started, but by the time the sparge was done and boil started, it had dropped to 25° with a wind-chill of 14°. Long story short, I ended up with a little over 1 gallon more than I had planned for: I planned to end up with 6 gallons of 1.084, but got 7 gallons of 1.074 instead.

I resisted my urges to mess with anything, did some math the next morning and it's nowhere near as bad as I thought....1.074 is still within style guidelines, and the BU:GU is only 0.034 higher than planned.

Guess I'll start checking out the 10 hour forecast from now on and start adjusting my boil-off rate accordingly....it just sucks to spend 7+ hours freezing your butt off and get subpar results....especially since I plan to age this beer 8 months to a year before drinking it. On the upside I have an extra gallon of it to drink, assuming it turns out well

Ahoy hoy,
if it makes you feel any better, its been -50 (thats 50 below folks) at my place for the last 4 days. Might break this weekend.
The price I pay to live on the last frontier
A Great day to all.

Why would you NOT check out the forecast if you are going to spend 7+ hours outside.

Don't blame the weather

Grinder12000 said:

Why would you NOT check out the forecast if you are going to spend 7+ hours outside.

Don't blame the weather

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ha--I had only checked the weather on my phone which said 55° and sunny , didn't show anything for that night (it's a really basic "weather program").....now I have the weather channel application on my phone

Medo said:

Ahoy hoy,
if it makes you feel any better, its been -50 (thats 50 below folks) at my place for the last 4 days. Might break this weekend.
The price I pay to live on the last frontier
A Great day to all.

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Now that, my friend is cold, I will never say its too cold to brew in NC ever again

-16* and clear sky here right now

I think it was about 15 above 3-4 weeks ago when I brewed my last batch. It took a bit longer to boil and I was a bit low on my sparge temp. shiatty efficiency, lost more volume than anticipated due to boiling and had to add water at the end, but the brew came out great! I did a lager and set them in the garage right beside the door and had a perfect lagering temperature which was one big plus to the cold weather.

Medo said:

Ahoy hoy,
if it makes you feel any better, its been -50 (thats 50 below folks) at my place for the last 4 days. Might break this weekend.
The price I pay to live on the last frontier
A Great day to all.

Click to expand...

Wow, I don't know how you handle that.....I was outside with a windchill of -20° here a few weeks ago and I thought I was going to die.

We've been blessed by weather in the 40s the past few weekends...to warm for skiing, but great for brewing. I love the winter because it makes my basement right about 60-and the 'cold corner' about 55. Got a Schwarzbier with wyeast 1007 going right now...hoping for something lagerish.

Medo said:

Ahoy hoy,
if it makes you feel any better, its been -50 (thats 50 below folks) at my place for the last 4 days. Might break this weekend.
The price I pay to live on the last frontier
A Great day to all.

Click to expand...

WOW And i was bitching saturday night when i brewed that it was 37 here in Vegas...lol Teach me to whine

I am a noob and have only brewed two batches so far but the warmest weather I have had is 25 F.

On the bright side, I learned how to steam loose all of the drywall tape in my garage. It is as simple as boiling 5 gallons of wort for 1 hour with too little ventilation. When give the choice of good ventilation or a warm garage, I chose the sauna. The real problem is I have still not tasted the final product of this labor I am performing. It had better be worth it.

Rubberband said:

I am a noob and have only brewed two batches so far but the warmest weather I have had is 25 F.

On the bright side, I learned how to steam loose all of the drywall tape in my garage. It is as simple as boiling 5 gallons of wort for 1 hour with too little ventilation. When give the choice of good ventilation or a warm garage, I chose the sauna. The real problem is I have still not tasted the final product of this labor I am performing. It had better be worth it.

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I didn't mean to laugh, but that is pretty funny! I brew inside, so it was a balmy 60 degrees inside on Sunday. I believe it was -25 this AM outside when I went to work this morning, though. I really, really hate winter.

Hell I wish for 55, toughen up partner we brew here in Michigan when the weather is 5F.

I really, really hate winter.

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That's what drove me out of Michigan. And we were in A2, nothing like the deep freeze up where you are.

mattmcl said:

That's what drove me out of Michigan. And we were in A2, nothing like the deep freeze up where you are.

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Well, I guess it's all relative- it makes the 25 degrees some of you are complaining about seem balmy to the rest of us. It was so cold today that my son wore a jacket to school. We went on vacation to Ohio to visit family over Christmas, and he only brought a hooded sweatshirt in case it got "cold". The winter jacket comes out when it's less than about -10 or so.

maltmonkey- a windchill of 14 above is nothing. I mean, that's not even "real" temperature. Toughen up! (This from the chick that brews inside, BTW)

Yoop, where in the UP are you exactly? We have a lake home 20 miles north of Hayward, WI (about 45 miles southeast of Duluth/Superior) and I hear from some folks up there its been brutally cold so far this year.

I snuck in a batch this weekend when it hit 30 degrees. It was a spur of a moment type of a thing and I ended up using dry yeast for the first time in many batches.

Some of you are missing out on what a wonderful aroma fills the house when you brew inside. Yooper, could you talk to SWMBO about how steeping grains are better than any candle you can buy.

sounds like good brew weather... just huddle around your brewpot

Fat Guy Brewing said:

Some of you are missing out on what a wonderful aroma fills the house when you brew inside. Yooper, could you talk to SWMBO about how steeping grains are better than any candle you can buy.

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I like the smell and SWMBO doesn't complain about that, however, when I melted one of the knobs on the stove and it took the granite countertop five hours to cool off, I was done in the kitchen.

Sucks to be yall!!!

My last brew 2 weekends ago it was mid 60s at night and I was outside in shorts and flipflops!!! Of course the high was around 80... great Christmas weather that was

Schlante,
Phillip

Ps But of course when August rolls around and the low is mid 80's at night for 3 weeks in a row and humidity matching the temps I'll be the one complaining!!! Too bad we don't all just live in TN or Southern/non mountainous KY, that's some of the best weather to be had in the states!

On the positive side for those of us still using IC's, you can cool 5 gallons of wort in ten minutes without a prechiller. Try that in August.

MVKTR2 said:

Sucks to be yall!!!

My last brew 2 weekends ago it was mid 60s at night and I was outside in shorts and flipflops!!! Of course the high was around 80... great Christmas weather that was

Schlante,
Phillip

Ps But of course when August rolls around and the low is mid 80's at night for 3 weeks in a row and humidity matching the temps I'll be the one complaining!!! Too bad we don't all just live in TN or Southern/non mountainous KY, that's some of the best weather to be had in the states!

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San Diegian here to gloat along with you, it's 1:00pm and a nice 70F sunny day today. mmm mm gotta love it.