DeanMachine
Well-Known Member
I have an interesting story about a homebrew 'rising from the ashes', so to speak. Maybe you guys can help me figure out what happened.
Started off with a generic pale ale kit from the brew supply store and decided to add a little irish moss to the equation.
January 12th- In primary.
January 14th- Primary explodes, huge mess in my spare bedroom.
I clean up the mess and replace the blowoff tube. After a couple days the bubbling calms down and I replace the tube with an airlock.
One week passes, and I notice the water is being sucked into the fermentor through the airlock. I replace the water with vodka and try again. No dice, after a day or so it is gone, sucked inside the fermentor. I try for the third time, and again, it is sucked inside.
I give up, and stop replacing the liquid inside the airlock and leave it open. **** it.
Another 2 weeks go by and I check the primary. It smells nasty. It smells like a fart and/or sulfur. There is white stuff all around the top that doesn't look like kraeusen. I take a sample of it and taste it. UGh. I want to puke. Don't want this stuff going into bottles. Irritated, I make plans to dump it but hold off until it's time to brew again.
Fast forward to yesterday, March 13th. 2 months have gone by and I am out of homebrew. Time to brew again, but first I need to dump this nastiness inside my primary.
What HOO! The white stuff is gone! It's crystal clear. It smells great. Tastes great! What the hell? I don't care! I'm going to bottle tomorrow.
I dubbed this concoction the Phoenix Pale Ale.
Original Gravity: 1.056. Final Gravity: 1.017. ABV = 5.1.
What happened here?
Started off with a generic pale ale kit from the brew supply store and decided to add a little irish moss to the equation.
January 12th- In primary.
January 14th- Primary explodes, huge mess in my spare bedroom.
I clean up the mess and replace the blowoff tube. After a couple days the bubbling calms down and I replace the tube with an airlock.
One week passes, and I notice the water is being sucked into the fermentor through the airlock. I replace the water with vodka and try again. No dice, after a day or so it is gone, sucked inside the fermentor. I try for the third time, and again, it is sucked inside.
I give up, and stop replacing the liquid inside the airlock and leave it open. **** it.
Another 2 weeks go by and I check the primary. It smells nasty. It smells like a fart and/or sulfur. There is white stuff all around the top that doesn't look like kraeusen. I take a sample of it and taste it. UGh. I want to puke. Don't want this stuff going into bottles. Irritated, I make plans to dump it but hold off until it's time to brew again.
Fast forward to yesterday, March 13th. 2 months have gone by and I am out of homebrew. Time to brew again, but first I need to dump this nastiness inside my primary.
What HOO! The white stuff is gone! It's crystal clear. It smells great. Tastes great! What the hell? I don't care! I'm going to bottle tomorrow.
I dubbed this concoction the Phoenix Pale Ale.
Original Gravity: 1.056. Final Gravity: 1.017. ABV = 5.1.
What happened here?