Brew Day from Helles!

[rainmanak44]

I have never had any kind of explosion in brewing, not so much as a bottle bomb or fermenter blowoff. Until now that is. I planned on brewing a Munich Helles since the cooler weather has set in to stay. So a dial in the recipe I want to try and it includes mostly German Pils, a little munich, some cara-pils, 2-row and melanoidin. I get to the LHBS and start milling. I get to the counter and discover that instead of 7lbs of pils, I put in 7lbs of cara pils! As you should know, I need more base malt for fermentables. So I go back and buy about 8lbs of german pils and go home to do some math. When I start playing with brewers friend I decided I could take the mixed bag and divide it into quarters. Use 1/4 of it along with 7lbs of pils and I should be ok. Disaster 1 averted!
Now I get to brew day and I go out back, saturday morning coffee in hand and discover my water filter and hose had not been taken off the faucet and its all a frozen block of ice! Off to the store to buy a 5 gal jug of water. (my city water sucks) Disaster 2 averted.
Boil goes well, getting ready to toss the wort chiller in and luckily before I set it in I notice water running out of it. The bottom loop had standing water left in it and it too froze and split the tubing! A quick cut and hose clamp job and I am back in business! Disaster 3 averted!
So I had made a nice hot starter for this batch and it was sitting in a quart jar in the kitchen with the lid loose. I went in to check on it and it looked a little flat, not bubbles at all. So I decide to give it a little shake to infuze some oxygen, tighten the lid, shake shake BOOM! Metal lid explodes off the top with a bang! Yeast starter all over my face, shirt, pants, cabinets, ceiling and even up into the skylight. Scrape and scoop as I might I can't come up with so much as an ounce of it back. Probably wouldnt use it anyway! So I am off to the nearest LHBS that is 10 miles north of me. I pull in only to see a sign that says they moved across the state! Back onto the freeway to hit the next clostest one 30 miles south! Lucky they are still open and have 2 smack packs, that will have to do.
Disaster 4 averted!
In the fermenter now and bubbling away! I will let you know how it turns out in a few months.
There can be no other name for this beer but "Brew day from Helles"

 

[QuercusMax]

Wow, thanks for the perspective! Yesterday I had an 8-hour brewday doing 10 gallons of a double-decocted Dunkel. I had a stuck mash (which I was able fix by adding a pound of rice hulls), and then I got distracted when running out from the kettle into the fermenters and lost 2 gallons to an overfilled bucket...

With such a terrible brewday this is bound to be an awesome batch of helles for you!

 

[stellaontap]

Haaaa....Saturday must have been cursed. I had a brew day from helles too.....but i was making a wit!!! Pump wouldnt move anything through my rims system right after doughing in. I had to bail it all out and start my Wit beer again with all 2 row. It is bubbling merrily away now but what a day. Oh well I am sure we all made beer despite our problems

Cheers guys

Eric

 

[fk27bob]

I think the curse continued Monday.....though not as intense. Had to move the brewery into the kitchen because it's 15 degrees outside and I didn't want to hook up the hose and turn my driveway into a skating rink with my IC runoff.

I forgot to add the 1# of sugar to my wort at the end of boil. So I boiled a pint or so of water, added the sugar, and found out I was about 6oz short on sugar. SWMBO must have hidden the Christmas cookie sugar elsewhere in the house (turns out it was about 10 feet away from where I was brewing). No biggie, the OG was pretty close anyways, with about 1/2 gallon less than I planned.

I siphoned to my fermenter, and only then discovered I grabbed my 5 gallon carboy, not the 6.5 gallon one. I ate dinner, then thought I should transfer it again to the bigger carboy. I get pretty good blowoff on all my brews, so I can use the extra headspace.

There were plenty of chances for some unwanted bugs to make their way into this batch. Maybe I'll have my first sour Belgian blond.


Sent from my iPad using Home Brew

 

[rainmanak44]

This brew day produced my highest state level score of 44 and my best NHC score to date of 38.

 

[MaryB]

I woke u this morning to the smell of beer... uh oh, fermenter was blowing beer (I had put a drip tray under it suspecting this one might do that) out the airlock. Grab a hose and sanitize it, fill a bottle half full of sanitizer, grab the spray bottle of sanitizer and a roll of paper towels and clean up the mess and fit the blow off tube...