Comedy of errors........ we all have days like this!

[Owly055]

Yesterday was a day I should have stayed in bed ;-)

Instead I got up at 5:00 AM and began a brew. A wheat beer with Northern Brewer, Hallertau, and Aramis...... an original recipe.

During the boil, I was on the phone and Email getting parts lined out to rebuild a 2010 Subaru Outback engine on a car I just bought with a bad engine for a song. The engine is spread all over my shop, bad crank and rod. With Subaru's outrageous prices, I was looking at $1500 for just parts.. OUCH!! Managed to pare it down to about $1k by sourcing parts "creatively", and using my professional discount.

The result of the multiple distractions was that I forgot to add the sugar to the boil. I included a pound of sugar to bump the alcohol up without adding body. Then at the end of the boil, I added more Northern Brewer and the Hallertau as a 2 minute addition........... Unfortunately I got a phone call at that point and ended up doing a 10 minute addition instead of a 2 minute addition...... giving me 58 IBUs instead of 35.
I hadn't intended to make an IPA, but Oh Well....

I didn't realize I'd forgotten the sugar until I tested gravity.... Oops........ "Oh well, I can remedy that quickly". So I made some invert sugar syrup........ Guess what.... Another phone call. I wasn't using a thermometer, just doing it kind of slap dash. When the call was over, I'd forgotten the invert, and heard it boiling....... Oops, it's been boiling a bit long, I'd better take it off the heat, and add it to the brew. My fermenter now has a layer of candy laying on the bottom ;-(. The syrup that remained in the pan cooled and was extremely hard. Nother Oops!

Then I went out to paint a car hood........... shot the paint and it crinkled........ Nother Oops.

........... Some days you need to just stay in bed ;-).........

Today I made another batch of invert, and did it right. Gravity is where it should be now. I don't know how long the "candy" will remain in the bottom of the fermenter, but I suspect it won't dissolve during this brew. I may just leave it in place and starsan over it, and let it dissolve over a few months. The fermenter is clear acrylic, and I don't really want to use boilling water in it.

A bad day........... Hopefully today will be better.

H.W.

 

[atom]

maybe you not answer the phone while brewing?

 

[GHBWNY]

Yesterday was a day I should have stayed in bed ;-)

Instead I got up at 5:00 AM and began a brew. A wheat beer with Northern Brewer, Hallertau, and Aramis...... an original recipe.

During the boil, I was on the phone and Email getting parts lined out to rebuild a 2010 Subaru Outback engine on a car I just bought with a bad engine for a song. The engine is spread all over my shop, bad crank and rod. With Subaru's outrageous prices, I was looking at $1500 for just parts.. OUCH!! Managed to pare it down to about $1k by sourcing parts "creatively", and using my professional discount.

The result of the multiple distractions was that I forgot to add the sugar to the boil. I included a pound of sugar to bump the alcohol up without adding body. Then at the end of the boil, I added more Northern Brewer and the Hallertau as a 2 minute addition........... Unfortunately I got a phone call at that point and ended up doing a 10 minute addition instead of a 2 minute addition...... giving me 58 IBUs instead of 35.
I hadn't intended to make an IPA, but Oh Well....

I didn't realize I'd forgotten the sugar until I tested gravity.... Oops........ "Oh well, I can remedy that quickly". So I made some invert sugar syrup........ Guess what.... Another phone call. I wasn't using a thermometer, just doing it kind of slap dash. When the call was over, I'd forgotten the invert, and heard it boiling....... Oops, it's been boiling a bit long, I'd better take it off the heat, and add it to the brew. My fermenter now has a layer of candy laying on the bottom ;-(. The syrup that remained in the pan cooled and was extremely hard. Nother Oops!

Then I went out to paint a car hood........... shot the paint and it crinkled........ Nother Oops.

........... Some days you need to just stay in bed ;-).........

Today I made another batch of invert, and did it right. Gravity is where it should be now. I don't know how long the "candy" will remain in the bottom of the fermenter, but I suspect it won't dissolve during this brew. I may just leave it in place and starsan over it, and let it dissolve over a few months. The fermenter is clear acrylic, and I don't really want to use boilling water in it.

A bad day........... Hopefully today will be better.

H.W.

Well, at least you got a good name for your beer out of the deal:

SubaRuined IPA

 

[Melana]

See... my luck would make that the very best beer ever that would never be duplicated.

 

[kombat]

Too late now, but I don't think you really needed to boil the corn sugar. I just add it directly to the fermenter. Being so dry, it's unlikely dextrose or DME will harbour any undesirable bacterial contaminants (there's a term for when a powder like that is devoid of moisture and unable to harbor life, but I can't think of it)

 

[Owly055]

Too late now, but I don't think you really needed to boil the corn sugar. I just add it directly to the fermenter. Being so dry, it's unlikely dextrose or DME will harbour any undesirable bacterial contaminants (there's a term for when a powder like that is devoid of moisture and unable to harbor life, but I can't think of it)

I used cane sugar, not corn sugar. It's far cheaper, and works just as well if added at the right time or inverted.



H.W.

 

[sablesurfer]

(there's a term for when a powder like that is devoid of moisture and unable to harbor life, but I can't think of it)

Desiccant

 

[Owly055]

Desiccant

Sugar is a valuable tool in brewing when used correctly. Cane sugar when used correctly ferments out virtually 100%, thus it does not add the sweetness and body that unfermentables from malt provide.... it just adds alcohol. I use a sugar in a lot of beers. Cane sugar and corn sugar are interchangeable as far as I'm concerned...... I can't tell the difference, and I doubt anybody can. When brewing Pilsner type beers , where you want ultra light color, it's a great tool. Two row and sugar, and if you want a bit more body, some carapils. Many commercial breweries use some form of sugar, both here and in Europe. Some even use high fructose corn syrup because of it's low cost. Brewing is the ideal application for HFCS, because it is completely used up by the yeast, and none of the negative effects are passed on to the drinker. If it were available to "Joe Ordinary" cheaply, I'd buy it and use it in brewing.

I get tired of the old saw about sugar "drying out a beer"..... It really is nonsense

H.W.

 

[Sir-Hops-A-Lot]

This is called "Distracted Brewing." It affects every beer I make with my lovely wife and three little ones as the usual suspects.

 

[tennesseean_87]

I'm guessing that the candy you added will dissolve in the beer, especially as fermentation gets things swirling around. Carb drops are hard sugar that you just drop in the bottles instead of batch priming and they dissolve and carbonate the beer. So you added double the sugar you intended. When you calculate the abv, I'd assume you're getting extra OG points from the sugar which you didn't detect in your reading because it wasn't dissolved yet. I also haven't ever inverted sugar--I just add it to the boil. You don't need to invert cane sugar for bottling, so why do it for other uses?

Re: sugar drying out a beer, wouldn't that be the case if you use it to boost the alcohol from 3-5% without adding malt? In smaller amounts I don't think it makes too much of a difference, but when it's subbed for a significant portion of malt you're getting significantly less dextrins and unfermentable sugars.

 

[Owly055]

I'm guessing that the candy you added will dissolve in the beer, especially as fermentation gets things swirling around. Carb drops are hard sugar that you just drop in the bottles instead of batch priming and they dissolve and carbonate the beer. So you added double the sugar you intended. When you calculate the abv, I'd assume you're getting extra OG points from the sugar which you didn't detect in your reading because it wasn't dissolved yet. I also haven't ever inverted sugar--I just add it to the boil. You don't need to invert cane sugar for bottling, so why do it for other uses?

Re: sugar drying out a beer, wouldn't that be the case if you use it to boost the alcohol from 3-5% without adding malt? In smaller amounts I don't think it makes too much of a difference, but when it's subbed for a significant portion of malt you're getting significantly less dextrins and unfermentable sugars.

I think we're saying the same thing in different words about the use of sugar in beer............ What I was trying to say is if you take beerX and add a pound of sugar to the recipe in addition to the other ingredients, it will NOT dry the beer out, just give it more alcohol.

I sincerely hope the "candy" doesn't dissolve in the period of one fermentation.......... If it does, I'm going to have some serious "whoop ass". I currently have a crystal clear layer of candy about 1/4" thick on the bottom of the fermenter.


H.W.

 

[Ike]

Two batches ago I named the batch: "Here's hoping two, oh crap, here's hoping THREE wrongs make a right."

I'm glad it was a small batch: that would have been hell to fit on a label.

The answer: apparently three wrongs DO make a right. Maybe not the same right I was going for, but still a very palatable brew.

 

[aprichman]

Well, at least you got a good name for your beer out of the deal:

SubaRuined IPA

How about Subataged IPA

 

[vwmasstransit]

See... my luck would make that the very best beer ever that would never be duplicated.

This, this would be me too. "How the HELL did I do that?"