Crazy messed up brew day!!

[BaylessBrewer]

So I got around to brewing the Black IPA I've been working on. And what a mess this has turned out to be.
Had to take my son to soccer because my wife made last minute plans with our daughter. First speed bump. Got to my LHBS after the game and they were out of US-05 so they gave me a vial of WLP 001 for the same price. One of the better parts
Got home and got my strike water heated up and mashed in. Was looking for 152 and ended up at 151.4. Good enough. Mashed for 60 min with stirring at 20 min intervals.
Pulled the bag to drain and set it in a colander on top of my brew kettle. This is where things started to go down hill. I pushed down on the bag to force some wort out and the colander slipped off the edge and splashed down into the wort! **** went everywhere!!! All over me, all over the counters and cabinets. Hell it even got a few drops on the ceiling. Not good.
So I sparged to get some extra wort and boiled away.
Was looking for OG 1.058 and ended up @ 1.052 but 1/4 gallon short. Oh well.
To shorten the story some I also burnt a pizza on the grill beyond recognition after I brewed and then the fermenter sucked all the star san into the bucket through the air lock. Not sure what that's about.
I'm sure I'm missing something else but what a day!!
So I've decided to name this batch Black Cloud in honor of the F'ed up day I had. Hope it turns out to be something good.
Cheers

 

[Silentdrinker]

Last weekend I made about 45 gallons of hard lemonade (buddy is having a wedding this is the first of the lot with hooped cider and a few beers to follow)

I was doing this in the kitchen and on the very last batch I was literally starting to run it through the chiller into the fermenter. I got maybe 12 oz in when the plate chiller fell from the counter onto the hoses.

I had my pump running with the water, so both liquid sides of the chiller were pressurized. The chiller cut holes in both hoses.

Then during all this chaotic mess the waste water line falls out of the sink onto the floor adding to the flooded mess.

Talk about a freaking disaster... I got everything shut off, fixed the chiller hoses, finished.... Then cleaned up.

 

[Supertrapped]

Ha! That sounds terrible. Properly named beer though. Cheers!

 

[wilserbrewer]

Pulled the bag to drain and set it in a colander on top of my brew kettle. This is where things started to go down hill. I pushed down on the bag to force some wort out and the colander slipped off the edge and splashed down into the wort! **** went everywhere!!! All over me, all over the counters and cabinets. Hell it even got a few drops on the ceiling. Not good.

Cheers

Sorry to hear of your day from hell.

Perhaps others can learn from this and understand why I'm and strong advocate to the "no squeeze" method. I feel merely letting gravity drain the bag for 20-30 minutes, by either letting it hang over your kettle, or placed aside on a colander over a bucket will produce comprable amuonts of wort to squeezing.

Take the easy route....gravity

 

[seven9st_surfer]

Sorry to hear of your day from hell.

Perhaps others can learn from this and understand why I'm and strong advocate to the "no squeeze" method. I feel merely letting gravity drain the bag for 20-30 minutes, by either letting it hang over your kettle, or placed aside on a colander over a bucket will produce comprable amuonts of wort to squeezing.

Take the easy route....gravity

I'm starting to believe in no-squeeze also. I actually built a squeeze system of 3 buckets inside each other, bottom to catch the wort, middle with a bunch of holes in the bottom, and the top to push down. I put the grain bag in the middle bucket, and push/sit on the top bucket. Today, my pre-squeeze gravity was exactly that of my post-squeeze, and I only got about 1/8 gallon. Much easier to just let it drain for a bit.

 

[el_Palido]

Plus 3 on the no squeeze. Take that time to setup your post boil gear, checklist. Then, have a beer.

 

[Kharnynb]

i just drop the grain bag into my fermentation bucket that has the "sparge" water, stir the bag one more time, lift and let gravity deal with what's inside.

 

[HarboBrew]

I gave up using the colander for that reason. I now use a circular Weber grill plate. Works a dream and I can squeeze away.

 

[BaylessBrewer]

Just a quick update.
This beer is very tasty!! I took a hydro sample today ( 1.013 ) and dry hopped it with 1/2 oz Cascade, 1/2 oz Amarillo and 1/4 oz Simcoe.
The hydro sample was so full of flavor and so smooth!! Not one off flavor to be had!! I can't wait to have a glass.

 

[BaylessBrewer]

First pour tonite!! And I must say that I nailed it with this one!!! This is one fine beer.
Very deep dark black color with no roast flavor on the palate what so ever. Very smooth bitterness and a perfect mix of favors coming from the Simcoe,Cascade and Amarillo.
If you like Black IPA's then I suggest you give "Black Cloud" a shot!! View attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1431650121.036543.jpg
View attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1431650137.358538.jpg

 

[doug293cz]

First pour tonite!! And I must say that I nailed it with this one!!! This is one fine beer. Very deep dark black color with no roast flavor on the palate what so ever. Very smooth bitterness and a perfect mix of favors coming from the Simcoe,Cascade and Amarillo.

Glad it worked out well for you. A lesson in the resiliency of beer (it saves most of us on a semi regular basis.)

If you like Black IPA's then I suggest you give "Black Cloud" a shot!!

So, where's the recipe?

Brew on

 

[BaylessBrewer]

Glad it worked out well for you. A lesson in the resiliency of beer (it saves most of us on a semi regular basis.)







So, where's the recipe?



Brew on

Shat!! Sorry about that! I'll get it posted up tomorrow when I get to the office.

 

[fiveohmike]

Shat!! Sorry about that! I'll get it posted up tomorrow when I get to the office.

I am patiently waiting - This is what I have for a Black IPA so Im curious what your is:

Amt Name Type # %/IBU
12 lbs Pale Malt, Maris Otter (3.0 SRM) Grain 1 68.6 %
2 lbs Cara-Pils/Dextrine (2.0 SRM) Grain 2 11.4 %
1 lbs Carafa II (412.0 SRM) Grain 3 5.7 %
1 lbs Chocolate Malt (350.0 SRM) Grain 4 5.7 %
12.0 oz Caramel/Crystal Malt - 40L (40.0 SRM) Grain 5 4.3 %
12.0 oz Caramel/Crystal Malt - 80L (80.0 SRM) Grain 6 4.3 %
1.50 oz Centennial [10.00 %] - Boil 60.0 min Hop 7 44.2 IBUs
1.00 oz Centennial [10.00 %] - Boil 30.0 min Hop 8 22.6 IBUs
1.50 oz Cascade [5.50 %] - Boil 5.0 min Hop 9 4.8 IBUs
1.0 pkg California Ale (White Labs #WLP001) [35.49 ml] Yeast 10 -
3.00 oz Cascade [5.50 %] - Dry Hop 3.0 Days Hop 11 0.0 IBUs
2.00 oz Cascade [5.50 %] - Dry Hop 0.0 Days Hop in KEG 12 0.0 IBUs

 

[BaylessBrewer]

Our recipes are very different. Mine is very simple grain bill.
Also take note that this is a 3 gal recipe and I was aiming for 5.5% ABV
5.5# 2-Row pale malt
6oz. Crystal 80
5oz. Midnight Wheat (550L)
4oz. Chocolate (350L)
1 package WLP001

.75oz. Simcoe 12.4AA FWH
1oz Cascade 6.4AA 15min
.5oz Simcoe. 12.4. 15min
1oz. Cascade 6.4. Flame out/ steep 30min
.5oz Simcoe. 12.4. Flame out/steep 30min
All in all I'm very happy with it. Next time I brew it I will up the dry hops and maybe add a little Amarillo to the flame out addition.

 

[BaylessBrewer]

Stupid App left out dry hop schedule when I posted!!!!
.5oz. Cascade 7days
.5oz Amarillo 7days
.25oz Simcoe 7days

 

[doug293cz]

Our recipes are very different. Mine is very simple grain bill.
Also take note that this is a 3 gal recipe and I was aiming for 5.5% ABV
5.5# 2-Row pale malt
6oz. Crystal 80
5oz. Midnight Wheat (550L)
4oz. Chocolate (350L)
1 package WLP001

.75oz. Simcoe 12.4AA FWH
1oz Cascade 6.4AA 15min
.5oz Simcoe. 12.4. 15min
1oz. Cascade 6.4. Flame out/ steep 30min
.5oz Simcoe. 12.4. Flame out/steep 30min
All in all I'm very happy with it. Next time I brew it I will up the dry hops and maybe add a little Amarillo to the flame out addition.

Did you do anything special with the dark malts to avoid the roastiness?

Brew on

 

[BaylessBrewer]

Did you do anything special with the dark malts to avoid the roastiness?



Brew on

No. I mashed all the grain together @ 151 for 60min. And then did a 60 min boil. Wanted to mash at 152 but what's 1 degree.
To do my FWH addition I mash with less water than needed,pull my bag when done mashing, add FWH and sparge to pre-boil volume. Not sure how well it works but the beer is bitter but it's a smooth bitterness.