bucfan1234
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Oaked Brown Ale
A few weeks ago I decided to move my brewing outside and to do full volume boils when doing extract batches. Result, near disaster.
My first brew day was a beautiful sunny day, but very windy windy. I got everything laid out and organized by time of addition, set up all my gear and got my new 50' IC, which I had made and leak tested the night before. I turned on gameday, lit a cigar and thought, this is going to be great.
Heated water and started steeping my specialty grains. Then things started o go badly. About halfway through, the bag sprung a hole and grain flushed into my kettle. I finished steeping and tried to scoop out the grains. This went on for some time. Added the full volume and still scooped grains. Thinking, this is going to be an astringent, tannic mess.
So then to the boil. Boiled hard, boiled over. Turned down the heat and the wind toyed with my boil cooling it too much. Burner blew itself out several times. Fiddled with this for some time.
After hop particles clogged my keg poppit valve on the last batch, I added the hops in a nylon sack. String hung down too far and burnt up. Haha. Still the best decision I have made in a while. Nice clear wort into fermenter.
Add the chiller, finish boil and then turn it on. Silly me didn't account for metal shrinkage when hot, and the inlet side was spraying nasty hose water for the entire time it took me to walk from hose bibb to kettle and back. How much got into the wort? No idea.
Now I am thinking astringent, tannic, infected mess. Finished chilling. So I pour my nice clear, messed up wort into the fermenter and what do I see?
Oak leaves, boiled black in the bottom of the kettle. Apparently, while I was watching gameday and smoking cigars, the wind decided to add some adjucts to my brew without my knowledge.
Pitched. Normal fermentation. Worried, a lot. Read the confession time thread to ease my mind.
After the requisite number of days I popped the lid, was at FG and kegged a nice clear beer. So, the hose didn't get me after all.
Cold crashed, Tasted it . . . bam Green apples! Horrible.
After searching this site, I decided to prime it the keg and let it sit. Added the amount of corn sugar beersmith suggested, hit it with 30lbs for 2 mins and let it sit for two weeks.
Long story shorter, I chilled this a bit and tapped it a few minutes ago. It is Crystal clear, and has a nice english style low carbonation. No green apple. Its caramel and nutty with a touch of residual sweetness, no hop flavor with just enough bitterness to balance it out. Perhaps a touch of fall oak leaf on the finish, kidding lol. In other words, it's great!
And that is the story of how the beer I thought would be horrible, and infected, turned out to be one of the best extract batches I have ever made.
Maybe there is something to that old homebrew saying after all...
A few weeks ago I decided to move my brewing outside and to do full volume boils when doing extract batches. Result, near disaster.
My first brew day was a beautiful sunny day, but very windy windy. I got everything laid out and organized by time of addition, set up all my gear and got my new 50' IC, which I had made and leak tested the night before. I turned on gameday, lit a cigar and thought, this is going to be great.
Heated water and started steeping my specialty grains. Then things started o go badly. About halfway through, the bag sprung a hole and grain flushed into my kettle. I finished steeping and tried to scoop out the grains. This went on for some time. Added the full volume and still scooped grains. Thinking, this is going to be an astringent, tannic mess.
So then to the boil. Boiled hard, boiled over. Turned down the heat and the wind toyed with my boil cooling it too much. Burner blew itself out several times. Fiddled with this for some time.
After hop particles clogged my keg poppit valve on the last batch, I added the hops in a nylon sack. String hung down too far and burnt up. Haha. Still the best decision I have made in a while. Nice clear wort into fermenter.
Add the chiller, finish boil and then turn it on. Silly me didn't account for metal shrinkage when hot, and the inlet side was spraying nasty hose water for the entire time it took me to walk from hose bibb to kettle and back. How much got into the wort? No idea.
Now I am thinking astringent, tannic, infected mess. Finished chilling. So I pour my nice clear, messed up wort into the fermenter and what do I see?
Oak leaves, boiled black in the bottom of the kettle. Apparently, while I was watching gameday and smoking cigars, the wind decided to add some adjucts to my brew without my knowledge.
Pitched. Normal fermentation. Worried, a lot. Read the confession time thread to ease my mind.
After the requisite number of days I popped the lid, was at FG and kegged a nice clear beer. So, the hose didn't get me after all.
Cold crashed, Tasted it . . . bam Green apples! Horrible.
After searching this site, I decided to prime it the keg and let it sit. Added the amount of corn sugar beersmith suggested, hit it with 30lbs for 2 mins and let it sit for two weeks.
Long story shorter, I chilled this a bit and tapped it a few minutes ago. It is Crystal clear, and has a nice english style low carbonation. No green apple. Its caramel and nutty with a touch of residual sweetness, no hop flavor with just enough bitterness to balance it out. Perhaps a touch of fall oak leaf on the finish, kidding lol. In other words, it's great!
And that is the story of how the beer I thought would be horrible, and infected, turned out to be one of the best extract batches I have ever made.
Maybe there is something to that old homebrew saying after all...
