I've been brewing for a long time. Started in the 90's, stopped when kids got in the way, then started again about 4 years ago. I've been fortunate I think as I've got a lot of batches in the kegs and I had a few mistakes, but never really had a bad day. Saturday, however, didn't go as planned.
My nephew is living with us while he goes to college so I invited him to "help" and learn the process. I also invited my son, who's starting to show interest, to come over and help. This was the first error and the catalyst for the others. I really brew best when I brew alone. I don't do well with distractions.
Nevertheless, we got started and I carefully explained things to my nephew as we went along so that he could understand why we were doing what we were doing. He's very science oriented and has some chemistry under his belt, so he was a quick study.
First bad thing was my realization that my inventory said I had acidulated malt, but I did not. Not to worry, I thought, I can just tweak the pH with lactic acid. Prior to dough in I jumped onto the computer to fire up Bru 'n Water and check the dosage. All is good.
At dough in I was showing them my system for adding grain and stirring at the same time when I'm alone (hoist above the kettle, I hang the bucket of grains and tilt to pour in while stirring). But I had them doing the dough in, which went slower than usual. It wasn't until they were done that I realized I hadn't shut off the induction burner. I quickly shut it off and stirred like crazy. Temp at the top of the mash was 162. Crap. I decided to just let my eBIAB settle, recirculate with no heat and just let it drop to 148, which took the whole hour. In the panic over the high mash temp I forgot to add the lactic acid.
After the 1 hour mash I checked the gravity. I was brewing a NEIPA and was expecting pre-boil gravity of 1.060. I measured 1.049. I stirred well, checked it again, same thing. I let it recirculate for another 15 minutes, no change.
I don't think the pH would have made that much difference and volumes were spot on, so I'm guessing I denatured the enzymes when we overheated at dough in. In retrospect, I have some enzymes that I use for brut IPAs and I should have added them and gave it another 30 mins. I didn't think about that until just now. Maybe I'll add them to the fermenter.
So, ultimately, my OG was about 12 pts low. It'll be beer, but not what I was planning. Too bad since I have a really interesting hop lineup for this: Cascade at 5 mins and WP. Sabro with the Cascade at WP, then Galaxy for the dry hop.
Oh well, we live to brew another day!
My nephew is living with us while he goes to college so I invited him to "help" and learn the process. I also invited my son, who's starting to show interest, to come over and help. This was the first error and the catalyst for the others. I really brew best when I brew alone. I don't do well with distractions.
Nevertheless, we got started and I carefully explained things to my nephew as we went along so that he could understand why we were doing what we were doing. He's very science oriented and has some chemistry under his belt, so he was a quick study.
First bad thing was my realization that my inventory said I had acidulated malt, but I did not. Not to worry, I thought, I can just tweak the pH with lactic acid. Prior to dough in I jumped onto the computer to fire up Bru 'n Water and check the dosage. All is good.
At dough in I was showing them my system for adding grain and stirring at the same time when I'm alone (hoist above the kettle, I hang the bucket of grains and tilt to pour in while stirring). But I had them doing the dough in, which went slower than usual. It wasn't until they were done that I realized I hadn't shut off the induction burner. I quickly shut it off and stirred like crazy. Temp at the top of the mash was 162. Crap. I decided to just let my eBIAB settle, recirculate with no heat and just let it drop to 148, which took the whole hour. In the panic over the high mash temp I forgot to add the lactic acid.
After the 1 hour mash I checked the gravity. I was brewing a NEIPA and was expecting pre-boil gravity of 1.060. I measured 1.049. I stirred well, checked it again, same thing. I let it recirculate for another 15 minutes, no change.
I don't think the pH would have made that much difference and volumes were spot on, so I'm guessing I denatured the enzymes when we overheated at dough in. In retrospect, I have some enzymes that I use for brut IPAs and I should have added them and gave it another 30 mins. I didn't think about that until just now. Maybe I'll add them to the fermenter.
So, ultimately, my OG was about 12 pts low. It'll be beer, but not what I was planning. Too bad since I have a really interesting hop lineup for this: Cascade at 5 mins and WP. Sabro with the Cascade at WP, then Galaxy for the dry hop.
Oh well, we live to brew another day!
