I'm a dope...

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Pachyderm

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So, when I was sparging my grain last night, I clearly let the water get too hot, since all the grain had swollen up like rice. Like an idiot, I went ahead and continued making the wort. Now, I'm wondering what the effects of this would be. Any thoughts?

Also, I'm not noticing any burbing this morning, would that have anything to do with it?
 
You think it was too hot? Or did you have a thermometer and it said it was too hot?
 
I don't have an exact temp. It was maybe five minutes away from boiling, only later when I heated up water to sparge the grain did I realize how much hoter the first three quarts was.

I totaly blew this batch. It's not burbing at all. What a dope I am. :mad:
 
Pachyderm said:
I don't have an exact temp. It was maybe five minutes away from boiling, only later when I heated up water to sparge the grain did I realize how much hoter the first three quarts was.

I totaly blew this batch. It's not burbing at all. What a dope I am. :mad:
Click to expand...


Im a bit confused..What is your technique? Why didn't you check the temp? It will most likely still make beer..but not sure how it will trun out. Did you batch sparge? If it was 5 min from boiling are we sayining 200 or 190degrees?:confused:

Was this your first all grain? If so may I suggest you do a partial mash to figure out the way before you jump into all grain.


You also say 3 quarts..recipe would help..was this all grain? 3 quarts is for maybe 3 pounds of grain at most..so I am assuming this was a partial mash?
J
 
Okay, to clarify. I was making a five gallon batch of IPA. My recipe says to steep the grain for 45 minutes in 160 Degree water. I had a floating thermometer in the pot of water, But I was concerned that since it was so shallow, the thermometer would just be reading the bottom of the pot which would of course be much hotter than the water.

So, I checked in with it and simply held the thermometer in the water, and watched as it climbed up to around 180. After about twenty minutes I made my dopey move of assuming it had cooled down enough and poured in my grain.

When I strained the grain into the stock pot, the grain had swelled up like oatmeal. I heated up more water sparged the grain. It tok a few minutes, but the water eventually drained through. From that point I moved forward and everything went along normally.

But this morning I noticed that it wasn't burbing, and I started stressing on it. So that's what I know.
 
This had about 7 1/4 lbs of malt extract, I'm at work right now and I don't have the exact recipe with me. It was four different types of grain. Again, I don't recall which kinds.

I didn't add the malt until I started the boil sequence.
 
Ok, I think I understand now! You are doing an extract batch, along with some steeping grains. (and the grains do puff up some- they absorb water, that's normal).

You don't get much, if any, fermentables from the grains. They are for color and flavor. So it sounds like you did just fine! Then, after you removed the grains, you brought it up to a boil (the liquid left in the brewpot) and added the extract, right? And after it cooled to below 70 degrees, you put the yeast in. Is that basically what happened?

What kind of yeast did you use? Liquid yeasts can take up to 72 hours to start. Sometimes dry yeast takes a while, too. Sounds like everything might be just fine, if you put the yeast in around 70 degrees.
 
Exactly right! Well, it's good to hear that everything should be okay. The yeast I used was Wyeast 1056 American Ale yeast. it was liquid. The last beer I made was an English porter, and it start burbing right away, so when I saw that there was no activity this morning, I panicked.
 
I agree with yooper, I wouldn't worry too much about it, sounds like it will turn out just fine.

A word of advice though, temps are important, even 1 degree can make a difference when you get to all grain, so do yourself a favor and invest in a decent digital thermometer.

As far as your beer goes, anything over 180 and you are going to get some bitter tanins from the grains (not good bitter like hops), but with your small grain bill, it wouldn't make a huge difference, and you probably were cooled enough. My first partial mash I found out the hard way that the strainer that was plenty big enough tp hold the dry grain, was far too small to strain them after I had used them and they were wet.

RDWHAHB, you live and you learn. Hoppy Brewing!! :mug:
 
One other thing, though ... these grains were milled, weren't they? When you say they "swelled up" it sounds like maybe they were just measured and tossed in there. You won't get much rich, nougatty goodness out of 'em if they're not roller-milled ...
 
Finn- It was an extract kit. The grains game pre-mixed in a bag. No need to mill them. Just dump the contents into the steeping bag they give you and steep.
 
Pachyderm said:
It's still not burbing. I have a backup packet of yeast, should I drop that in there?
Click to expand...

Is it in a bucket or a carboy?

If it's in a bucket, it might actually be fermenting, but if the lid isn't sealed well, the CO2 can escape that way and not through your airlock. If this is the case, you'll be able to see krausen and other effects of fermentation either by peering through the plastic to the best of your ability or by opening the lid. If it's going then just try to seal it better. It should be pretty hard to click the lid into place.

If it's in a carboy, it should be easy to see if it's fermenting, but less likely that gas would be escaping by some route other than your airlock/blowoff hose.

Basically, since it was liquid, just wait 72 hours before doing anything other than checking seals.
 
It's in a bucket, and it certainly seems sealed, but of course I could be wrong. I racked it into the bucket late on monday night. It's funny how much more difficult this batch is compared to my first. Yeesh...

EDIT: Krausen?
 
Pachyderm said:
It's in a bucket, and it certainly seems sealed, but of course I could be wrong. I racked it into the bucket late on monday night. It's funny how much more difficult this batch is compared to my first. Yeesh...

EDIT: Krausen?
Click to expand...

If you press gently on the lid of the bucket, the airlock should bubble. If so it's sealed. Just remember to let up gently to avoid sucking fluid from the airlock back into your beer.

Krausen is the "head" of yeast, proteins, particulates and other stuff that forms on top of the beer as it ferments.

http://www.howtobrew.com/glossary.html
 
I've used liquid yeasts quite a bit and a lot of mine didn't start burping for 24-36 hrs. with no starter being made. they all truned out just fine...some better. Patients is the KEY!
 
Okay, the lid is definitely on secure, it's still not burbing, but there is a huge foamy head of krausen on top. Any thoughts...it's been 72 hours now, and I'm a little nervous.
 

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