GIusedtoBe
Well-Known Member
Hey guys I brewed my third batch last night and I think if anything could go wrong, it did. I am definitely RDWHAHB but it would suck if I ruined this one since it is a pretty pricey Aventinus clone.
The mistakes:
- It was taking its sweet time coming to a boil so I covered it and worked on sanitizing something for about 30 seconds and then whammo! Boil over. So i had to take the pot off the heat and have an impromptu stove cleaning.
- After the mess was clean, I brought it back to a boil and then decided it needed more water to replace the lost water and an extra 1/2 # of wheat DME to replace the lost volume. Took 10 minutes to come back to a boil and then of course it wanted to boil over again but I was more careful.
- Finish the boil and dunked the brewpot in the ice and of course it took forever to cool. I wisened up and put water in the ice and then it cooled down too fast.
- I tried to strain it into the carboy but the hop sludge (I used socks) kept clogging the screen in the funnel. I finally poured it into the a sanitized plastic fermenter through a larger strainer and then into the carboy with the rest of the water. I managed to get a few drips of ice water into the wort in the process as well.
- Now the wort was 66 degrees according to the strip on my carboy but it was 4 AM so I pitched my starter and went to bed, I think the temp was closer to 68 by my hydrometer sample anyway.
The good news: I hit the OG of 1.076 right on the nose.
Like I said I'm not overly worried since theres nothing I can do but I was wondering if any of you experts had experienced probs like these and still got a good beer out of it?
Any suggestions?
Obviously I need a larger brewpot (Mine is 16 qt).
Do you guys generally strain the brew into your fermenter or just let the junk settle out in the fermenter?
Sorry for the ramble and thanks for any replies.
Alan W
The mistakes:
- It was taking its sweet time coming to a boil so I covered it and worked on sanitizing something for about 30 seconds and then whammo! Boil over. So i had to take the pot off the heat and have an impromptu stove cleaning.
- After the mess was clean, I brought it back to a boil and then decided it needed more water to replace the lost water and an extra 1/2 # of wheat DME to replace the lost volume. Took 10 minutes to come back to a boil and then of course it wanted to boil over again but I was more careful.
- Finish the boil and dunked the brewpot in the ice and of course it took forever to cool. I wisened up and put water in the ice and then it cooled down too fast.
- I tried to strain it into the carboy but the hop sludge (I used socks) kept clogging the screen in the funnel. I finally poured it into the a sanitized plastic fermenter through a larger strainer and then into the carboy with the rest of the water. I managed to get a few drips of ice water into the wort in the process as well.
- Now the wort was 66 degrees according to the strip on my carboy but it was 4 AM so I pitched my starter and went to bed, I think the temp was closer to 68 by my hydrometer sample anyway.
The good news: I hit the OG of 1.076 right on the nose.
Like I said I'm not overly worried since theres nothing I can do but I was wondering if any of you experts had experienced probs like these and still got a good beer out of it?
Any suggestions?
Obviously I need a larger brewpot (Mine is 16 qt).
Do you guys generally strain the brew into your fermenter or just let the junk settle out in the fermenter?
Sorry for the ramble and thanks for any replies.
Alan W