Folks,
First, thanks everyone for answering my many questions. The wort is in the fermenter and I'm hoping the screw ups were minimal so I can enjoy some beer in a few weeks.
I'm going to detail some things here, so I document this a bit for myself, but also to see if any of you see any issues or have recommendations moving forward.
Anyways, here goes:
1. The Recipe --- BSG White IPA
*Grain: 8oz flaked wheat, 4oz rahr 6 Row, 4 oz flaked oats
* Malt: 2 cans Briess Pilsen Light LME, 1 bag Briess Wheat DME
* Hops: 1 oz CTZ, 1 oz Cascade, 1 oz Cascade (aroma), 1 oz Citra, 1 oz orange peel, 1/2 oz coriander
* Yeast: Safale US 05
2. Grains
No issues. Although I had a helluva time trying to get the heat down from 180 degrees F. Added some cool water. Wasted time here.
Put all the grains in the bag and had hoped to tie it off to the pot handle. Nope. Bag too small. Just had it sit there in the pot. Steeped for 20 minutes then used a strainer and hot water to get more juice out.
3. Malt -- Phase i
I turned off the flame and then dumped 1 can in. Easy Peasy after I warmed in warm water. Dried extract no problem. No flame issues or foam.
4. Hops
Brought back up to a rolling boil and started dumping the hops in. There was a little uprising there, but had my spray bottle handy and knocked the first one down. After that, no issue. Then added the aroma and flavor hops with 15 minutes left.
5. Malt -- Phase II
I almost wussed out and put all the malt in at the beginning, but since things were going well I took everyone's advice and dumped some in the end after flameout. No issue whatsoever. Think next time I'll dump it all in at the end like recommended.
One big takeaway from the "hot phase": I felt like I had a lot more time than I thought I would. I actually was futzing around answering email, doing other random things, sanitizing, etc. Need to use this time more efficiently next time. Would be interested in knowing what ducks others get in a row here.
6. Sanitzation
While the steeping and boiling was going on I was getting my act together on sanitizing. I had already filled a 5 gallon bucket with sanitizer and dumped everything I needed in there. I also dumped 1 gallon in the carboy and swished it around then dumped that back in the bucket. So I felt I had a good base of sanitizing done.
I also filled a 32 oz spray bottle with starsan.
Felt good. Little did I know later I'd be shooting starsan all over creation.
7. Wort Chilling
Filled my sink with cool water and dumped the pot in there. Got some cooling but then kept adding a couple bags of ice periodically. Think I used 7 bags of ice.
Finally got down to 63-65 degrees after 45 minutes and I felt it was time to dump it in the carboy. Many had said the target was 60 degrees and I was stuck there in the mid 60s for a while. Got impatient and just said the hell with it.
8. Wort To Fermenter
Here's where the fun began and where I started to panic.
First I dumped the cool wort into a sanitized bucket. I wanted to aerate it more vs. dumping right into the carboy. Brilliant. Good.
Next I took my sanitized funnel (which I probably sprayed with a years worth of starsan today) and stuck it in the carboy. About a gallon went right in and the...stuck. The strainer had clearly failed.
I honestly didn't know what to do. I took risk #1:
* Got a spoon and dumped it into the starsan bucket then tried to get the damn strainer piece out. Nope. Fear here is that I didn't sanitize the spoon enough. Man, I really hope that spoon was sanitized.
Risk #2 was lifting the funnel up out of carboy, hoping the wort didn't rush out, and then dumping the wort back in the bucket where the rest of the wort was. I then rinsed the funnel off with hot water to get the crud off, then dumped it in the sanitizer and sprayed the hell out of it with starsan. I then proceeded to dump the wort in the funnel without the strainer.
So we have the spoon, the funnel, and then the starsan tin foil was off the carboy that whole time. Really hoping this episode didn't screw it all up. I've got to fix this step next time. If anyone has ideas on the best funnel/strainer combo I'm all ears.
9. Top Off
More fun. I dump a gallon of distilled water in and the foam is outrageous. I'd bet that for an hour, I was constantly a) Waiting, b) Taking off the tin foil on the carboy, c) adding water, d) Taking funnel out due to foam, e) Putting funnel into starsan/spraying it, f) Putting tin foil back on, g) Shaking carboy a little.
In the end, I was a bit short of 5 gallons but it was close.
10. Gravity Reading
Sanitized the hell out of my thief and took a sample. Put it in the tube but didn't put enough in so I had to do it again. Got a 1.051 reading.
I also just dumped out the samples here. After what took place above I didn't want to risk any more contamination. So I lose a couple beers.
Per the recipe, my OG was expected at 1.060 and final is at 1.014. The OG I got was 1.051...maybe a little higher. Any thoughts on what would cause that difference? Or does it matter?
11. Yeast
I had started boiling water to rehydrate the yeast but when some hell broke loose above this became less of a priority. I also boiled the water too long and didn't have enough anyway so the decision was made for me.
After taking the gravity, I took the sanitized bag of yeast and cut the corner with sanitized scissors. I poured as carefully as I could. Unfortunately, I did see that some of the yeast hit the side of the opening and was stuck there.
12. Cap It/Swamp Cooler
I then took the sanitized bung and airlock, filled it halfway with starsan and capped it.
I then picked up the carboy and put it my plastic tub with cool water. No ice yet. Temp is apprx. 62 degrees and the room has been consistently 63-64 the last few days.
So that's it! Picture attached.
Where did I go wrong?
What could I do better?
Any significant risk? If yes, anything I can do about it?
Can't believe I know have to sit here for a couple weeks.
Thanks again everyone!
First, thanks everyone for answering my many questions. The wort is in the fermenter and I'm hoping the screw ups were minimal so I can enjoy some beer in a few weeks.
I'm going to detail some things here, so I document this a bit for myself, but also to see if any of you see any issues or have recommendations moving forward.
Anyways, here goes:
1. The Recipe --- BSG White IPA
*Grain: 8oz flaked wheat, 4oz rahr 6 Row, 4 oz flaked oats
* Malt: 2 cans Briess Pilsen Light LME, 1 bag Briess Wheat DME
* Hops: 1 oz CTZ, 1 oz Cascade, 1 oz Cascade (aroma), 1 oz Citra, 1 oz orange peel, 1/2 oz coriander
* Yeast: Safale US 05
2. Grains
No issues. Although I had a helluva time trying to get the heat down from 180 degrees F. Added some cool water. Wasted time here.
Put all the grains in the bag and had hoped to tie it off to the pot handle. Nope. Bag too small. Just had it sit there in the pot. Steeped for 20 minutes then used a strainer and hot water to get more juice out.
3. Malt -- Phase i
I turned off the flame and then dumped 1 can in. Easy Peasy after I warmed in warm water. Dried extract no problem. No flame issues or foam.
4. Hops
Brought back up to a rolling boil and started dumping the hops in. There was a little uprising there, but had my spray bottle handy and knocked the first one down. After that, no issue. Then added the aroma and flavor hops with 15 minutes left.
5. Malt -- Phase II
I almost wussed out and put all the malt in at the beginning, but since things were going well I took everyone's advice and dumped some in the end after flameout. No issue whatsoever. Think next time I'll dump it all in at the end like recommended.
One big takeaway from the "hot phase": I felt like I had a lot more time than I thought I would. I actually was futzing around answering email, doing other random things, sanitizing, etc. Need to use this time more efficiently next time. Would be interested in knowing what ducks others get in a row here.
6. Sanitzation
While the steeping and boiling was going on I was getting my act together on sanitizing. I had already filled a 5 gallon bucket with sanitizer and dumped everything I needed in there. I also dumped 1 gallon in the carboy and swished it around then dumped that back in the bucket. So I felt I had a good base of sanitizing done.
I also filled a 32 oz spray bottle with starsan.
Felt good. Little did I know later I'd be shooting starsan all over creation.
7. Wort Chilling
Filled my sink with cool water and dumped the pot in there. Got some cooling but then kept adding a couple bags of ice periodically. Think I used 7 bags of ice.
Finally got down to 63-65 degrees after 45 minutes and I felt it was time to dump it in the carboy. Many had said the target was 60 degrees and I was stuck there in the mid 60s for a while. Got impatient and just said the hell with it.
8. Wort To Fermenter
Here's where the fun began and where I started to panic.
First I dumped the cool wort into a sanitized bucket. I wanted to aerate it more vs. dumping right into the carboy. Brilliant. Good.
Next I took my sanitized funnel (which I probably sprayed with a years worth of starsan today) and stuck it in the carboy. About a gallon went right in and the...stuck. The strainer had clearly failed.
I honestly didn't know what to do. I took risk #1:
* Got a spoon and dumped it into the starsan bucket then tried to get the damn strainer piece out. Nope. Fear here is that I didn't sanitize the spoon enough. Man, I really hope that spoon was sanitized.
Risk #2 was lifting the funnel up out of carboy, hoping the wort didn't rush out, and then dumping the wort back in the bucket where the rest of the wort was. I then rinsed the funnel off with hot water to get the crud off, then dumped it in the sanitizer and sprayed the hell out of it with starsan. I then proceeded to dump the wort in the funnel without the strainer.
So we have the spoon, the funnel, and then the starsan tin foil was off the carboy that whole time. Really hoping this episode didn't screw it all up. I've got to fix this step next time. If anyone has ideas on the best funnel/strainer combo I'm all ears.
9. Top Off
More fun. I dump a gallon of distilled water in and the foam is outrageous. I'd bet that for an hour, I was constantly a) Waiting, b) Taking off the tin foil on the carboy, c) adding water, d) Taking funnel out due to foam, e) Putting funnel into starsan/spraying it, f) Putting tin foil back on, g) Shaking carboy a little.
In the end, I was a bit short of 5 gallons but it was close.
10. Gravity Reading
Sanitized the hell out of my thief and took a sample. Put it in the tube but didn't put enough in so I had to do it again. Got a 1.051 reading.
I also just dumped out the samples here. After what took place above I didn't want to risk any more contamination. So I lose a couple beers.
Per the recipe, my OG was expected at 1.060 and final is at 1.014. The OG I got was 1.051...maybe a little higher. Any thoughts on what would cause that difference? Or does it matter?
11. Yeast
I had started boiling water to rehydrate the yeast but when some hell broke loose above this became less of a priority. I also boiled the water too long and didn't have enough anyway so the decision was made for me.
After taking the gravity, I took the sanitized bag of yeast and cut the corner with sanitized scissors. I poured as carefully as I could. Unfortunately, I did see that some of the yeast hit the side of the opening and was stuck there.
12. Cap It/Swamp Cooler
I then took the sanitized bung and airlock, filled it halfway with starsan and capped it.
I then picked up the carboy and put it my plastic tub with cool water. No ice yet. Temp is apprx. 62 degrees and the room has been consistently 63-64 the last few days.
So that's it! Picture attached.
Where did I go wrong?
What could I do better?
Any significant risk? If yes, anything I can do about it?
Can't believe I know have to sit here for a couple weeks.
Thanks again everyone!