3rd Brew session - unfortunate

[srl135]

Brewed up an American Cream Ale last night that was grain/extract combo. My first two brew sessions went well, second one was textbook down to a 15 min cooldown time, no major issues. I was really excited for this one since i thought i had streamlined my process a litte and heard good things about this ale.

Well I guess this weekend just wasnt my time to be flawless. One thing I did differently was to boil 3.5 gallons rather than the previous volume of 2.5. (I got cocky) This sucked because bringing it to a boil took forever. In the interest of time, i put a lid on it and babysat it patiently waiting for the boil. ( I dont cook with the lid on though, just helping it reach boiling) Well, took a few seconds to help my girl out with something and I'll be damned.... Boil had begun, it was obvious by the amount of wort all over my stove. So, now we are cooking to the wonderful smell of burning and charred wort. All in all, rest of the boil seemed ok.. even took a stab at adding in a whirlflok tablet this time to hopefully help with Chill haze. Now onto cooling...

As mentioned my last two batches went decent.. I'd even say good for the second batch. But this batch had an extra gallon of water, which looking back plays quite a role in cooling time. I also had only put my top off water in the fridge for a couple hours so i think that contributed to my frustration. After 45 minutes. Yes. 45 min, and 3 bags of ice/ice baths, my wort was sitting comfortably at 95F. I did all the same tricks, ice bath, change out water to keep it cold, stirred often, added cooled top off water... just no such luck.

At the end of the night, frustrated and tired, i crossed my fingers, pitched the yeast at 94F, sealed it up and got to cleaning.

Soo.. less than a perfect round, but the OG was in the right ballpark, airlock was showing signs of life the next day and my kitchen doesnt smell like burnt wort anymore so im just gonna hope for the best.

More or less, I guess this was a rant LOL, I got a keg of some quite strong Honey Amber that is still improving and a few bottles left from batch #1 so i followed the advice on here.. RDWHAHB.

I am curious... How often does one brew just not go according to plan? How does that one typically turn out?

 

[Nic0]

The way I see it, brewing is the same thing as cooking food (or baking, or general food preparation... whatever you want to call it). Even great cooks have stuff not turn out from time to time. Sometimes it could be a bad ingredient, could be stupid little slip up somewhere... but it's not going to be perfect 100% of the time, unless, of course, you brew one batch, it turns out great, and you never do it again. Then you had 100% success. Otherwise, it will likely be less.

Nonetheless, do not be discouraged. The best thing to do is be sure to plan before you start. It sounds like you had done some planning in that you tried to streamline your processes. But also planning means planning for time... you have to avoid getting in a hurry and be sure to allow ample time to do everything. As a jewler on a TV show that I saw once said, "Be patient, or you will become one."

Another thing that helps me is to brew with a friend. I've never tried to do it alone. Working as a team can make it even more fun... you have peopel to sit and chat with while you wait, and if you have to step away for a minute or few to go help someone with an unrelated task, your brew buddies can keep a watchful eye over the boil pot.

What is your brew pot made of? Or whatever you tried to cool it in? Up until this weekend, I had always used ice bath to cook my wort down. The key (for me) to cooling it quick was to keep stirring. Not often, but constantly. Also, the ice bath had water and salt in it as well, allowing more cold matter to touch the outside of the brew pot rather than a lot of air pockts as it would likely do with just ice. I've never pitched yeast into wort that warm. But you said the airlock is moving, so maybe they are still alive.

 

[Hang Glider]

small pot, large boil?

Fermcap-S

it absolutely works.

 

[srl135]

My kettle is a 30kt stainless turkey fryer. Ice bath is in the sink, used a water and ice combo.

The yeast are definately alive, the airlock gradually has been waking up,but we are doing good.

 

[Flomaster]

if you can scrape together enough to make a IC chiller its going to make a world of difference.

-=Jason=-

 

[iron_city_ap]

I am curious... How often does one brew just not go according to plan? How does that one typically turn out?

I don't think I've had a single batch go 100% flawlesly. All but 1 has turned out fine. Granted, I have 1 that may be infected right now, so we'll see how that goes, but I'm feeling optimistic.

EDIT: Add some salt to the ice bath. For whatever reason, it helps cool things faster.

 

[chapa]

You might also save that ice for after its already chilled to 95...otherwise it just melts in seconds, and you run out of ice. I've had really bad chilling times, even with an immersion chiller, it was 100 degrees out, and it wouldn't budge. Using a pre-chiller and holding off on putting it in an ice bath until its cooled down is the solution. That day I waited HOURS and it never chilled(by this point it was 3am) so I just threw it in the carboys and brought it inside. Sometimes you just have to surrender to the inevitable, but I don't think I pitched until I had them inside for a bit. You can always wait if need be, but its not optimal.

 

[Rev2010]

Maaaan, I had my first brewday disaster this weekend. Got my shipment that wasn't supposed to be here until Tuesday, which originally had me very upset as I'd planned to brew this weekend. Well, FedEx showed up Saturday and in my excitement I decided to proceed ahead same day with my two brews (two hefeweizens recipes I made). First one went flawlessly except for a boil over when adding DME to the boil. Well I'll NEVER do that again! From now on it's off the heater and not currently boiling when I add the DME. I managed to clean up the next day with Brillo pads. I learned too that it's best to clean it immediately! Anyhow, that batch is bubbling along beautifully right now. Well, I went ahead with the second right after and apparently drank too much for the day. Everything went perfectly fine except when cooling the pot in the sink I somehow dozed off and water overflowed and ran all along my countertop. The wife caught me asleep in time LOL and we shutoff the water and cleaned up. I was out of it. I wound up dumping the whole batch and barely remember much afterward. I felt like suuuuch a ******* the next day.

So that was about $23 or so wasted and now I have an inflated package of Wyeast in the fridge. To order the replacement DME would cost 50% the order cost just for shipping and it doesn't seem worth it to pray it gets here for the weekend for a $5.75 package of yeast.

One thing is for sure.... I will NOT be drinking so much ever again in the future on brew day. And if I have two batches planned I probably won't have a drink until at least the second brew is underway.


Rev.

 

[chapa]

Maybe I missed it, but why did you dump it?

 

[srl135]

Maaaan, I had my first brewday disaster this weekend. Got my shipment that wasn't supposed to be here until Tuesday, which originally had me very upset as I'd planned to brew this weekend. Well, FedEx showed up Saturday and in my excitement I decided to proceed ahead same day with my two brews (two hefeweizens recipes I made). First one went flawlessly except for a boil over when adding DME to the boil. Well I'll NEVER do that again! From now on it's off the heater and not currently boiling when I add the DME. I managed to clean up the next day with Brillo pads. I learned too that it's best to clean it immediately! Anyhow, that batch is bubbling along beautifully right now. Well, I went ahead with the second right after and apparently drank too much for the day. Everything went perfectly fine except when cooling the pot in the sink I somehow dozed off and water overflowed and ran all along my countertop. The wife caught me asleep in time LOL and we shutoff the water and cleaned up. I was out of it. I wound up dumping the whole batch and barely remember much afterward. I felt like suuuuch a ******* the next day.

So that was about $23 or so wasted and now I have an inflated package of Wyeast in the fridge. To order the replacement DME would cost 50% the order cost just for shipping and it doesn't seem worth it to pray it gets here for the weekend for a $5.75 package of yeast.

One thing is for sure.... I will NOT be drinking so much ever again in the future on brew day. And if I have two batches planned I probably won't have a drink until at least the second brew is underway.


Rev.

Bwahahahahahahahahaha! That is halarious! I dont know how your wife acts but my fiance definately make fun of me for something like that! It crossed my mind that i may have drank too much as well, but for whatever reason i just wasnt too focused that night. Might need to take some 5hr energy before i brew up the next batch, dont want that 2:30 feeling! LOL

 

[Rev2010]

Maybe I missed it, but why did you dump it?

Didn't miss anything, I was drunk so I'm not sure what my reasoning was entirely, but I'm guessing the whole cleanup thing and the wife chewing me out just was enough. I probably drunkenly thought "Well screw it, fine then!" or something like that. I got reeeally drunk apparently and feel like such an ass.


Rev.

 

[joelmole]

My second brewing session since I started turned out largely like this. I didn't boil over, but I increased my partial boil volume to about 4 gallons, even though I didn't have an IC and still needed to use an ice bath. I used up all of my ice, and any ice packs I had in the freezer, and was barely below 100. I had to leave my wort covered in the garage and run to the corner store to get more ice. I ended up just pitching the yeast in the mid 80s, and didn't manage to get it below 70 until the next day after fermentation had been going vigorously for 12 hrs or so.

Later in the fermentation, I decided it wasn't hoppy enough for me, so I dry hopped it with some random hops I had in the fridge. A week before bottling I started seeing the initial signs of some sort of contamination (possible acetobacter, had some spider web looking stuff and a gelatinous layer across the surface of the beer)

This was my "kitchen sink" beer when it comes to experimentation, and it was my least successful attempt out of the 4 batches I've brewed so far. I'm happy to say my last batch was great (an American brown ale), and my current one (a blonde ale), which is just now getting to where it is ready to drink, tastes mighty fine too. My current batch is the first one with a full boil, the use of a 10 gallon kettle, a new propane burner, and an immersion chiller and pre-chiller.

 

[iron_city_ap]

Maaaan

That whole story just made my day. I'm not laughing AT you, but I'm definately laughing WITH you. I have a tendency to have a few too many when I'm brewing too, and zany antics usualy aren't too far behind. I guess that's why I always seemingly have 'issues' pop up with every batch. Its also why I try to brew while SWMBO is at work, and I always brew outside or in the garage.

 

[Conan]

I've had a majority of my 12 batches turn out non-tasty, and aside from burning through the bottom of my kettle once have had no major issues....at least non that come to mind. As far as cooling: I have a 40qt. (I think) aluminum kettle and do full AG boils. Our apartment's sink is barely large enough to fit the diameter of the kettle and is maybe 10" deep. I fill the sink halfway with tap-cold water, set the kettle in and rub the side with washcloths on my hands. My fiance is in charge of filling my other, 5 gal. SS kettle with tub-cold water (much colder than the sink, 40 degrees F maybe). When the sink warms too much I lift the wort, she drains the sink, and I get the 'cold kettle' from the tub. Re-plug the sink, dump in the tub water, and repeat the bathing process. I can cool ~4.5 in around a half-hour before my top-off water. It works well, aside from waddling 5 gallons of cold water through the place.


My next purchase, I do believe, will be 50' or so of copper tube. Kyle