mrmekon
Well-Known Member
My first beer, an oatmeal stout recipe kit, is 12 days in primary and I've been twitching nervously about it, so last night I ordered ingredients for a second batch (blood orange hefe).
Today I stopped into the LHBS to pick up a second airlock so I'll be ready when the ingredients come... but I had such a strong urge to brew that I decided to also pick up some ingredients to make a 1 gallon SMaSH tonight! Bought a pound of light DME, an ounce of Willamette, a vial of american yeast, another airlock and a gasket. I have about 10 empty 1-gallon jugs from Tropicana Orange Juice, figured I'd drill a hole in the top of one of those and use it as a fermenter!
So, of course, everything went wrong. I found out when I got home that I accidentally bought lager yeast! Crap! I guess I can primary in the basement (~55-60F probably) then toss it in a fridge. At least it's small.
The boil itself went well, with 0.25 oz of hops at 60, 15, and 5 minutes. Chilled it quickly, got an awesome cold break (first brew definitely didn't form a thick layer of sludge!). Measured OG at an unexpected 1.050 @ 85F (expected closer to 1.040). And then I poured it into the jug... and a freaking OCEAN of foam came rocketing out.
Holy crap, I spent 45 minutes battling with this dense, beery foam. I had washed the jug in StarSan and rinsed it, but I'm guessing that's what I was fighting? I ended up poking a hole in the container with a thermometer and having to emergency sanitize another jug, and then transferring it again made even MORE foam. And aerating it wasn't working, it just made the foam worse. I ended up with probably 0.6 gallons of liquid and the rest of the container filled with foam.
Then I opened the yeast vial and it exploded on my hands. Poured what I could into the foamy abyss, stuck the airlock on, and I guess I'll wait and see what happens. Yeast loves Star San, right?
Brewing is fun!
Today I stopped into the LHBS to pick up a second airlock so I'll be ready when the ingredients come... but I had such a strong urge to brew that I decided to also pick up some ingredients to make a 1 gallon SMaSH tonight! Bought a pound of light DME, an ounce of Willamette, a vial of american yeast, another airlock and a gasket. I have about 10 empty 1-gallon jugs from Tropicana Orange Juice, figured I'd drill a hole in the top of one of those and use it as a fermenter!
So, of course, everything went wrong. I found out when I got home that I accidentally bought lager yeast! Crap! I guess I can primary in the basement (~55-60F probably) then toss it in a fridge. At least it's small.
The boil itself went well, with 0.25 oz of hops at 60, 15, and 5 minutes. Chilled it quickly, got an awesome cold break (first brew definitely didn't form a thick layer of sludge!). Measured OG at an unexpected 1.050 @ 85F (expected closer to 1.040). And then I poured it into the jug... and a freaking OCEAN of foam came rocketing out.
Holy crap, I spent 45 minutes battling with this dense, beery foam. I had washed the jug in StarSan and rinsed it, but I'm guessing that's what I was fighting? I ended up poking a hole in the container with a thermometer and having to emergency sanitize another jug, and then transferring it again made even MORE foam. And aerating it wasn't working, it just made the foam worse. I ended up with probably 0.6 gallons of liquid and the rest of the container filled with foam.
Then I opened the yeast vial and it exploded on my hands. Poured what I could into the foamy abyss, stuck the airlock on, and I guess I'll wait and see what happens. Yeast loves Star San, right?
Brewing is fun!