Infestation
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- Joined
- Dec 10, 2018
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I am proud to say the yesterday I performed my first homebrew yesterday. Nothing special, just a very basic stout. I had done a lot of research previously, so I think I was well enough prepared. I just couldn’t prepare for my own stupidity. It did however, result in a pretty funny resolution, so I thought I would share it here.
Recipe:
3 kg sparklingamber DME
0.23 kg Crystal 60 malt
0.23 kg Crystal 120 malt
0.3k black patent malt
0.2k roasted barley
1.8 oz golding at 60 min, 1 oz golding at 15 min.
The boil went really smoothly. I had heard enough about boil overs to know to be extremely cautious. The fun began after the boil. No, not the usual it took me x hours to cool my wort down to temp. I had found a sink large enough and earlier I cut a 4L milk jug in half and filled both with water and threw them into the freezer. Boom instant ice bath.
By the time I had got my bucket out, filled with sanitizer and eagerly tore open the packing on my siphon, tubing and fancy wine thief, the pot was cool. So I grabbed my yeast from the fridge and rehydrated it in warm water as per instructions. I figured I would be done in 15 minutes. I assembled my auto siphon and went to siphon the wort over to my carboy. I got a few drops then nothing. Tried again. And again and again. Here is about the time that I forgot the golden rule of homebrewing, DWHAHB. Thinking my wort would be instantly infected, I started panicking.
I should have calmly walked back to my siphon packaging and seeing that little red cap, the one that goes on the end and prevents clogging and provides a good seal. Instead, I yanked the siphon and tubing out of the kettle and fermenter, instantly splattering myself, the floor and, yes, a carpet with a liberal coating of nice chunky wort. Holding a few feet of dripping hose, I dropped in the only place I could think of, my sanitizing bucket. I know had a delightfully brown sanitizer-wort solution, complete with floating chunks.
I decided it was a mess, but probably a sanitized mess, so I decided to continue. I reassembled my siphon, again not seeing the little red cap inches from my face. Of course, it doesn’t work. Giving up, I removed the siphon, somewhat more elegantly this time. I didn’t have a funnel large enough, until inspiration struck. I grabbed one of those plastic, flexible cutting boards and a roommate.
I dunked the cutting board into my wort-sanitizer solution then had my roommate roll the cutting board into a cone and place it into the carboy. I then proceeded to poor my wort through, yes a cutting board, into my carboy. Finally, I had it transferred. I then started topping up with water, until I realized that I hadn’t marked the 23L mark on my fermenter. Screw it, I just filled it up till what looked right. Then I promptly took my OG measurement.
I became thoroughly depressed when my OG came out as 1.030 instead of the target 1.049. Thinking that my batch was ruined, I pitched my yeast that had been starving in tap water for about an hour to an hour in a half at this point. And then I realized, I never mixed the carboy. I added a whole bunch of water, and the thick wort was still at the bottom. That’s why my OG was wrong. So I promptly gave my yeast a roller coaster ride as I aerated my carboy that likely did more harm than good.
In the end, after about 24 hours, it looks like there are signs of yeast activity. I am excited to see how this turns out. Cheers.
Recipe:
3 kg sparklingamber DME
0.23 kg Crystal 60 malt
0.23 kg Crystal 120 malt
0.3k black patent malt
0.2k roasted barley
1.8 oz golding at 60 min, 1 oz golding at 15 min.
The boil went really smoothly. I had heard enough about boil overs to know to be extremely cautious. The fun began after the boil. No, not the usual it took me x hours to cool my wort down to temp. I had found a sink large enough and earlier I cut a 4L milk jug in half and filled both with water and threw them into the freezer. Boom instant ice bath.
By the time I had got my bucket out, filled with sanitizer and eagerly tore open the packing on my siphon, tubing and fancy wine thief, the pot was cool. So I grabbed my yeast from the fridge and rehydrated it in warm water as per instructions. I figured I would be done in 15 minutes. I assembled my auto siphon and went to siphon the wort over to my carboy. I got a few drops then nothing. Tried again. And again and again. Here is about the time that I forgot the golden rule of homebrewing, DWHAHB. Thinking my wort would be instantly infected, I started panicking.
I should have calmly walked back to my siphon packaging and seeing that little red cap, the one that goes on the end and prevents clogging and provides a good seal. Instead, I yanked the siphon and tubing out of the kettle and fermenter, instantly splattering myself, the floor and, yes, a carpet with a liberal coating of nice chunky wort. Holding a few feet of dripping hose, I dropped in the only place I could think of, my sanitizing bucket. I know had a delightfully brown sanitizer-wort solution, complete with floating chunks.
I decided it was a mess, but probably a sanitized mess, so I decided to continue. I reassembled my siphon, again not seeing the little red cap inches from my face. Of course, it doesn’t work. Giving up, I removed the siphon, somewhat more elegantly this time. I didn’t have a funnel large enough, until inspiration struck. I grabbed one of those plastic, flexible cutting boards and a roommate.
I dunked the cutting board into my wort-sanitizer solution then had my roommate roll the cutting board into a cone and place it into the carboy. I then proceeded to poor my wort through, yes a cutting board, into my carboy. Finally, I had it transferred. I then started topping up with water, until I realized that I hadn’t marked the 23L mark on my fermenter. Screw it, I just filled it up till what looked right. Then I promptly took my OG measurement.
I became thoroughly depressed when my OG came out as 1.030 instead of the target 1.049. Thinking that my batch was ruined, I pitched my yeast that had been starving in tap water for about an hour to an hour in a half at this point. And then I realized, I never mixed the carboy. I added a whole bunch of water, and the thick wort was still at the bottom. That’s why my OG was wrong. So I promptly gave my yeast a roller coaster ride as I aerated my carboy that likely did more harm than good.
In the end, after about 24 hours, it looks like there are signs of yeast activity. I am excited to see how this turns out. Cheers.
