Disaster Brewing Night

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Upgraded to my first partial-mash brew and first full-volume brew last night. The only thing that didn't go wrong is that I think I may actually have produced viable wort at the end of the day.

1. Trying to assemble my new expensive blichmann brew kettle I destroyed the $70 built-in thermometer

2. while taking the mash temperature I broke my backup glass thermometer in the brew kettle (thats two thermometers destroyed within the first 30 minutes of brewing)

3. sparging the grains proved to be exceptionally difficult (holding up grain bag and pouring sparge water in method, no so much fun when you don't have another person to hold the bag)

4. my electric stove with a bucket heater took forever to boil with the lid closed and still did not produce enough heat to keep the boil going once the lid was removed (though I think the temp was pretty close to boiling).

4. since I was doing full boil I couldn't just pick up the kettle and move it near my sink to cool like I could with partial boil. My wort chiller does NOT reach to the stove (off by only 6 or 8 inches). I ended up siphoning the hot wort into my fermenter (steel conical) on the floor so that I could move it and chill it.

5. The heat from the wort warped my auto-siphon and ruined the siphon hose

6. Used aeration stone for the first time, was happy with it but for the love of god how do you keep it submerged? I ended up hunched over holding the tube down into the wort for 20 minutes.
 
Sounds like one of my days! LOL

Well if anything now you know what not to do or hopefully how to do it better for the next batch!

Just hang in there, it will get easier and just keep on brewing!
 
building my all-grain setup this weekend which despite being more complicated I think will be easier than the partial mash if you're doing it by yourself. at least with all these mistakes I have some assurance that I won't repeat them. If I have this many mistakes for my next few batches I'll be out of possible mistakes pretty quickly and be an expert.
 
do you have any of the weights you use for fishing and some fishing line? you could tie them around the stone and use it to keep it submerged. thats just an idea, i havnt used a stone yet, but if i ran into that problem then thats probably the first thing i would try
 
sgtfulmer said:
do you have any of the weights you use for fishing and some fishing line? you could tie them around the stone and use it to keep it submerged. thats just an idea, i havnt used a stone yet, but if i ran into that problem then thats probably the first thing i would try

Bad idea, most fishing weights are made of lead
 
do you have any of the weights you use for fishing and some fishing line? you could tie them around the stone and use it to keep it submerged. thats just an idea, i havnt used a stone yet, but if i ran into that problem then thats probably the first thing i would try

I may be new to brewing, but fishing weights have lead in them...
 
then that would be a bad idea. dont do that. but the idea of attaching something to the stone to weigh it down is still a good idea
 
My brew days never go perfect but wow that's one bad brew day. It can only be better next time though.
 
Wow man, wow. I've dropped all manner of things in the fermentor before (mercifully all sanitized) and broken thermometers but wow. That totally sucks man.

Here's to better brew days in future.

Also, by the by, do you have two pots? I do partial mash too and have a 5 and 8 gallon pot. 5 gallon is the mash tun the 8 is the boiling pot but I don't pour water over the grains I just move the grain bag from the mash pot to the boiling pot with preheated sparge water, and let it sit and steep for about 15 minutes. I usually hit about mid 70-80 percent efficiency. That might cut down on sore arms if nothing else.
 
Wow man, wow. I've dropped all manner of things in the fermentor before (mercifully all sanitized) and broken thermometers but wow. That totally sucks man.

Here's to better brew days in future.

Also, by the by, do you have two pots? I do partial mash too and have a 5 and 8 gallon pot. 5 gallon is the mash tun the 8 is the boiling pot but I don't pour water over the grains I just move the grain bag from the mash pot to the boiling pot with preheated sparge water, and let it sit and steep for about 15 minutes. I usually hit about mid 70-80 percent efficiency. That might cut down on sore arms if nothing else.

yes I have two pots. as I was sitting there staring at my pot of sparge water I was wondering about doing this. if I ever do partial mash again I'll probably try this.

oh I forgot to mention a few other fun facts about my disaster brew night:

8. had oats in a seperate bag and forgot to put them in the mash untill about 30 minutes in.

9. somehow ended up with too much water in my boil (started at about 6.75 gallons) and I didn't notice this until after I added the bittering hops so I couldn't really extend the boil too long to get the volume down to something reasonable. ended with about 5.75 gallons but the OG was still barely in style guidelines. really disappointed about this because I'm normally so precise with all measurements
 
i thought most lead weights are banned for fishing now? but it's still not worth the risk of contamination

I think only in California. I believe all mine say that they may contain lead which is known to cause cancer in the State of California.
 

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