frank_wood1966
Member
A couple of months ago on a Friday night, after a happy hour, I arrived home and thought I'd go ahead and brew a Fat Tire clone (recipe at the end of this story). Originally I was going to do this over the weekend but feeling kinda "good" at the moment I decided it was time to brew right then and there (1st mistake).
Well, I opened up another beer and started to get my grain bill together, heat my water, etc. When I get all the water in the mash tun I dump in the grain, stir, close the lid, and open myself up another beer, and start playing some tunes on my iPhone. 15 minutes later, while Bob Seger's "American Storm" was playing (who knew), I look over across the counter and see almost 2 pounds of various grains sitting there, and I'm thinking, why are those there? Turns out those were for this recipe -- I had simply "forgotten" them (truth is I had knocked them behind something and couldn't see them until I moved). What to do now, I wondered... Why I'll just open up the mash tun, and dump the "found" grains in, and extend the mash time -- of course (2nd mistake).
After another beer, it's time to sparge. Luckily I can say that the sparge went pretty well. Unfortunately that was the "highlight" of the entire evening, as I got my 6GL+ worth for the kettle. Hey, sometimes things go just right, regardless of the amount of alcohol one has consumed.
Now I do split boils, since I don't have a lot of space or kettle volume to boot. With a split boil, basically I run off my mash/sparge stuff into one large bucket, then divide this between two brew kettles. After that the hop additions are split equally between the two during the boil. Has worked for me well in the past, and would've worked here, but...
This time, however, I had read somewhere (obviously not here) that I could just boil 1.5GL in one, and 4.5GL in the other. The smaller of the two, per this "article', said it could be boiled for 15-20 minutes, cooled, and set aside. I thought this was "fantastic", and I could even use this "cooler" wort to help cool the larger wort, the one where I'd DO all my hop additions in (basically treating the 1.5GL short boil as "top-up" water) -- mistake 3?
So the smaller kettle is done, it's just sitting there "cooling" and finally the complete hour is up for the larger kettle. Time to cool it, right? Right. I dump the smaller into the larger (by this time, it's all about 5 to 5.5 gallons) and I set it in my sink and an ice bath. Then I have another beer and then I start "thinking"... ah geez, mistake 4 is on!
There's 8" of snow outside. Why don't I just take my kettle and set it in a pretty snow bank? Yeah, that'll work, I know that'll be faster, right? I proceed to do just that. Did I mention that 5.5GL of liquid is heavy? Did I mention it's double heavy after 10 or so beers?
Yep, you got it... spilled at least 1/2 GL on my way outside, but now I've got her in the snow. Dang, it's cold out here. Where's my lid for this? Let me go inside, I gotta clean this mess up. Mistake 5.
SNOOOORRRREEEEE ZZZZZZZZ -- an hour and a half later I wake up and have a massive hissy fit (keep in mind I'm alone), go outside, see my uncovered kettle just sitting there in the snow. I almost wanted to take a picture of that "landscape" but alas, I bring the thing in. God only knows what went on outside while she sat there, uncovered. It's nice and cool all right though. The wort is down right cold! I'll just wait it out, and you know, have another beer. Finally, it's time to move it to the fermenter and that goes pretty well, all things considered. Mistake 6 has been made.
As I'm about ready to pitch the yeast, I realize I hadn't made a starter the day before. I do this (normally) for any "large" batch, and again, I've had success with it, but oh no, not tonight. In addition, this recipe calls for a yeast I had not used before, White Labs WLP051. Reading about it a few days before, one of the keys for this yeast is fermentation temperature (which of course is true for any yeast, but this one from what I can gather even more so -- needs to be a touch cooler than your typical WLP001). I don't care, I'm pitching it, and letting the chips fall where they may. Boy did they fall. Mistake 7.
I have one of those Cool Brewing fermentation bags -- they work pretty good and do not take up a lot of space. Depending on how many frozen bottles of water you put in the bag, you can get the temperature down into the 50's. Normally, for my setup I put two 12oz bottles in there, and the temp stays around 64-66 (my condo temperature is usually 70-72). So, yes, I could have went cooler...
If I had actually used the bag, I might have not even written this story. I had forgotten to freeze a few bottles. In my infinite wisdom, I just leave the fermenter out, sitting next to the bag, like some magic might just happen if I have another beer and call it an evening... which I do. Mistake 8.
9 weeks later, after tasting several of the bottles, it kinda tastes and smells like, well, like iodine. That's the best way to describe it. No, I don't use Idophor at all -- strictly a Starsan man here. Somewhere between mistakes 1 and 8, or quite possibly all of them, I turned what should have been a good brew into something I could disinfect wounds with. Or perhaps infect them?
Lesson: Don't drink (heavily) and brew.
Recipe (I call mine the "Idophor Clone", but call it what you will, it's all in the technique):
8.63 lb 2-row
1 lb Munich
8oz Crystal 80
6oz Victory
1oz Willamette (60)
1oz Willamette (10)
0.5oz Goldings (flameout)
WLP051 White Labs Yeast
60 Minutes at 154
Drain and sparge 170 to 6+ gallons; 60 minute boil.
Well, I opened up another beer and started to get my grain bill together, heat my water, etc. When I get all the water in the mash tun I dump in the grain, stir, close the lid, and open myself up another beer, and start playing some tunes on my iPhone. 15 minutes later, while Bob Seger's "American Storm" was playing (who knew), I look over across the counter and see almost 2 pounds of various grains sitting there, and I'm thinking, why are those there? Turns out those were for this recipe -- I had simply "forgotten" them (truth is I had knocked them behind something and couldn't see them until I moved). What to do now, I wondered... Why I'll just open up the mash tun, and dump the "found" grains in, and extend the mash time -- of course (2nd mistake).
After another beer, it's time to sparge. Luckily I can say that the sparge went pretty well. Unfortunately that was the "highlight" of the entire evening, as I got my 6GL+ worth for the kettle. Hey, sometimes things go just right, regardless of the amount of alcohol one has consumed.
Now I do split boils, since I don't have a lot of space or kettle volume to boot. With a split boil, basically I run off my mash/sparge stuff into one large bucket, then divide this between two brew kettles. After that the hop additions are split equally between the two during the boil. Has worked for me well in the past, and would've worked here, but...
This time, however, I had read somewhere (obviously not here) that I could just boil 1.5GL in one, and 4.5GL in the other. The smaller of the two, per this "article', said it could be boiled for 15-20 minutes, cooled, and set aside. I thought this was "fantastic", and I could even use this "cooler" wort to help cool the larger wort, the one where I'd DO all my hop additions in (basically treating the 1.5GL short boil as "top-up" water) -- mistake 3?
So the smaller kettle is done, it's just sitting there "cooling" and finally the complete hour is up for the larger kettle. Time to cool it, right? Right. I dump the smaller into the larger (by this time, it's all about 5 to 5.5 gallons) and I set it in my sink and an ice bath. Then I have another beer and then I start "thinking"... ah geez, mistake 4 is on!
There's 8" of snow outside. Why don't I just take my kettle and set it in a pretty snow bank? Yeah, that'll work, I know that'll be faster, right? I proceed to do just that. Did I mention that 5.5GL of liquid is heavy? Did I mention it's double heavy after 10 or so beers?
Yep, you got it... spilled at least 1/2 GL on my way outside, but now I've got her in the snow. Dang, it's cold out here. Where's my lid for this? Let me go inside, I gotta clean this mess up. Mistake 5.
SNOOOORRRREEEEE ZZZZZZZZ -- an hour and a half later I wake up and have a massive hissy fit (keep in mind I'm alone), go outside, see my uncovered kettle just sitting there in the snow. I almost wanted to take a picture of that "landscape" but alas, I bring the thing in. God only knows what went on outside while she sat there, uncovered. It's nice and cool all right though. The wort is down right cold! I'll just wait it out, and you know, have another beer. Finally, it's time to move it to the fermenter and that goes pretty well, all things considered. Mistake 6 has been made.
As I'm about ready to pitch the yeast, I realize I hadn't made a starter the day before. I do this (normally) for any "large" batch, and again, I've had success with it, but oh no, not tonight. In addition, this recipe calls for a yeast I had not used before, White Labs WLP051. Reading about it a few days before, one of the keys for this yeast is fermentation temperature (which of course is true for any yeast, but this one from what I can gather even more so -- needs to be a touch cooler than your typical WLP001). I don't care, I'm pitching it, and letting the chips fall where they may. Boy did they fall. Mistake 7.
I have one of those Cool Brewing fermentation bags -- they work pretty good and do not take up a lot of space. Depending on how many frozen bottles of water you put in the bag, you can get the temperature down into the 50's. Normally, for my setup I put two 12oz bottles in there, and the temp stays around 64-66 (my condo temperature is usually 70-72). So, yes, I could have went cooler...
If I had actually used the bag, I might have not even written this story. I had forgotten to freeze a few bottles. In my infinite wisdom, I just leave the fermenter out, sitting next to the bag, like some magic might just happen if I have another beer and call it an evening... which I do. Mistake 8.
9 weeks later, after tasting several of the bottles, it kinda tastes and smells like, well, like iodine. That's the best way to describe it. No, I don't use Idophor at all -- strictly a Starsan man here. Somewhere between mistakes 1 and 8, or quite possibly all of them, I turned what should have been a good brew into something I could disinfect wounds with. Or perhaps infect them?
Lesson: Don't drink (heavily) and brew.
Recipe (I call mine the "Idophor Clone", but call it what you will, it's all in the technique):
8.63 lb 2-row
1 lb Munich
8oz Crystal 80
6oz Victory
1oz Willamette (60)
1oz Willamette (10)
0.5oz Goldings (flameout)
WLP051 White Labs Yeast
60 Minutes at 154
Drain and sparge 170 to 6+ gallons; 60 minute boil.