Hillbillie PHiL
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- Sep 17, 2007
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(This is my first post here, though I've been lurking for a while. Please be gentle. )
Yesterday was my first brew. It was rough, and several things went wrong. Here's a list:
Not really worrying because making mistakes is part of learning. I just thought it'd be amusing to list all of these mistakes I made in one afternoon, and maybe some others will feel more comforted knowing there's bigger klutzes out here.
I pitched the yeast, and this morning was awakened by a whistling airlock. A very nice krausen has formed, and fermentation seems to be going nicely.
A few questions:
First thing is, my wort chiller. The instructions said to wash it with a mild detergent to remove the manufacturing deposits, so I soaked it in hot PBW for maybe 5 minutes. Besides my suspicion I didn't soak it nearly long enough, I noticed that the inlet and outlet were soldered together, and that where the PBW touched the solder started to wear off and turn green. I can't say definitely it wasn't already like that, this may just be my mind playing tricks on me. To be safe, I boiled that part in water for a bit and rinsed it off well before using. Am I going to be safe, or will the beer be dangerously tainted?
Also, I noticed a few moments after I put the wort chiller in, the part that touched the wort turned very bright copper; the rest of the chiller was dirty looking in comparison. Not only that, but the wort turned darker. Is this normal, or is my suspicion above right--that I didn't soak it long enough in the PBW?
Was not topping off to 5 gallons a fatal error, or is my brew salvageable? If so, how?
Anyway, thanks for letting me babble!
Yesterday was my first brew. It was rough, and several things went wrong. Here's a list:
- I suspect I didn't wash the wort chiller well enough.
- I of course waited till the last minute to measure the hops, and I couldn't find my trusty scale... so I had to use some *ahem* calculated guesswork.
- I used an electric stove to boil the 5 gallons, which never quite got a good rolling boil and never seemed to reach a hot break.
- The inlet hose on the wort chiller was leaking. This drizzled in unsanitized tap water (which probably had touched the unclean inside of the chiller) into the wort for a good 10 minutes before I noticed.
- Aforementioned leak ran over nasty solder I describe below.
- My hands went in the wort not once but TWICE after it cooled down.
- I came up ~2 gallons short and forgot to top off to 5 gallons. (D'oh!)
Not really worrying because making mistakes is part of learning. I just thought it'd be amusing to list all of these mistakes I made in one afternoon, and maybe some others will feel more comforted knowing there's bigger klutzes out here.
I pitched the yeast, and this morning was awakened by a whistling airlock. A very nice krausen has formed, and fermentation seems to be going nicely.
A few questions:
First thing is, my wort chiller. The instructions said to wash it with a mild detergent to remove the manufacturing deposits, so I soaked it in hot PBW for maybe 5 minutes. Besides my suspicion I didn't soak it nearly long enough, I noticed that the inlet and outlet were soldered together, and that where the PBW touched the solder started to wear off and turn green. I can't say definitely it wasn't already like that, this may just be my mind playing tricks on me. To be safe, I boiled that part in water for a bit and rinsed it off well before using. Am I going to be safe, or will the beer be dangerously tainted?
Also, I noticed a few moments after I put the wort chiller in, the part that touched the wort turned very bright copper; the rest of the chiller was dirty looking in comparison. Not only that, but the wort turned darker. Is this normal, or is my suspicion above right--that I didn't soak it long enough in the PBW?
Was not topping off to 5 gallons a fatal error, or is my brew salvageable? If so, how?
Anyway, thanks for letting me babble!