First official disaster

[bovineblitz]

Today I'm brewing my Pliny the Evil, a black IPA inspired by Pliny the Elder.

Well, it's only my 7th brew and my 3rd all grain and by far by biggest mash. Everything went fine to start except I undershot my mash temp by 1 degree but no biggie. Sparging went very well. Mind you, I brew in a small apartment in Cambridge MA on a stovetop so space is tight.

I dumped my spent grain into a large garbage bag and tied it off and carried it down the stairs to the trash. On the way, literally in the entrance way of the building, the bag tears open... dropping 18 pounds of soaking wet spent grain EVERYWHERE. Of course it's not just a rubber or tile floor, it's one of those industrial indoor/outdoor carpets. On top of that, someone was going in and out moving out of the building today.

Ugh.

Luckily SWMBO rushed to the scene and helped me scoop up the mess with a snow shovel into an extra igloo cooler... then we swept it up as much as possible and it doesn't look terrible anymore. In a few hours we'll vacuum after it dries.

Fortunately for me, as I got back into my apartment my boil was just beginning! It's happily bubbling away about 15min into the boil now.

Thought you might enjoy my first disaster

(I just realized I should've taken a picture... it looked like a cow took a huge **** in a narrow hallway, lol)

 

[schmagy]

thats gonna smell like a cow died in a few days

 

[smizak]

Yikes. I had that happen on my backyard lawn. Big old yello deadspot now, it was real hot, just after sparging. SWMBO=not pleased.

 

[bovineblitz]

thats gonna smell like a cow died in a few days

Yeah... I'm going to give it a good vacuuming in a few hours, then a good sweeping and another round of vacuuming, then I'll febreeze the hell out of it.

 

[Captain_Bigelow]

That worried me in the past. I was concerned that the heat of the grain may melt the plastic bag. Now I just take my whole cooler out to the trash and empty it straight in.

 

[509inc]

That worried me in the past. I was concerned that the heat of the grain may melt the plastic bag. Now I just take my whole cooler out to the trash and empty it straight in.

+1. Same here.

 

[bovineblitz]

That worried me in the past. I was concerned that the heat of the grain may melt the plastic bag. Now I just take my whole cooler out to the trash and empty it straight in.

That's my new plan for the future... no choice really, especially since my apt is one of 10 in the building.

 

[modernlifeisANDY]

I was a bit worried about that kind of thing, too. What size pot do you use for your stove top brewing? I have to do the same thing in Somerville, and could use a hint

 

[bovineblitz]

I was a bit worried about that kind of thing, too. What size pot do you use for your stove top brewing? I have to do the same thing in Somerville, and could use a hint

8 gallon. I used Fermcap-S for the first time today and it was awesome, I didn't have to worry about boil over at all. I boiled 7.25 gallons. I'm using it in my fermenter too because I'm doing a huge imperial in a 6gal better bottle.

Here's what I do to get a nice boil going, today I did a good job insulating and could actually turn the coils down a little bit:

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f39/brew-pots-178824/#post2071164

Glad to hear one of my neighbors is brewing it up in his apt as well

 

[storunner13]

I saw an ad on the TV for some kind of powder you can put on the carpet to work as a sort of super vacuuming. I'm not sure what it's called or anything, but you could try that..if you can figure out what it is.