Funny Noob Horror Story

[ShakerD]

Yeah so I blew it tonight. I want to tell the story so please feel free to laugh. It's the kind of story that is funnier when it happens to someone else.

I wanted to make Ed Worts Haus Pale and I changed it to a BIAB recipe. This would be my 2nd BIAB and the last one, I think, worked out well.

I planned to mash in at 162 to achieve 152-154 and got the water ready. I checked it 30 minutes in and it was down to 140 so I panicked, first mistake, pulled up the bag a bit and turned the burner on. Well after 15 min the water wasn't heating according to the faulty inferred laser thermometer. So I got my digital probe and low and behold the water was around 170. I panicked again, second mistake, pulled the bag out and the zip ties that hold the bag shut slipped off and right in to the full kettle. LOL I manged to get the bag out without spilling much out. I spent the next 30+ minutes trying to fish out the zip ties and eventually got them. I waited until it cooled down to 152 and put the bag back in for 40 min.

I continued on as normal with my hop additions and when I was done I pulled a sample and checked the OG at 70 degrees and it was 1.020. So now I don't know what to do so the best I could think of was add some corn sugar and maybe I still can salvage some kind of something out of this. So I grabbed my 4 lb pail of corn sugar and try to dump some in and the steam gets me. In goes all four pounds lol whoops dumb a$$.

So now I have a very bitter beer with an OG of 1.074. Obviously there were quite a few lessons to learn here mostly RDWHAHB. Ironically this was my first sober brew lol.

So Is there anything I can do to improve this batch or is it to late? I haven't pitched yet. I figured I would wait until tomorrow.

What would have caused the original OG of 1.020? Was it the excessive heat? I used malt from a different supplier and I think its not as crushed as the stuff from the previous batch.(it is crushed though lol).

Any input would be appreciated lol

Cheers

 

[Skaggz]

I curious as to how one dumps 4 lbs of corn sugar into wort. Were you just going to pour it in all willy-nilly and not measure it out? Always good to have some DME on hand for emergency backup. I also don't see how 4 lbs of corn sugar can take the gravity up by 54 (1.020 to 1.074) points in a five gallon batch. If your OG was really around 1.020, then the four pounds of sugar would have brought the total up to around 1.056. Going by your readings, that would give corn sugar 67.5 points per pound per gallon (assuming a 5.0 gallon final volume). It's not that high. One of your gravity readings was inaccurate.

As for your low OG, I've never done a BIAB, but how do you deal with dough-balls. How are you making sure that all the grains and water make the best possible contact? What was your mash water volume, could pH have been to high?

 

[Calder]

I curious as to how one dumps 4 lbs of corn sugar into wort. Were you just going to pour it in all willy-nilly and not measure it out? Always good to have some DME on hand for emergency backup. I also don't see how 4 lbs of corn sugar can take the gravity up by 54 (1.020 to 1.074) points in a five gallon batch. If your OG was really around 1.020, then the four pounds of sugar would have brought the total up to around 1.056. Going by your readings, that would give corn sugar 67.5 points per pound per gallon (assuming a 5.0 gallon final volume). It's not that high. One of your gravity readings was inaccurate.

As for your low OG, I've never done a BIAB, but how do you deal with dough-balls. How are you making sure that all the grains and water make the best possible contact? What was your mash water volume, could pH have been to high?

Agreed, something is wrong. He used corn sugar, not cane sugar, so the 4 lbs would have only contributed 29 points (not 36) to the gravity in 5 gallons (1.020 to 1.049).

Maybe it's only a 3(+) gallon batch.

 

[pj_rage]

I think the biggest lesson here is not to use your infrared thermometer to check water temp like that.

They are great tools, for sure, but not great for that purpose IMO. Use your "real" thermometer the whole time, next time!

 

[Hockeyhunter99]

SG measures density of liquids, right? change in temp changes density, right? were the readings at the same temp?

 

[rjwhite41]

Never use an infrared when you are wanting an accurate reading. I would only use them to measure the ambient temp inside a cooler or something. Even then they are not very accurate. As far as the beer goes, I don't think I would see this thing through. The sugar will probably give it a prohibition style cider taste at that kind of volume.

 

[Homercidal]

As far as I know, IR thermometers can never be used on a liquid accurately.

At any rate, I think you'll have drinkable beer, but don't expect it to wow the judges.

 

[Skaggz]

Agreed, something is wrong. He used corn sugar, not cane sugar, so the 4 lbs would have only contributed 29 points (not 36) to the gravity in 5 gallons (1.020 to 1.049).

Maybe it's only a 3(+) gallon batch.

I've always believed that corn sugar was 45 ppg. But then again it's been years since I've considered using any corn sugar. Except at bottling time of course. I looked at Daniels' book Designing Great Beers and it does say 37 ppg, just like you state. But looking on the internet I get varying results. Anywhere from 30 to 47 ppg. So who knows, unless someone want to fully mix 4oz of corn sugar into a quart of water and take a gravity reading.
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The point still stands though. Either one (or both) of his gravity readings was inaccurate. Or, this isn't a full 5 gallon batch.