Good news/bad news brew day

[dkevinb]

The good news is that my new pond pump to recirculate ice water for chilling kicked butt. I cooled from boiling to 100 F with tap water in about 10 minutes, then from 100 to 65 recirculating through a Homer bucket of ice water in another 10. It saved a whole bunch of time and water, and the pump and fittings were cheaper than the cost of the copper tubing to make a pre-chiller.

The bad news is that I missed my OG so my special bitter is now an ordinary bitter. The good news is I can now say I've brewed an ordinary bitter.

 

[brick]

Nothing wrong with an ordinary bitter. Beers in that gravity range are great when you want a beer but you don't really want a buzz. I happen to have an OB in the fridge right now.

 

[dkevinb]

Nothing wrong with an ordinary bitter. Beers in that gravity range are great when you want a beer but you don't really want a buzz. I happen to have an OB in the fridge right now.

Oddly enough, my original original intention was an ordinary bitter. But when I was putting the recipe together I thought I'd just bump it up to around 4.2% ABV. But my efficiency tanked for some reason today, so I wound up back where I started. Must have been fate. The hydro sample tasted good. We'll see how it ferments, but I have great faith in S-04.

 

[CadiBrewer]

Oddly enough, my original original intention was an ordinary bitter. But when I was putting the recipe together I thought I'd just bump it up to around 4.2% ABV. But my efficiency tanked for some reason today, so I wound up back where I started. Must have been fate. The hydro sample tasted good. We'll see how it ferments, but I have great faith in S-04.

I have been on an ordinary bitter and dark mild kick lately. My efficiency drops with the small beers, so I bump down my efficiency in Beersmith when I formulate the recipe to compensate. I love small beers.

 

[CorwinGraves]

Sorry to hear about the OG miss, but curious what pump you purchased for your ice bucket recirculation. Thinking of doing the same.

 

[Hello]

There is nothing wrong with ordinary.

 

[dkevinb]

Sorry to hear about the OG miss, but curious what pump you purchased for your ice bucket recirculation. Thinking of doing the same.

It's this one from Home Depot:

http://www.homedepot.com/p/Total-Pond-210-GPH-Pond-Pump-DD11210/202017028

It's definitely not a fire hose pump, but it works for what I'm doing. I added some fittings for the garden hose connector on my IWC.

 

[CorwinGraves]

@dkevinb - thanks, I'll look into that one. Definitely not looking to go overkill.

 

[fivepointslow]

I use a pump kinda like that too and it does a great job. 10 gallons of water and 10 pounds of ice will get my wort chilled down in about 15mins. Good to know I'm not the only one

 

[mikeprooo]

Glad to see the pump worked out, I love mine and seems to be soo easy!