biggestmuff
Active Member
I did a BIAb of the all-grain NB/Surly Smoke kit back on July 28th. All went well even though I only hit 1.082 instead of 1.087 per the instructions.
Primary fermentation also went well. I used a 6.5 gallon carboy and blow-off tube in a bucket of sanitizer. I did 2 weeks at a very controlled 51 degrees, then on 13 August did a 6 day diacetyl rest at 65 degrees F. Again, following the instructions.
August 19th I dropped the temp to 33 degrees F. Occasionally I would visually inspect the carboy and check the temperature via the Johnson controller's readout attached to my chest freezer.
Today, the horror. I noticed sanitizer in the blow-off tube. That's not normal. I look in the bucket...it's nearly empty. I look back at the carboy and realize floating on top of the wort is a few gallons of sanitizer.
This was an expensive, big beer. How can I salvage this or is it even salvageable?
Two possible saving factors; I used sanitizer in my blow-off bucket and the Surly Smoke is quite a bit more dense than the sanitizer. So, I may be able to just rack off the less dense sanitizer. Think it'll work?
Primary fermentation also went well. I used a 6.5 gallon carboy and blow-off tube in a bucket of sanitizer. I did 2 weeks at a very controlled 51 degrees, then on 13 August did a 6 day diacetyl rest at 65 degrees F. Again, following the instructions.
August 19th I dropped the temp to 33 degrees F. Occasionally I would visually inspect the carboy and check the temperature via the Johnson controller's readout attached to my chest freezer.
Today, the horror. I noticed sanitizer in the blow-off tube. That's not normal. I look in the bucket...it's nearly empty. I look back at the carboy and realize floating on top of the wort is a few gallons of sanitizer.
This was an expensive, big beer. How can I salvage this or is it even salvageable?
Two possible saving factors; I used sanitizer in my blow-off bucket and the Surly Smoke is quite a bit more dense than the sanitizer. So, I may be able to just rack off the less dense sanitizer. Think it'll work?