I've been brewing for a few years and usually fit in about 25 five gallon batches a year.
2020 was an outlier and I only ended up doing 4 batches, the last of which was in the spring.
I decided to try a Trappist Single as my return batch.
Brew day went well; hit all my numbers.
The batch seemed to ferment well so after 10 days I took a measurement and was at my predicted FG.
I was hyped because the sample tasted really good.
It was time to cold crash.
Part of cold crashing is that I have a carbination cap and a bit of hose that makes a nice seal in the hole where the 3-piece airlock usually sits on my plastic bucket fermentors.
I put just enough pressure so that the bucket top bulges a bit... if I put too much it escapes around the hose.
I "top it off" a few times as the beer cools over the course of a day.
Once it gets down to temp I don't need add any more CO2.
I had just started to dial up the pressure from "off". Historically I wait till the needle begins to move then watch the top of the bucket as I increase the regulator, dialing it back when I hear hissing.
As I am dialing the regulator I begin to think "Hmmm ... I don't remember it being that much turning to get the CO2 to flow".
Next thing I know a slug of foul-smelling-god-knows-what liquid shoots from the CO2 hose into the bucket.
I pull the hose out as soon as I realize what is going on but it was too late.
I also use the same setup CO2 setup to burst carb via the shake method.
The last time I did it in 2020 a slug of beer much have backed into the line and I didn't notice it.
That's where it sat for almost a year putrifying waiting for that blast of CO2 to unstick it and inoculate my fresh batch.
Once I smelled how bad the few drops that didn't make it into the bucket were I knew I had to dump everything.
I am so pissed at myself right now.
2020 was an outlier and I only ended up doing 4 batches, the last of which was in the spring.
I decided to try a Trappist Single as my return batch.
Brew day went well; hit all my numbers.
The batch seemed to ferment well so after 10 days I took a measurement and was at my predicted FG.
I was hyped because the sample tasted really good.
It was time to cold crash.
Part of cold crashing is that I have a carbination cap and a bit of hose that makes a nice seal in the hole where the 3-piece airlock usually sits on my plastic bucket fermentors.
I put just enough pressure so that the bucket top bulges a bit... if I put too much it escapes around the hose.
I "top it off" a few times as the beer cools over the course of a day.
Once it gets down to temp I don't need add any more CO2.
I had just started to dial up the pressure from "off". Historically I wait till the needle begins to move then watch the top of the bucket as I increase the regulator, dialing it back when I hear hissing.
As I am dialing the regulator I begin to think "Hmmm ... I don't remember it being that much turning to get the CO2 to flow".
Next thing I know a slug of foul-smelling-god-knows-what liquid shoots from the CO2 hose into the bucket.
I pull the hose out as soon as I realize what is going on but it was too late.
I also use the same setup CO2 setup to burst carb via the shake method.
The last time I did it in 2020 a slug of beer much have backed into the line and I didn't notice it.
That's where it sat for almost a year putrifying waiting for that blast of CO2 to unstick it and inoculate my fresh batch.
Once I smelled how bad the few drops that didn't make it into the bucket were I knew I had to dump everything.
I am so pissed at myself right now.
