BigNastyBrew
Well-Known Member
I don't post much but we figured this was "post worthy." And a big PROST to thorongil (glad to meet you by the way )for his help with most of my pre-boil madness.
Ok, so I got completely hammered last night and still got up at 7 this morning to brew the Black Nipple. Hangover city. This was the first hangover I've had on craft brew.
First of all, I nailed my mash temp. B-E-A-UTIFUL! 60 minutes go by with a couple of stirs here and there, time to vorlauf...hmmm....the ball valve is open but nothing is coming out. Stick the mash paddle down to the fitting and move it around and every 3 or 4 jostles, a little bit comes out. I'm looking at those 4.5 gallons of sparge water thinking "no way in hell I'm doing THIS all day."
After 30 minutes and 1/2 gallon of wort, I had a "brilliant" idea. Unscrew the ball valve from the mash tun and just let it pour from the hole in the bulkhead. Ok, that's a big hole. There she went, all over the place. Finally got a handle on it and got the tun IN the brew kettle to let it drain. Grains galore in the pot, though. I watched as the wort poured itself into one of my GFI outlets. Of course that tripped the breaker so I lost power to half my kitchen, too.
Accepting the fact that I was going to get mad grains in the kettle, I continued my batch sparges. The grain bed actually settled down and I stopped getting grains with only 2 gallons of sparge left.
Took the tun out side and dumped the grains, rinsed it out and had another idea (but this one actually worked). I took the crushed steel braid off the fitting and put it back together on the tun and siphoned the wort back into the tun and my other pot (since I had 6 gallons of wort, I needed the other pot).
I bought a nylon bag a couple months ago and had not used it yet. Since I no longer had a way to filter the wort from inside the tun, I zip-tied the bag over the pot end of the hose (thanks thorongil) and just let her rip. I actually had less grains THIS way than WITH the steel braid. Of course I had a ton in the grain bag.
So, I need to top of with water to get boil volume and then I took my starting gravity reading. We were real anxious to see where my numbers would be due to the debacle. I was expecting an SG of 1.041. I got 1.042. HOLY CRAP!! I nailed the pre-boil gravity?!?! SWEET!!!
Start the boil. Mmmmm...smells good. Hot break was WELL under control. That was really nice. All the bad stuff was behind me thank god. Nope.
After the break fell, I set my timer for 45 minutes (so I could know when to put the chiller in the pot). Me and the other Mike were standing around shooting the **** for a little bit and he had to leave. Good times. So, I'm walking around, preparing a star-san solution for the new carboy and look up at the timer. It hadn't moved a bit. ****! What time did the boil start? No clue.
So, I "guessed" I had 15 minutes left of the 45 and timed it from there.
Ok, time to put the bung and airlock into the star-san solution to sanitize. Uh-oh.... the carboy opening is FAR smaller than the Better Bottle opening. CRAP!!!!! Ok, so we'll use aluminum foil til I go get a bung.
5 minutes left, added the lactose, everything's good. Got the wort chilled down in about 20 minutes, siphon it out, aerate pitch, and put it in the freezer. Damn! I had a 6 gallon better bottle in there already and guess what? They both don't fit.
SO, I had to clean and sanitize my smaller better bottle so I could rack..there's another 45 minutes. Plus, I had to move everything inside and close the garage door so I didn't skunk the blonde. They both BARELY fit in there together.
after a 7.5 hour brew session and a one hour round trip to the LHBS to get a $1 bung, she's in the fermenter, in the freezer, and set to 68°.
Good news is that the whole process was sanitary so I think this one's gonna be good. Thorongil said "this will probably be the best beer you've ever made and will never be able to duplicate it." I hope he's right.
OG was 1.063. I was expecting 1.060. 3 points over on style but I brewed, with that disaster, at 73.4% efficiency.
Cheers
Ok, so I got completely hammered last night and still got up at 7 this morning to brew the Black Nipple. Hangover city. This was the first hangover I've had on craft brew.
First of all, I nailed my mash temp. B-E-A-UTIFUL! 60 minutes go by with a couple of stirs here and there, time to vorlauf...hmmm....the ball valve is open but nothing is coming out. Stick the mash paddle down to the fitting and move it around and every 3 or 4 jostles, a little bit comes out. I'm looking at those 4.5 gallons of sparge water thinking "no way in hell I'm doing THIS all day."
After 30 minutes and 1/2 gallon of wort, I had a "brilliant" idea. Unscrew the ball valve from the mash tun and just let it pour from the hole in the bulkhead. Ok, that's a big hole. There she went, all over the place. Finally got a handle on it and got the tun IN the brew kettle to let it drain. Grains galore in the pot, though. I watched as the wort poured itself into one of my GFI outlets. Of course that tripped the breaker so I lost power to half my kitchen, too.
Accepting the fact that I was going to get mad grains in the kettle, I continued my batch sparges. The grain bed actually settled down and I stopped getting grains with only 2 gallons of sparge left.
Took the tun out side and dumped the grains, rinsed it out and had another idea (but this one actually worked). I took the crushed steel braid off the fitting and put it back together on the tun and siphoned the wort back into the tun and my other pot (since I had 6 gallons of wort, I needed the other pot).
I bought a nylon bag a couple months ago and had not used it yet. Since I no longer had a way to filter the wort from inside the tun, I zip-tied the bag over the pot end of the hose (thanks thorongil) and just let her rip. I actually had less grains THIS way than WITH the steel braid. Of course I had a ton in the grain bag.
So, I need to top of with water to get boil volume and then I took my starting gravity reading. We were real anxious to see where my numbers would be due to the debacle. I was expecting an SG of 1.041. I got 1.042. HOLY CRAP!! I nailed the pre-boil gravity?!?! SWEET!!!
Start the boil. Mmmmm...smells good. Hot break was WELL under control. That was really nice. All the bad stuff was behind me thank god. Nope.
After the break fell, I set my timer for 45 minutes (so I could know when to put the chiller in the pot). Me and the other Mike were standing around shooting the **** for a little bit and he had to leave. Good times. So, I'm walking around, preparing a star-san solution for the new carboy and look up at the timer. It hadn't moved a bit. ****! What time did the boil start? No clue.
So, I "guessed" I had 15 minutes left of the 45 and timed it from there.
Ok, time to put the bung and airlock into the star-san solution to sanitize. Uh-oh.... the carboy opening is FAR smaller than the Better Bottle opening. CRAP!!!!! Ok, so we'll use aluminum foil til I go get a bung.
5 minutes left, added the lactose, everything's good. Got the wort chilled down in about 20 minutes, siphon it out, aerate pitch, and put it in the freezer. Damn! I had a 6 gallon better bottle in there already and guess what? They both don't fit.
SO, I had to clean and sanitize my smaller better bottle so I could rack..there's another 45 minutes. Plus, I had to move everything inside and close the garage door so I didn't skunk the blonde. They both BARELY fit in there together.
after a 7.5 hour brew session and a one hour round trip to the LHBS to get a $1 bung, she's in the fermenter, in the freezer, and set to 68°.
Good news is that the whole process was sanitary so I think this one's gonna be good. Thorongil said "this will probably be the best beer you've ever made and will never be able to duplicate it." I hope he's right.
OG was 1.063. I was expecting 1.060. 3 points over on style but I brewed, with that disaster, at 73.4% efficiency.
Cheers