agentEhrman
Well-Known Member
Today, I used my home made chiller for the first time. It was also my first AG batch, my first full boil, and my first time whirlpooling.
To start things off, I have been having issues with efficiency with my partail mashes. Today was no different. I mashed in at 156, and very slowly dropped to 148 over the next 90 minutes. I had only planned on mashing for 60 minutes, but the water was still very cloudy and the wort was still tasting pretty starchy. At 90, it was looking only slightly better but it was time to get on with my brew day. I mashed out 168 for 20 minutes. I BIAB, so I squeezed the crap out of the bag and topped off to 6.5 gallons before bringing to a boil. Judging from the look and taste, I added 1# of DME to keep the beer from being terribly low ABV (so much for AG). I had a tiny boil over on the hop addion, but all went well from there to cooling. Using the new chiller was a walk in the park compared to the ice bath in the sink method. My thermo was giving me inconsistency so I stopped chilling at what I thought was about 73. When I removed the chiller, the outlet hose somehow knocked against the top edge of my kettle, and dropped a couple drops of dirty water into it. That is where I started to get worried. Next, I whirlpooled, and waited 20 minutes. I auto siphoned into my fermenter and found my temp to be about 60. I had been rehydrating my yeast at 80, and it was time to pitch it. This also worries me because I'm guessing it will shock the yeast?
Anyways, I pitched the yeast and now I'm hoping for the best. What do you think about the possible contamination from the chiller? Would you worry about pitching so cold, especially when I rehydrated at 80? I totally feel like this batch is ruined, mainly from the dirty water..
To start things off, I have been having issues with efficiency with my partail mashes. Today was no different. I mashed in at 156, and very slowly dropped to 148 over the next 90 minutes. I had only planned on mashing for 60 minutes, but the water was still very cloudy and the wort was still tasting pretty starchy. At 90, it was looking only slightly better but it was time to get on with my brew day. I mashed out 168 for 20 minutes. I BIAB, so I squeezed the crap out of the bag and topped off to 6.5 gallons before bringing to a boil. Judging from the look and taste, I added 1# of DME to keep the beer from being terribly low ABV (so much for AG). I had a tiny boil over on the hop addion, but all went well from there to cooling. Using the new chiller was a walk in the park compared to the ice bath in the sink method. My thermo was giving me inconsistency so I stopped chilling at what I thought was about 73. When I removed the chiller, the outlet hose somehow knocked against the top edge of my kettle, and dropped a couple drops of dirty water into it. That is where I started to get worried. Next, I whirlpooled, and waited 20 minutes. I auto siphoned into my fermenter and found my temp to be about 60. I had been rehydrating my yeast at 80, and it was time to pitch it. This also worries me because I'm guessing it will shock the yeast?
Anyways, I pitched the yeast and now I'm hoping for the best. What do you think about the possible contamination from the chiller? Would you worry about pitching so cold, especially when I rehydrated at 80? I totally feel like this batch is ruined, mainly from the dirty water..