rudy0498
Well-Known Member
Sorry I've just got to rant about this. If you want to read a "don't do this thread" read on. If not, stop here.
So this is the last time I will ever "wing it". I just finished a brewing session that I didn't really prepare myself for and I am going to pay the price.
I recently got the go ahead from SWMBO to spend some money to get into all grain brewing. I bought a ton of new equipment, and have been spending all my time working on getting it set up. I made a keggle, cooler MLT/HLTs, and counterflow wort chiller, and bought a new banjo burner. I was dying to use my new gear and decided to test it out with a partial mash recipe. I figured that it would be a good way to ease into it...wrong!
My mash actually went OK. I was a few degrees off on my strike temp, but was able to adjust by adding a little water to bring up the temp, and I did a little decocation mashing along the way.
Once I got about 20-30 minutes into my boil, I had trouble keeping it. Even with the regulator wide open I couldn't get much more out of the banjo burner. I didn't have anything handy to do a warm water bath for the propane tank. But I stayed around 210 to 212 degrees, so I may be alright there.
The real disaster started when I tried to use my new counterflow chiller, which I just finished and tested it while the boil was going. I put a dip tube in my keggle with a stainless steel scrub pad as a filter. At some point during the boil, the scrub pad slipped out from under the dip tube. So when I fed my wort into the chiller, I sucked up all the pellet hop residue and promptly plugged it up, but not before it dumped a bunch of hop particles into my fermenter. I had to scramble to get my immersion chiller sanitized so I could use that to chill the beer. I also had to get my autosiphon cleaned and sanitized to used once I got down to pitching temps.
Once I got the remaining wort into my fermenter I realized I was over a gallon short and I overshot my gravity OG by 23 points. I had some water that I had boiled on the side just in case. It had been sitting on the stove with the burner off for about a half hour. I then had to get that water chilled to add it to the fermenter.
During all the chaos, I was scrambling to adjust and pretty much ignored all good sanitization practices. If this batch doesn't get infected it will be a miracle. Better luck next time I guess....
So this is the last time I will ever "wing it". I just finished a brewing session that I didn't really prepare myself for and I am going to pay the price.
I recently got the go ahead from SWMBO to spend some money to get into all grain brewing. I bought a ton of new equipment, and have been spending all my time working on getting it set up. I made a keggle, cooler MLT/HLTs, and counterflow wort chiller, and bought a new banjo burner. I was dying to use my new gear and decided to test it out with a partial mash recipe. I figured that it would be a good way to ease into it...wrong!
My mash actually went OK. I was a few degrees off on my strike temp, but was able to adjust by adding a little water to bring up the temp, and I did a little decocation mashing along the way.
Once I got about 20-30 minutes into my boil, I had trouble keeping it. Even with the regulator wide open I couldn't get much more out of the banjo burner. I didn't have anything handy to do a warm water bath for the propane tank. But I stayed around 210 to 212 degrees, so I may be alright there.
The real disaster started when I tried to use my new counterflow chiller, which I just finished and tested it while the boil was going. I put a dip tube in my keggle with a stainless steel scrub pad as a filter. At some point during the boil, the scrub pad slipped out from under the dip tube. So when I fed my wort into the chiller, I sucked up all the pellet hop residue and promptly plugged it up, but not before it dumped a bunch of hop particles into my fermenter. I had to scramble to get my immersion chiller sanitized so I could use that to chill the beer. I also had to get my autosiphon cleaned and sanitized to used once I got down to pitching temps.
Once I got the remaining wort into my fermenter I realized I was over a gallon short and I overshot my gravity OG by 23 points. I had some water that I had boiled on the side just in case. It had been sitting on the stove with the burner off for about a half hour. I then had to get that water chilled to add it to the fermenter.
During all the chaos, I was scrambling to adjust and pretty much ignored all good sanitization practices. If this batch doesn't get infected it will be a miracle. Better luck next time I guess....
