Mischief_Brewing
Well-Known Member
I felt the need to share my brew day yesterday with you all, with hopes that somebody could learn something from it (or at least laugh at my misfortune)...
My pipeline has been getting a little thin with all of the summer parties we've been having so I was in dire need of a brew day. I work long hours and cannot brew during the week, and with a new house taking up every available free minute, the weekends are usually pretty dismal as well. But I thought I had a free day and ordered up some grains for what I'm calling a "freezer special" IIPA. Basically, I'm using up some of the less often used hops that I have in the freezer. Well, I found out a few hours after placing the order that we had to go upstate to the inlaws place while they were out of town to take care of their teenage daughter. I thought my plans were completely ruined and I'd be brewing a few weeks later with stale store-crushed grains until the SWMBO suggests I bring my equipment and brew up there. The prospect of using their filtered well water was the clincher.
Now the logistics of getting my equipment up there, along with SWMBO and the two kids, in our tiny subaru were challenging at best. I somehow managed to bring a bucket with all of my testing and tubing, the MLT, HLT and boil kettle, and my burner. I couldn't fit my compact ghetto brew stand though. The car looked a little like the Clampets when they moved to Beverleee with pots and a cooler strapped to the roof.
It was too windy and rainy Saturday to brew, so I decided to make a go of it on Sunday. It seemed like a nice enough day out so I chose the back balcony to brew (plus, it was were the BBQ was and I was using their propane
). Everything went fine, including nailing my target mash temp (154). Things seemed so destined to be a great brew day, we headed down and set up some targets for a little 22 Mag shooting:
Here's SWMBO displaying her cute shooting style (she went 3/4 with this stance while I only managed 1/4 (I fully blame the scope, not the beer I was drinking))
I started heating the sparge water and realized I didn't have a 3-tiered anything for gravity transfer. With a little improvisation, I figured out something that worked:
I don't own a refractometer and was too lazy to pull a sample for cooling to get a reading, not like I could have done much about a low reading anyway, considering where I was...
I put the pot on the burner and fired it up, which seemed to be a secret signal for mother nature to torture me. I felt a raindrop or two as I was fine tuning the burner output. I looked up to see a flash of light and heard what sounded like a 21-gun shotgun salute, which was immediately followed by a torrential downpour. I turned off the gas, covered the pot and scuttled inside. After waiting an hour for it to let up, I gave up and managed to carry nearly 7 gallons of 175 degree wort 150 feet to the garage without spilling a drop on my bare feet.
The boil, and cooling went off without a hitch, but when I finally got a chance to take a gravity reading, I missed target by .026! I calculated that out to be about a 58% efficiency. The only cause for this that I can see is the grain crush. I got my grains from Midwest (3's a charm, never again) and even with a ALL CAPS NOTE to double crush the grain on their finest setting, I still didn't get a good crushed grain from them. I should have spent more time and roller-pinned the grains when I saw a few that appeared to be completely unbroken. But the thought of rolling 19 lbs of grain gives me nightmares. Note to self: Grain mill is now at the top of the beer-related purchase list. I guess my IIPA is now just an overly hopped IPA.
The commute home took 2 hours longer than normal due to road construction and idiot drivers. I got home and lugged the crate with the 6-gallon carboy to the crawl space basement where I let my various experiments ferment. To my surprise, it was around 90 degrees down there. Since I've owned that place (10 months), the temp has never fluctuated more than 3 degrees from its static 65 degrees. The best that I can figure is that the dehumidifier has been running non-stop all summer and is kicking out warm air.
Luckily, I have a 9cuft chest freezer that will be my keezer when I can finally get my liquor cabinet build started just sitting there looking lonely. I scrambled back and forth to the garage locating the temp controller and a worthy extension cord and finally had it plugged in and cooling. It took a Hurculean effort to get the carboy into that keezer. There was only about 2 inches of clearance between the CO2 lock and the ceiling. I can't stand erect (giggle) down there so I had less leverage than normal. After a few grunts that would make any female tennis pro envious, I managed to have it in and the lid on. I passed out about 2 minutes later in front of the air conditioner. I checked this morning and there's a tiny krausen forming and the thermometer I tossed into the keezer as an afterthought showed a perfect 66 degrees.
I hope you enjoyed my long-winded diatribe about a less than ideal brew day. Please feel free to share your frustrating brew days!
My pipeline has been getting a little thin with all of the summer parties we've been having so I was in dire need of a brew day. I work long hours and cannot brew during the week, and with a new house taking up every available free minute, the weekends are usually pretty dismal as well. But I thought I had a free day and ordered up some grains for what I'm calling a "freezer special" IIPA. Basically, I'm using up some of the less often used hops that I have in the freezer. Well, I found out a few hours after placing the order that we had to go upstate to the inlaws place while they were out of town to take care of their teenage daughter. I thought my plans were completely ruined and I'd be brewing a few weeks later with stale store-crushed grains until the SWMBO suggests I bring my equipment and brew up there. The prospect of using their filtered well water was the clincher.
Now the logistics of getting my equipment up there, along with SWMBO and the two kids, in our tiny subaru were challenging at best. I somehow managed to bring a bucket with all of my testing and tubing, the MLT, HLT and boil kettle, and my burner. I couldn't fit my compact ghetto brew stand though. The car looked a little like the Clampets when they moved to Beverleee with pots and a cooler strapped to the roof.
It was too windy and rainy Saturday to brew, so I decided to make a go of it on Sunday. It seemed like a nice enough day out so I chose the back balcony to brew (plus, it was were the BBQ was and I was using their propane
). Everything went fine, including nailing my target mash temp (154). Things seemed so destined to be a great brew day, we headed down and set up some targets for a little 22 Mag shooting:
Here's SWMBO displaying her cute shooting style (she went 3/4 with this stance while I only managed 1/4 (I fully blame the scope, not the beer I was drinking))
I started heating the sparge water and realized I didn't have a 3-tiered anything for gravity transfer. With a little improvisation, I figured out something that worked:
I don't own a refractometer and was too lazy to pull a sample for cooling to get a reading, not like I could have done much about a low reading anyway, considering where I was...
I put the pot on the burner and fired it up, which seemed to be a secret signal for mother nature to torture me. I felt a raindrop or two as I was fine tuning the burner output. I looked up to see a flash of light and heard what sounded like a 21-gun shotgun salute, which was immediately followed by a torrential downpour. I turned off the gas, covered the pot and scuttled inside. After waiting an hour for it to let up, I gave up and managed to carry nearly 7 gallons of 175 degree wort 150 feet to the garage without spilling a drop on my bare feet.
The boil, and cooling went off without a hitch, but when I finally got a chance to take a gravity reading, I missed target by .026! I calculated that out to be about a 58% efficiency. The only cause for this that I can see is the grain crush. I got my grains from Midwest (3's a charm, never again) and even with a ALL CAPS NOTE to double crush the grain on their finest setting, I still didn't get a good crushed grain from them. I should have spent more time and roller-pinned the grains when I saw a few that appeared to be completely unbroken. But the thought of rolling 19 lbs of grain gives me nightmares. Note to self: Grain mill is now at the top of the beer-related purchase list. I guess my IIPA is now just an overly hopped IPA.
The commute home took 2 hours longer than normal due to road construction and idiot drivers. I got home and lugged the crate with the 6-gallon carboy to the crawl space basement where I let my various experiments ferment. To my surprise, it was around 90 degrees down there. Since I've owned that place (10 months), the temp has never fluctuated more than 3 degrees from its static 65 degrees. The best that I can figure is that the dehumidifier has been running non-stop all summer and is kicking out warm air.
Luckily, I have a 9cuft chest freezer that will be my keezer when I can finally get my liquor cabinet build started just sitting there looking lonely. I scrambled back and forth to the garage locating the temp controller and a worthy extension cord and finally had it plugged in and cooling. It took a Hurculean effort to get the carboy into that keezer. There was only about 2 inches of clearance between the CO2 lock and the ceiling. I can't stand erect (giggle) down there so I had less leverage than normal. After a few grunts that would make any female tennis pro envious, I managed to have it in and the lid on. I passed out about 2 minutes later in front of the air conditioner. I checked this morning and there's a tiny krausen forming and the thermometer I tossed into the keezer as an afterthought showed a perfect 66 degrees.
I hope you enjoyed my long-winded diatribe about a less than ideal brew day. Please feel free to share your frustrating brew days!
