Bernie Brewer
Grouchy Old Fart
Brewed for the first time since March today. What a disaster.
Let me give you a little background first. My brew setup is a 10 gallon Igloo round cooler and a turkey burner with a Sankey keg. I always preheat my mash water with a heatstick. I also use a stick to raise temp when step-mashing. Always worked great. Well this time I thought I'd be like Tim the Tool Man and get MORE POWER. I built me a second heatstick, this one 2000 watts instead of 1500. I also made it straight instead of angling it 90 deg.
So I'm mashing and everything is going swimmingly, and it's time to step up the temp. I put in my new stick and step away for a couple of minutes, two or three at the most. Suddenly I hear water dripping onto the ground. Yep, my new heatstick burned a hole right through my MLT!!!!!
After several exclamatory words that one should never say on a Sunday, I raced down to my beer room and grabbed my old plastic primary fermenter and finished the mash in that, muddled through the sparge and am now starting the boil. Surprisingly enough, my preliminary gravity seems to be right on. But the wort has a burnt smell and flavor, so it should be an interesting brew. It was going to be a DecemberFest(since it will never be ready by October) but with the burnt flavor I'm not sure what I will call it. Any Ideas??
So now I'm without an MLT. I have an old Coleman cooler in my attic that we never use anymore, I might try that. Bummer, though about my 10 gallon Igloo. A moment of silence, please, and run your flags at half staff for awhile.
Let me give you a little background first. My brew setup is a 10 gallon Igloo round cooler and a turkey burner with a Sankey keg. I always preheat my mash water with a heatstick. I also use a stick to raise temp when step-mashing. Always worked great. Well this time I thought I'd be like Tim the Tool Man and get MORE POWER. I built me a second heatstick, this one 2000 watts instead of 1500. I also made it straight instead of angling it 90 deg.
So I'm mashing and everything is going swimmingly, and it's time to step up the temp. I put in my new stick and step away for a couple of minutes, two or three at the most. Suddenly I hear water dripping onto the ground. Yep, my new heatstick burned a hole right through my MLT!!!!!
After several exclamatory words that one should never say on a Sunday, I raced down to my beer room and grabbed my old plastic primary fermenter and finished the mash in that, muddled through the sparge and am now starting the boil. Surprisingly enough, my preliminary gravity seems to be right on. But the wort has a burnt smell and flavor, so it should be an interesting brew. It was going to be a DecemberFest(since it will never be ready by October) but with the burnt flavor I'm not sure what I will call it. Any Ideas??
So now I'm without an MLT. I have an old Coleman cooler in my attic that we never use anymore, I might try that. Bummer, though about my 10 gallon Igloo. A moment of silence, please, and run your flags at half staff for awhile.