Yesterday my brother and I decided on a marathon brew day. It was to include bottling an IPA, brewing up a partial mash Centennial Blonde and a Partial mash American Amber.
The day started off poorly with a broken bottling spigot. I poured star san in the bucket and it started spraying out the spigot. I had to wait until noon for the LHBS to open to get a replacement. It allowed my to get some other supplies though. When I got back we started by washing everything needed for the brew day. The IPA yielded 49 bottles, very nice. Around 4PM I mashed in on the American Amber. Hit my temps (154) and threw it in a 150F oven. It was my first time using the oven to hold temps, it worked well. At the end of the mash the temp was ~156F (I'll drop the temp a little next time). The recipe was a partial mash/partial boil so I was going to add the extract at flameout. Of course I forgot to add the extract so I added it when the wort was at about 120F while it was cooling in an ice bath. Luckily I caught the mistake while the wort was still warm enough to dissolve the extract. When I threw it in the carboy with filtered water and took a gravity reading.... i overshot my gravity by 10 points! 1.052 vs 1.062. I added as much water as I could to dillute it, but a 5gal better bottle only has so much room. I forgot that the recipes in Brewing classic styles assume a 6 gal batch... hopefully there is enough hop presence to account for a little more gravity.
So with that behind me and the strike water already heated, I mashed in on BMs Centennial Blonde (my second attempt, first one was hated by all and was finished in 5 days
) Mashed a little warm at 154F. All went smooothly and when I took the gravity I was a little light at 1.038. I think the wort wasn't completely mixed though. Everything went well.
Then this morning I went to move the carboys from the 2nd floor bathtub up to the third floor. The temps were looking good at 64F (gotta love New England fall temps) I carried the Amber upstairs with a brewhauler. In my right hand I was also holding a small bucket with star san and the blow off tube in it. I got to the top step, stumbled and slowly fell with 5.5gallons of heavenly nectar in my mitts. The blow off tube came flying out, but luckily I had a bung in the top of the carboy. The carboy was lying on its side, with beer slowly pouring out the small opening in the bung. I quickly jumped up and saved it. I only lost about .25 gallon but jerked my thumb pretty bad. It could have been an absolute disaster. Cleaning the carpet was a pain in the ass though.
Long story short, I love better bottles and I'm very glad I use a bung with my blow off tubes instead of one large tube. In 6 weeks I will have ~150 beers ready for a cold New England winter (plus Blegian Blonde, Wit and Chocolate Porter)
The day started off poorly with a broken bottling spigot. I poured star san in the bucket and it started spraying out the spigot. I had to wait until noon for the LHBS to open to get a replacement. It allowed my to get some other supplies though. When I got back we started by washing everything needed for the brew day. The IPA yielded 49 bottles, very nice. Around 4PM I mashed in on the American Amber. Hit my temps (154) and threw it in a 150F oven. It was my first time using the oven to hold temps, it worked well. At the end of the mash the temp was ~156F (I'll drop the temp a little next time). The recipe was a partial mash/partial boil so I was going to add the extract at flameout. Of course I forgot to add the extract so I added it when the wort was at about 120F while it was cooling in an ice bath. Luckily I caught the mistake while the wort was still warm enough to dissolve the extract. When I threw it in the carboy with filtered water and took a gravity reading.... i overshot my gravity by 10 points! 1.052 vs 1.062. I added as much water as I could to dillute it, but a 5gal better bottle only has so much room. I forgot that the recipes in Brewing classic styles assume a 6 gal batch... hopefully there is enough hop presence to account for a little more gravity.
So with that behind me and the strike water already heated, I mashed in on BMs Centennial Blonde (my second attempt, first one was hated by all and was finished in 5 days
) Mashed a little warm at 154F. All went smooothly and when I took the gravity I was a little light at 1.038. I think the wort wasn't completely mixed though. Everything went well.Then this morning I went to move the carboys from the 2nd floor bathtub up to the third floor. The temps were looking good at 64F (gotta love New England fall temps) I carried the Amber upstairs with a brewhauler. In my right hand I was also holding a small bucket with star san and the blow off tube in it. I got to the top step, stumbled and slowly fell with 5.5gallons of heavenly nectar in my mitts. The blow off tube came flying out, but luckily I had a bung in the top of the carboy. The carboy was lying on its side, with beer slowly pouring out the small opening in the bung. I quickly jumped up and saved it. I only lost about .25 gallon but jerked my thumb pretty bad. It could have been an absolute disaster. Cleaning the carpet was a pain in the ass though.
Long story short, I love better bottles and I'm very glad I use a bung with my blow off tubes instead of one large tube. In 6 weeks I will have ~150 beers ready for a cold New England winter (plus Blegian Blonde, Wit and Chocolate Porter)
