gnarlyhopper
Active Member
Yeah.
After a few years of moping over my first and only homebrew batch that failed, I have decided to jump back in.
Now one must fully understand "failed".
The product I gingerly opened and sampled had a wonderful slight cardboard
taste, some teasing carbonation, and let me tell you this stuff was DRY as I believe possible in any homebrewing effort. You could light a match off the foam. I have therefore decided that finding other homebrewers would be a good way to get this off the ground, with a much better chance of success.
My assistant on that fateful day was more inebriated than I was led to believe. It was nearly dark when I sent him to get the carboy, and he returned with the 5-gallon one, not the 6.5 as I had asked. Being nearly dark, I trusted he could tell the difference in size (they were side by side in the house), but I had misplaced my confidence. I also had got everything boiling, added the can of extract, and when it came time to add the DME I found that it had not only solidified in the bag, it was also stuck to it. I resolved to drop the whole bag in, hoping that gently stirring would release the DME, and I could fish the bag out. Well, that worked fine, but the bag may have contributed some kraft mill overtones. Back to the carboy.
The wort chiller cooled the entire 5-gallon batch in a little over 5 minutes. The temp dropped so fast, I nearly panicked. I managed to get the wort in the carboy without spilling a drop, pitched the yeast, capped it off, then set it in the stockpot in the closet to let the yeasties have at it. In less than 12 hours it was going crazy; in a few more, the carboy was relieving itself of its contents into the stockpot. By the time the yeast mellowed out, the carboy was a little over half-full. I was heartbroken. I eventually convinced myself to transfer to the other carboy, and after a rest, transferred to primed swingtops.
After this fiasco, I was rather pleased that I did not die of poisoning on the first taste. I drank two bottles to try to understand what I had created.
What I had created was a brew with absolutely no demand for it. And Kendall
is the kind of place where ANY brew is consumed!
Well, I don't want to brew for just any undiscriminating palate. But I would like to know if there are any local homebrewers that might want to initiate me in a brewing session, and eventually come over for a few when I start brewing again. (I think the key missing procedure/ingredient was having homebrews on brewing day..I had none!!!)
Cheers
gnarlyhopper
After a few years of moping over my first and only homebrew batch that failed, I have decided to jump back in.
Now one must fully understand "failed".
The product I gingerly opened and sampled had a wonderful slight cardboard
taste, some teasing carbonation, and let me tell you this stuff was DRY as I believe possible in any homebrewing effort. You could light a match off the foam. I have therefore decided that finding other homebrewers would be a good way to get this off the ground, with a much better chance of success.
My assistant on that fateful day was more inebriated than I was led to believe. It was nearly dark when I sent him to get the carboy, and he returned with the 5-gallon one, not the 6.5 as I had asked. Being nearly dark, I trusted he could tell the difference in size (they were side by side in the house), but I had misplaced my confidence. I also had got everything boiling, added the can of extract, and when it came time to add the DME I found that it had not only solidified in the bag, it was also stuck to it. I resolved to drop the whole bag in, hoping that gently stirring would release the DME, and I could fish the bag out. Well, that worked fine, but the bag may have contributed some kraft mill overtones. Back to the carboy.
The wort chiller cooled the entire 5-gallon batch in a little over 5 minutes. The temp dropped so fast, I nearly panicked. I managed to get the wort in the carboy without spilling a drop, pitched the yeast, capped it off, then set it in the stockpot in the closet to let the yeasties have at it. In less than 12 hours it was going crazy; in a few more, the carboy was relieving itself of its contents into the stockpot. By the time the yeast mellowed out, the carboy was a little over half-full. I was heartbroken. I eventually convinced myself to transfer to the other carboy, and after a rest, transferred to primed swingtops.
After this fiasco, I was rather pleased that I did not die of poisoning on the first taste. I drank two bottles to try to understand what I had created.
What I had created was a brew with absolutely no demand for it. And Kendall
is the kind of place where ANY brew is consumed!
Well, I don't want to brew for just any undiscriminating palate. But I would like to know if there are any local homebrewers that might want to initiate me in a brewing session, and eventually come over for a few when I start brewing again. (I think the key missing procedure/ingredient was having homebrews on brewing day..I had none!!!)
Cheers
gnarlyhopper
