Not Panicking...

[alfista]

Ok, so cooked up my second batch yesterday with my brother. Being distracted with other topics, we added the first couple of scoops of grain to the liqour without the false bottom inserted. We transferred everything back to the kettle and installed the false bottom and continued as planned. However, we didn't do a very good job of cleaning the valve from grain and we jammed it up when trying to drain into the kettle. Our only option (as I could see it was to transfer the whole mash (6.5g) back into the kettle and then back into the mashtun after a proper cleaning, which we did. We recirculated it a bit and then we batch sparged as per plan and continued as if nothing happened. After the boil we cooled the wort and then transferred into a 6.5g carboy and pitched the yeast. I think we might have pitched with it a little warm as it was hard to get an accurate temperature reading in the carboy (I think I need to attach a wire to the thermometer to make it possible to recover from the carboy).

This morning, the yeast is showing signs of activity (less than 12h later) but there is a ton of trub at the bottom and I doubt we'll achieve 5 gallons unless I further top it off (my 6.5g is not marked).

Any serious concerns about this situation?

Thanks,

Jason

 

[david_42]

You might have gotten some hot side oxidation from all of the transfering. The flavor is commonly called "wet cardboard".

I've forgotten the bazooka tube in my mash tun and slopped the mash back & forth to install it without a problem.

 

[Lil' Sparky]

I think you'll be fine. All the transferring was before you even sparged, right?

Don't sweat the trub. I've usually got more (fluffy) trub after I pitch the yeast than before I transfer to the secondary. I wouldn't top up at all. So what if you're a six pack short in the end???

 

[alfista]

Thanks gents...about six hours after this post it developed a nice head and clouded up with excited yeast swirling around. Happily bubbling away. All the transferring definitely happened prior to sparging. Hopefully none of this 'wet cardboard' - we'll see.

Thanks for the tips!