Porter brew day did not go as planned!

[Rootski]

Friday evening was a planned brew day for me. I had it all figured out and this one was going to go smooth! I had been given a NB St. Paul Porter kit as a gift last winter and put off brewing it, so I thought it was a good time to brew it up. I had gone back to NB's store and got new steeping grains since the others were old. This kit has been in my cupboard for 6 months, so I thought there wouldn't be an issue.

Problem #1: My first boil over - on the stove! I did a 3 gallon boil in an 8 gallon kettle so I never thought there'd be a problem and wasn't paying attention. Wrong!
Problem #2: I was trying something new and using a muslin bag for my hops. I wanted to add more hops to the bag later so I didn't tie it shut. I figured I was skilled enough to stir and not let the open end of the bag fall in. Nope. Hops spilled in anyways. So I gave up and added the late addition right into the wort.
Problem #3: I wasn't really reading the instructions since I've done a number of NB kits now. Half way through the boil I didn't have anything to do so I read that I was supposed to add 1 lb of dark DME. My kit did not have any DME in it at all. I should have looked before brewing, but since I had this kit for so long I thought everything was fine and that I had checked before. I didn't want this porter to be too low on %, so I rummaged around my stock and found about 13 oz of Briess Golden Light DME that I use for starters, dumped it in, and then added the remainder of an open priming sugar bag (corn sugar). It was roughly 7 oz. I noted this all in my log, but hopefully it's fine. Any thoughts on my last second recipe change? I didn't think it would affect much.

I've got a nice strong fermentation going, so I think beer is in the works, but man that brew day was a mess!

 

[GrogNerd]

#1 - we've all had one

#2 - a lot of people, including myself, don't bother with trying to keep hop gunk out of the fermenter

#3 - I think you're better off using fresher, lighter-colored DME than the dark stuff that would have been provided in the kit. when I was doing extract batches, I always used the lightest-colored extract the LHBS had and used specialty grains to get the color I wanted. the lighter-colored extracts sell more, so it should be fresher when you buy it

you probably won't get a beer as dark as the porter you wanted, that's about the only effect you should notice

 

[Calder]

I will not comment on what you did wrong, but at the end of everything, you will end up with a decent beer.

If the beer has a problem at the end of all this, these items are not the cause of it.


We have all had boil-overs.

I tried to bag my hops, but I find it much easier (and think it is better) to let them swim free and strain the hops going into the fermenter.

6 month old grains are no problem. If kept dry, they will be OK for a couple of years.