My 24th batch, 21st all grain. Worst. Brew. Day. Ever.
A friend has wanted to get into homebrewing so we decided to brew together. He's an IPA nut so I looked for a relatively simple recipe we could do. I found Yooper's Dogfish Head clone, it wasn't all that complicated (so I thought), so we decided to do it. Went to LHBS for ingredients, got everything we needed (13# 2-row, 6 oz Thomas Fawcett roasted, Warrior, Simcoe, Amarillo, S-05).
We start the brew day and it goes ok at the beginning. He helps me mill the grain, we get water going. I've used EZ water to get a profile (RO water, add 6gr Gypsum, 6gr CaCl, 5 gr Epsom Salts, 2.5 ml Lactic Acid), so we're ready to go. Predicted PH is 5.42.
Well. Worst. Brew. Day. Ever. Oh, I said that. My friend is taking notes and asking questions. Good student. I'm working on answering him and explaining and providing context as we go. Strike water is warmed to target temp, so we begin dough-in.
ACK! WE'RE DOUGHED IN, AND I FORGOT THE WATER ADDITIONS!!! FRANTIC ADDITIONS TO MASH, STIRRING LIKE MAD TO GET THEM ALL MIXED IN, HOPING IT'LL WORK OUT.
We wait. At least the mash temp is ok at 152, so I set out to calibrate the PH meter. Calibrate it, then at 15 minutes in, draw a sample off the mash. I put it in a small glass that has been in the freezer so as to cool the sample to room temp as quickly as possible.
It cools, I put in the PH meter.
ACK! THE PH IS 4.95. SOMETHING'S WRONG. I'VE NEVER BEEN THIS LOW! MAYBE WE DIDN'T STIR ENOUGH--I DON'T KNOW.
We open mash tun, stir again. Draw another sample (had another frozen glass), drop to room temperature. Mash PH settles at 5.08. Can't figure out what's wrong. Recalibrate PH meter, thinking that may be the culprit. It's not. Calibrates fine, registers calibration solutions correctly.
Using refractometer, check gravity of sample. It's pretty high (1.079 or so), which means conversion is occurring.
We continue on to the end of the mash (60 minutes), start vorlauf. First runnings have a gravity of 1.093, which is....fine. Normal. About where I would have guessed given previous largish grain bills. We sparge just fine, second runnings are 1.035 (fine), and preboil overall gravity is 1.057. Just fine. Not sure what effect the PH had but conversion was where I'd have expected it.
Boil kettle heating, cleanup of mash tun ensues, kettle is close to boiling, we review hop additions. Instructions say .75 oz Warrior, but the ones we have are lower in AA than recipe specifies. Debate concludes: put in the whole ounce. We do.
ACK! CLOSER READING OF INSTRUCTIONS: HALF OF WARRIOR IN A 60 MINUTES, HALF AT 35 MINUTES. ALL ARE IN AT 60 MINUTES!
Boil proceeds. Rest of hops to be sprinked in continuously after 35 minutes. We do that, more or less. Focused on sprinkling hops, forgetting other issues:
ACK! FORGOT TO ADD WHIRLFLOC TABLET AT 15 MINUTES, FORGOT TO PUT IMMERSION CHILLER IN AT 15 MINUTES!
We put IC in kettle, think on it a bit, decide to return kettle to boil for a bit to sterilize IC, give whirlfloc a chance. Boil for 5 minutes, begin chilling wort.
Rest of brew day goes fine--reconstituted yeast OK, racked wort to fermenter, aerated wort w/ O2, pitched yeast. Within six hours, airlock is bubbling; activity! Fermenter in fermentation chamber, set at 64 degrees.
*******************
I've brewed a lot of good beers. I love people's reactions to my beer, which typically runs to "Hey, that's pretty good!" I have people wanting more, which while not necessarily elevating my beer to "great" levels, certainly suggests it's good. Heck, I'd rather drink my beer than anything they have at the local pub, which says something about either my beer or my taste.
Why was my brew day all screwed up? I tend to be very focused on brew day, reviewing directions, arranging equipment and so on. I know that part of the confusion was a new arrangement/setup for brewing when it's 30 degrees outside.
We put a box fan in a window to exhaust steam so it wouldn't gather in the garage ceiling, added a propane heater, and cracked the service door to provide makeup air. This necessitated moving my equipment, table, and so on from its normal location. (Pic below--I'm really excited by this as it means as long as the temp outside is near freezing, I can brew).
The new arrangements--and having lots of questions and explaining to do to my friend--threw me off my game. I never miss water additions, always review directions, I'm *organized*.
I think the beer will turn out ok. There's still dry-hopping to do, and while it may not match Yooper's clone recipe, it'll still be beer. I'm still unclear why the PH turned out so low--have to do some thinking on that.
I'm also going to rethink how I might include someone in brew day. Have any of you done this successfully? How did you do it without screwing up your brew?
PS: We had a couple of beers--I'm serious, two--but they were later in the brew day and neither of us felt any effects. So don't blame the beer!
A friend has wanted to get into homebrewing so we decided to brew together. He's an IPA nut so I looked for a relatively simple recipe we could do. I found Yooper's Dogfish Head clone, it wasn't all that complicated (so I thought), so we decided to do it. Went to LHBS for ingredients, got everything we needed (13# 2-row, 6 oz Thomas Fawcett roasted, Warrior, Simcoe, Amarillo, S-05).
We start the brew day and it goes ok at the beginning. He helps me mill the grain, we get water going. I've used EZ water to get a profile (RO water, add 6gr Gypsum, 6gr CaCl, 5 gr Epsom Salts, 2.5 ml Lactic Acid), so we're ready to go. Predicted PH is 5.42.
Well. Worst. Brew. Day. Ever. Oh, I said that. My friend is taking notes and asking questions. Good student. I'm working on answering him and explaining and providing context as we go. Strike water is warmed to target temp, so we begin dough-in.
ACK! WE'RE DOUGHED IN, AND I FORGOT THE WATER ADDITIONS!!! FRANTIC ADDITIONS TO MASH, STIRRING LIKE MAD TO GET THEM ALL MIXED IN, HOPING IT'LL WORK OUT.
We wait. At least the mash temp is ok at 152, so I set out to calibrate the PH meter. Calibrate it, then at 15 minutes in, draw a sample off the mash. I put it in a small glass that has been in the freezer so as to cool the sample to room temp as quickly as possible.
It cools, I put in the PH meter.
ACK! THE PH IS 4.95. SOMETHING'S WRONG. I'VE NEVER BEEN THIS LOW! MAYBE WE DIDN'T STIR ENOUGH--I DON'T KNOW.
We open mash tun, stir again. Draw another sample (had another frozen glass), drop to room temperature. Mash PH settles at 5.08. Can't figure out what's wrong. Recalibrate PH meter, thinking that may be the culprit. It's not. Calibrates fine, registers calibration solutions correctly.
Using refractometer, check gravity of sample. It's pretty high (1.079 or so), which means conversion is occurring.
We continue on to the end of the mash (60 minutes), start vorlauf. First runnings have a gravity of 1.093, which is....fine. Normal. About where I would have guessed given previous largish grain bills. We sparge just fine, second runnings are 1.035 (fine), and preboil overall gravity is 1.057. Just fine. Not sure what effect the PH had but conversion was where I'd have expected it.
Boil kettle heating, cleanup of mash tun ensues, kettle is close to boiling, we review hop additions. Instructions say .75 oz Warrior, but the ones we have are lower in AA than recipe specifies. Debate concludes: put in the whole ounce. We do.
ACK! CLOSER READING OF INSTRUCTIONS: HALF OF WARRIOR IN A 60 MINUTES, HALF AT 35 MINUTES. ALL ARE IN AT 60 MINUTES!
Boil proceeds. Rest of hops to be sprinked in continuously after 35 minutes. We do that, more or less. Focused on sprinkling hops, forgetting other issues:
ACK! FORGOT TO ADD WHIRLFLOC TABLET AT 15 MINUTES, FORGOT TO PUT IMMERSION CHILLER IN AT 15 MINUTES!
We put IC in kettle, think on it a bit, decide to return kettle to boil for a bit to sterilize IC, give whirlfloc a chance. Boil for 5 minutes, begin chilling wort.
Rest of brew day goes fine--reconstituted yeast OK, racked wort to fermenter, aerated wort w/ O2, pitched yeast. Within six hours, airlock is bubbling; activity! Fermenter in fermentation chamber, set at 64 degrees.
*******************
I've brewed a lot of good beers. I love people's reactions to my beer, which typically runs to "Hey, that's pretty good!" I have people wanting more, which while not necessarily elevating my beer to "great" levels, certainly suggests it's good. Heck, I'd rather drink my beer than anything they have at the local pub, which says something about either my beer or my taste.
Why was my brew day all screwed up? I tend to be very focused on brew day, reviewing directions, arranging equipment and so on. I know that part of the confusion was a new arrangement/setup for brewing when it's 30 degrees outside.
We put a box fan in a window to exhaust steam so it wouldn't gather in the garage ceiling, added a propane heater, and cracked the service door to provide makeup air. This necessitated moving my equipment, table, and so on from its normal location. (Pic below--I'm really excited by this as it means as long as the temp outside is near freezing, I can brew).
The new arrangements--and having lots of questions and explaining to do to my friend--threw me off my game. I never miss water additions, always review directions, I'm *organized*.
I think the beer will turn out ok. There's still dry-hopping to do, and while it may not match Yooper's clone recipe, it'll still be beer. I'm still unclear why the PH turned out so low--have to do some thinking on that.
I'm also going to rethink how I might include someone in brew day. Have any of you done this successfully? How did you do it without screwing up your brew?
PS: We had a couple of beers--I'm serious, two--but they were later in the brew day and neither of us felt any effects. So don't blame the beer!
