Okay, so after attending a homebrew club meeting of Saturday, I headed home all revved up to brew my Honey Amber II - The return! (gotta love a beer that has a name before the brewpot hits the stove)
Well, juggling the 1yo, dinner pots and steeping water, it took a while to realize that while the thermometer read 149, the water was boiling! After pulling the grains, I did some soul searching and decided that all I had wasted at that point was about $2.50 worth of Crystal Malt, and that going ahead with a potential funky flavor was not worth it. So, a gallon of water down the sink and all the beer making supplies back in the basement until I can hit the brew store.
Did I do the right thing, dumping the proto-wort? Could I have gone ahead and used the steeping liquid anyway? I did RDWHAHB after I dumped the water, but wanted the feedback of brewers more experienced than I.
As a side question - what is the proper ratio of water to specialty grain? I have seen many different theories (and expect to get many posting to this thread too). My last brew I just steeped the grains in the full 5 gallons; the fermentor is just about ready to pull, so I will see the results in about another month or so. This batch, I was steeping 1lb in 1g of water. I was planning on incorporating the steeping liquid in another 4g of warm water and then rinsing the grains with cool water to bring the boil up to about 5.5g (which ends up at about 4.5g give or take at the end - this is just what I can boil). Am I going the right direction?
Thank
T
Well, juggling the 1yo, dinner pots and steeping water, it took a while to realize that while the thermometer read 149, the water was boiling! After pulling the grains, I did some soul searching and decided that all I had wasted at that point was about $2.50 worth of Crystal Malt, and that going ahead with a potential funky flavor was not worth it. So, a gallon of water down the sink and all the beer making supplies back in the basement until I can hit the brew store.
Did I do the right thing, dumping the proto-wort? Could I have gone ahead and used the steeping liquid anyway? I did RDWHAHB after I dumped the water, but wanted the feedback of brewers more experienced than I.
As a side question - what is the proper ratio of water to specialty grain? I have seen many different theories (and expect to get many posting to this thread too). My last brew I just steeped the grains in the full 5 gallons; the fermentor is just about ready to pull, so I will see the results in about another month or so. This batch, I was steeping 1lb in 1g of water. I was planning on incorporating the steeping liquid in another 4g of warm water and then rinsing the grains with cool water to bring the boil up to about 5.5g (which ends up at about 4.5g give or take at the end - this is just what I can boil). Am I going the right direction?
Thank
T