Uh oh....... missed og and brew day disaster

Homebrew Talk

Help Support Homebrew Talk:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

Wobblybob

Supporting Member
HBT Supporter
Joined
May 12, 2020
Messages
89
Reaction score
18
OK so this was my fourth time brewing and used a extract kit chinook ipa from Northern Brewer which was my very first brew that I did in buckets and it came out great. Now this time I had a flood underneath the sink, you know how much crap is underneath the sink LOL new rug soaked and get everything cleaned dried and all that before I could even start brewing. Now everything went finNow this time I had a flood underneath the sink, you know how much crap is underneath the sink LOL new rug soaked and get everything cleaned dried and all that before I could even start brewing. now when I was doing the grands the heat got up to 180 and like an idiot I threw a half a gallon of cold water in there to cool it down, so now instead of 2 1/2 gallons of water I have 3 gallons of water that was my first mistake. now this was my first time using a hop spider and I’m really not sure that my wort came out like it should. The bottom of my Brewer cattle was damn near clean and I had a hot cake in the bottom of the spider that you had to dig out with a spoon. Only thing I did different was add a teaspoon of Irish Moss 15 minutes before the end of the boil. Cooling went very quickly in an ice bath in a stainless chiller it dropped down to I think 62°. I transferred it into the Anvil 7 gallon for mentor, are used a oxygen wand for about 45 seconds, sterilize the tilt and dropped it in there. sterilized the airlock and plopped it on top. I did not take a gravity reading with my hydrometer so I’m trusting my tilt and it said that my OG was 1.032. Recipe said the expected was 1.053. I took it into the master bedroom which is basically storage for vintage motorcycles, it’s cool back there I keep my house at 72° year-round but that bathroom back there is noticeably cooler. Till said it was 62°. Now I move the fermenter out into the kitchen because I thought it was too cool back there, the tilt says it’s 75° and I’m still getting bubbles but it really does not seem to be all that much. I’m sure I’m forgetting some thing in here but right now that’s where I’m at. Do I need to do anything else? Can I do anything else LOL? Thanks very much, Bob
 
Sounds like a heck of a brew day, LOL. Don't worry, we've all had them, or in my case, continue to have them.

Personally, I don't like trying to 'fix' beers after fermentation - I'd rather just go with I've got, might not be what I had in mind when I started, but if its good, that's fine. Not every beer is a medal-winner.

As for your fermentation temps, for most ale yeasts, 61F should be ok, for some its really great especially if you want 'cleaner' American style fermentation character. 75F is high (except for the Kveik strains of yeast), but moving it from 61 to 75 at the end of fermentation isn't a bad idea, it will help urge your yeast to get the last bit attentuation possible.

A word of advice about posting here - its terrifically difficult to read a big block of text like yours. You'll get more responses if you break it up into paragraphs.
 
Is this a 5 gallon extract kit ? If you boiled 3 gallons instead of 2.5 your fine . You just have to add the water after your boil to equal 5 gallons . If you didnt mix well enough you'll get a false reading . Extract kits are pretty much on the money when it comes to OG . What yeast did you use . When using dry yeast no need to oxygenate.
 
A word of advice about posting here - its terrifically difficult to read a big block of text like yours. You'll get more responses if you break it up into paragraphs.
Yeah paragraphs man, paragraphs! Much easier to better understand what you're communicating... ;)
Also leave out the non brewing related stuff if it's something specific you need some info on, also makes it easier to work out what exactly you're asking.

Regarding the batch, I'd let it ride & see how it turns out, and work out what you can do next time to avoid any mistakes you made. Happens to all of us, and it's all just part of the learning experience.

As I try to remind myself about most things, if no one died it's not that big a deal... ;)
 
I don't think 62 is too low for most clean ale yeasts. If you can keep it steady there without having to move it, you might have a great spot. I try to keep us 05 around 63 and let it come up to 68 or 70 for the last several days.
 
I don't think 62 is too low for most clean ale yeasts. If you can keep it steady there without having to move it, you might have a great spot. I try to keep us 05 around 63 and let it come up to 68 or 70 for the last several days.

I ferment really big stouts with (usually) WLP001 at 61F. It's the slow boat, but it really does help keep the yeast derived character clean.
 
Back
Top