What did you learn this week?

[Bytor1100]

It's time to build my own brewery in my back room. SWMBO is gone, build the castle.

 

[cageybee]

I learned to disassemble the bottle filling rod in order to clean/sanitize it properly. on a whim - while cleaning, I took it completely apart and found yeast clumps inside the spring.

 

[nvrstck]

I learned that this site has some cool paid members-only pages!

 

[Beergazzi]

That if you screw up by pitching yeast at at 88 degrees in a stout, that if you wait 6 weeks after bottling to have one, it will not be the estery phenolic fusel taste bomb I was told it would be..and it would actually rival any stout I've ever had.

Here is to time curing stupidity!

 

[thadius856]

Pitching at 88F isn't necessarily a bad thing. Nottingham is supposed to be regydrated at 86-95F anyway.

If you leave the wort at 88F after pitching and let it start fermenting at high temps, that's when it gets bad.

I usually pitch Notty into my keggle while IC and aeration are still running. We hit 90F, I pitch the yeast, we wait for it to chill as low as the groundwater will get it (about 68F these days) in a reasonable timeframe, then into the 55F fermentation chamber it goes (Notty is 57-70F recommeded) with a recirculation fan. By the time the yeast wakes up, we're below 62F in the liquid. Even at the peak of fermentation, the wort temperature stays at the bottom of the range.

 

[fuzzy2133]

DME and LME displace water.

1/2 galling head space in the boil pot is very risky with boil overs; keep one hand on the burner control (was able to slow/stop potential boil overs).

 

[thadius856]

Use some FermCap and 1/2 gallon headspace is no longer a big issue. I've done over 14 gallon boils in a 15 gallon keggle and felt confident enough to walk away for 90% of the boil.

 

[dryboroughbrewing]

I discovered that pumpernickel bread requires a lot of scrubbing and some Barkeeper's Friend to completely remove from my kettle.

 

[JTTX80]

Here is what I learned. This is a picture of my wife and my brother in law cleaning up 5 gallons of what was going to be pumpkin pie ale. I learned that 1. Marble counter tops are the bane of glass carboys. 2. My brother in law should not be the one to move a full glass carboy. 3. I should really use a PET bottle for my primary.

My brother in law learned that today's brewing lesson cost him about $65.

 

[thadius856]

Sounds like an inexpensive lesson learned.

 

[Effingbeer]

Sounds like an inexpensive lesson learned.

Yeah! Stitches would have been a few bucks more. Glad no one was hurt!

 

[JTTX80]

No everyone is ok, thankfully. My BIL was kinda embarrassed that he broke it and offered to pay to replace all the ingredients. Just delays the beer by another week. Spent the rest of the day swimming so it wasn't a total loss.

 

[DrunkleJon]

I learned to pay attention. Last night I had my 2 fresh kegs of cream ale sitting in front of my keezer and decided to clean the lines. after cleaning the line, filled the spare keg up with plan hot water to run through and rinse before using a quick sanitizer rinse and attached it up. Ran through the lines a couple pints worth and could not figure out why the liquid coming out was not clear yet. Smelled it and you guessed it. I had attached one of the flat Cream ale kegs up and was rinsing with that. After a "I am an idiot" bout of grumbling, switched to the water keg and decided I deserve the shame to drive the lesson home so I am sharing it today. I must say I am glad I made a 10 Gal batch though.

 

[unionrdr]

Yup. I just mentioned something like this in a noob's thread a lil while ago. Don't think too far ahead,as it tends to make one rush & make mistakes. slow & methodical seems to help me a lot.
But after watching all this bandying back & forth between what happened in Boston & Texas with the way the news portrays things...I come back to this.
Don Henley had it right-When it's said & done,we haven't told you a thing. We all know that cr** is king,keep yo' dirty laundry!.

 

[doornumber3]

I learned that before you put your floating thermometer back in the tube case it came in, make sure the bottom piece is on so it doesn't fall out the other side

 

[bleme]

I learned to pay attention. Last night I had my 2 fresh kegs of cream ale sitting in front of my keezer and decided to clean the lines.

A brewing friend of mine just went through and color coded all his buckets and kegs with a band of colored duct tape. He had a problem figuring out which bucket had his pale ale and which was his blonde, but it seems like it would help with your situation as well.

 

[DrunkleJon]

Yeah. I even hada large strip of blue painters tape on the lids with CREAM ALE written on them. It was just a bout of autopilot. What I really should have done was put the beer ones to the side and not in a line with the water one. Live and learn. Though I am sure I am going to miss those couple pints worth come the end of the kegs.

 

[truvr]

I learned that it is not a good idea to store starsan in a plastic water jug.

 

[IL1kebeer]

I learned that it is not a good idea to store starsan in a plastic water jug.

Diluted starsan? Why would this be a problem? I store my starsan solution in gallon plastic water jugs with no ill effects.

 

[truvr]

Diluted starsan? Why would this be a problem? I store my starsan solution in gallon plastic water jugs with no ill effects.

I had heard that milk style plastic water jugs would work for a while but that eventually the starsan would eat through the plastic. That eventuality caught up with me yesterday. I guess I'm going to have to buy some Carlo Rossi for the glass jug...

 

[smccarter]

Stir pre-boil wort before taking a gravity reading sample.

 

[Cheapo]

I learned that before you put your floating thermometer back in the tube case it came in, make sure the bottom piece is on so it doesn't fall out the other side

Hahaha, too many gravity samples?

 

[unionrdr]

I learned that skype sucks,messes up things in my computer when it does allow me to log on,& they charge $$ for everything. So much for that. It screwed up my E-mail,had to try & fix that. My youtube videos don't get hardly any hits,so being old & no pretty boy sucks. So forget getting to be a partner anytime soon. Youtube is def not user friendly...sjporr was right. Too warm to brew by afternoon,electric company added 2nd company that I didn't want. Water bill padded to high heaven,no computer sustem there to keep thieves in check. My tires are bald & leaking,I need one more control arm to replace'em both...& being retired & broke with a huge mortgage sucks as well. I picked a fine time to stop smoking. I even fixed the busted a$$ lawn mower to stop paying to get that done. All the money I saved on lawn mowing & not smoking got ate up by one bill alone! Somebody shoot me,I'm done with this crap!

 

[stahlsau]

Well I learned...that buying stuff which sounds cool sometimes isn't the right thing to do. Carapils apparently, despite the cool name, is crystal malt with almost no enzymes left to split up the starch. As I learned after ordering it, it's only used to enhance the body or something, but not to make 100% of the mash. Well, ordered an additional load of normal pilsener malt then.

Oh and, when setting up orders on 5 different shops to get your kegging stuff together, don't delete the corny kegs with NC fittings from one shop, only because you found some for 2 bucks cheaper. Could be they are CC kegs, and all your fitting wont...fit.

 

[Transamguy77]

Holy Necro post Batman! Those are all good things to learn, what grains will do what things and yes trying to keep several orders organized so you know what you actually ordered.

 

[PCABrewing]

Well I learned...that buying stuff which sounds cool sometimes isn't the right thing to do. Carapils apparently, despite the cool name, is crystal malt with almost no enzymes left to split up the starch.

If it's any consolation, the Crystal malt will store well for a long time if it is kept cool and dry and free of pests.

 

[stahlsau]

uh well...I was just browsing some old threads....didn|t notice it was that old when I wrote the answer ;-)