About 10 days ago I easily had my most mistake prone brew day EVER.
I brew with a 20-gal Spike trio system, and have about 50 or so very successful brews with it. This time, I made not one, not two, but three big mistakes.
First off, I accidentally mashed in at 160 deg F (instead of 152) for the first 35 or so minutes of the mash. (I got distracted and forgot to reset the temp of the HLT down to 153 instead of 161 at mash in.).
Then, I forget to add my hops that were supposed to go in at zero minutes left in the boil. Imagine my pissed-off-ed-ness when I discovered them sitting on the counter when my fermenter is mostly full. [Insert scream here]
THEN, in a moment of brilliance, I add those hops to the fermenter (20 gallon Unitank) when I discover this. It looks like they have congealed like cement in the bottom of the fermenter and are preventing me from doing any sort of trub/yeast drop.
Fermenting took waaaay longer to start ... almost a week, but then got going vigorously and went on for 5-6 days, so at least something good happened. I tried to pull a sample out of the sampling valve to measure gravity, but the sampling valve appears to be clogged. (My tilt does show it down to 1016, and still working down to the expected 1.011)
Just to compound matters, I did do my dry hop addition a a day ago...I mean what the heck...It can't get any worse.
I'll let you know how this ends up. Who knows...Maybe it will be great and start the newest beer style like the NEIPA. I will call it the FUBAR Ale.
I brew with a 20-gal Spike trio system, and have about 50 or so very successful brews with it. This time, I made not one, not two, but three big mistakes.
First off, I accidentally mashed in at 160 deg F (instead of 152) for the first 35 or so minutes of the mash. (I got distracted and forgot to reset the temp of the HLT down to 153 instead of 161 at mash in.).
Then, I forget to add my hops that were supposed to go in at zero minutes left in the boil. Imagine my pissed-off-ed-ness when I discovered them sitting on the counter when my fermenter is mostly full. [Insert scream here]
THEN, in a moment of brilliance, I add those hops to the fermenter (20 gallon Unitank) when I discover this. It looks like they have congealed like cement in the bottom of the fermenter and are preventing me from doing any sort of trub/yeast drop.
Fermenting took waaaay longer to start ... almost a week, but then got going vigorously and went on for 5-6 days, so at least something good happened. I tried to pull a sample out of the sampling valve to measure gravity, but the sampling valve appears to be clogged. (My tilt does show it down to 1016, and still working down to the expected 1.011)
Just to compound matters, I did do my dry hop addition a a day ago...I mean what the heck...It can't get any worse.
I'll let you know how this ends up. Who knows...Maybe it will be great and start the newest beer style like the NEIPA. I will call it the FUBAR Ale.