Brewing horror stories

[eadavis80]

Today was extract batch no. 10 and my second outdoor brew, but my first with my own equipment as my first outdoor brew was my brother-in-law's stuff. Well, I'll be curious to taste in a month because of what I created today.

1. My new thermometer didn't read quite right, but I didn't realize that until it was possibly too late. When I tested the the thermometer I had it amply submerged in liquid and it got a valid reading. However, now I know that it has to be into the liquid to a certain level and it was not at that level when getting the water ready for steeping grains. As a result, I think I steeped possibly 8-10 degrees too hot for about 10 minutes. Hopefully not a huge deal, but not a good start to the brew day.

2. When adding hop addition no. 1 on the day after adding the recipe's LME and DME, I experienced my first boil over. Never had one inside (the wife would kill me), but there was an ample supply of green hop mess on the sides of my new 8-gallon Tall Boy kettle. I don't know how much volume I lost or how much of the just added DME, LME or hops were spilled over.

3. So, I added a few hop pellets of a different kind of hop to "make up for" the "loss" of hop addition one. This might have been a big boo boo, but I only put in about a 1/4 ounce at most, so I doubt this will have a huge impact on the flavor. There are 4 ounces of hops in this kit.

4. When putting the wort chiller into the kettle after the boil a leak sprang from the fixture and some garden hose water (probably about a cup or so - again - impossible to tell) got into the wort. 1 cup out of 5 gallons is hopefully no big deal, but it was not a great way to end a rough brew day.

I was all excited for my first outdoor brew with my new outdoor burner and kettle, but with all these variables, I am not too confident in this latest creation. Guess I'll find out a month from now.

Hey - at least the boil over was outside and the wife didn't have worry about it.

What are your home brewing horror stories?

 

[charliehorse]

I don't see very many problems here.
1. the purpose of steeping grains is to get some of the starch out. Most steeping grains aren't converted to sugar so temperature isn't nearly as critical as it is in all grain brewing.
2. Not really a huge deal. sure you lost a bit of hops, but unlikely enough to ruin the taste.
3. the hops that you add at the beginning of the boil are for bittering. If you didn't add a quarter ounce, it might be less bitter than the recipe, but not a big deal. Adding a quarter ounce isn't going to hurt anything.
4. Your wort chiller leaked. Again, since you aren't doing a full boil and you back fill to gravity and volume, this isn't going to kill anything.

All that said, Charlie P. said it best: RDWHAHB!

Seriously. This hobby is supposed to be fun. Taking it too seriously takes the fun away. I was at a group brew and accidentally kicked over my container of base malt. What did I do? I laughed, swept it up, milled it and mashed it and made beer. The stuff is malt on the floor anyway.

 

[eadavis80]

To clarify - it was a full boil. Even though it was an extract kit I started with 6 gallons of water to yield 5 gallons of beer. It was a fun day in its own way - made for an interesting story if nothing else. That being said, I will be a little bummed if the beer turns out nasty, but I think it'll be at least okay.

 

[TheBrewingBear]

1. Under 170 should be no problem for a steep. Over 170 you can get astringent tannins. Most people aim for 150 to 155.

2. Fermencap makes life easier here.

3. Good call. As long as you matched HBUs, you'll hit the expected bitterness.

4. A small amount shouldn't matter. Yeast should vastly outnumber any stray microbes. The hose taste should be pretty diluted to where you shouldn't taste it.

Homebrew bloopers make great stories. They usually end with "and the beer turned out great!"

 

[eadavis80]

What's a fermencap?

 

[2drunk2]

I once racked sanitizer into my bottling bucket. The beer was delicious even with a siphon full of sanitizer in it.

 

[Pkrd]

Sounds like you made some beer.

If you didn't cover yourself with boiling wort or smash a carboy then its not a horror story.

 

[charliehorse]

What's a fermencap?

Femcap is an anti-foaming agent.
http://morebeer.com/products/foam-control-fermcaps-1-oz.html

 

[kombat]

1. the purpose of steeping grains is to get some of the starch out. Most steeping grains aren't converted to sugar so temperature isn't nearly as critical as it is in all grain brewing.

Just a minor correction here, steeping grains provide sugar, not starch. The difference with steeping/specialty grains (as opposed to base grains) is that the starches have already been converted to sugars during the kilning process. However, since those sugars were produced by the application of heat, rather than by enzymatic activity, they are mostly unfermentable sugars. They'll still contribute to the gravity, but they will (for the most part) not be converted to alcohol during fermentation.

The temperature recommended for steeping is intended to be hot enough to dissolve those sugars from the steeping grains and to have a low enough viscosity for them to be "washed" out of the grains as easily as possible, but not so hot as to extract harsh tannins from the husks.

 

[IvanTheTerribrew]

Thanks for sharing your story, but definitely RDWHAHB.

All the things you listed happen to everyone eventually. Boil overs happen, some people (including myself) use fermcap S to reduce the chances of it but 1) boil overs aren't too hard to avoid, 2) fermcap S is a silicone based liquid that is "suppose" to sink to the bottom but it isn't exactly safe to consume so I very rarely use it.

Adding the extra hops was a good idea, I wouldn't even worry about it. Unless you had A LOT of loss, and unless you're going to get your beer analyzed professionally for the IBUs, you probably won't notice any difference.

The water thing isn't too bad. Just get some Teflon tape or silicone caulk to get all those connections sealed for next time.

Again, this will likely end with "..and it tasted great!"




- ISM NRP

 

[wobrien]

Once I drank too much while brewing with my brother and looked at the Celsius side of my thermometer and mashed at what I thought was 152F, but was actually 52C. That beer turned out terrible.