Why do I want to keep brewing? Bad brew day.

[stlblues5010]

I was brewing the other day, everything is going great. I was beginning the the chilling with a immersion chiller. When low and behold I noticed I went from ~11 gals of wort to ~18gals of wort. The inlet line had popped off and added not only 7gals of water but COLD water so now my temp is in the 130's.

At this point I have 4 options:
1. Dump the whole thing. Don't really want to do that. $$$$
2. Reboil it and have a really weak cream ale. Don't want that either.
3. Boil off 7gals of water to be back at target. ~7hrs? $$$ Don't think so.
4. Lastly and the route I went. Add 2.5 lbs of light DME, boil for ~90 mins and have ~15 gals of some kind of beer.

Mind you the 90min boil took 2 to 2.5 hrs since I had to heat 18 gals of wort to boiling from the 130's not the usual ~168.

I am working on modifying my chiller so that doesn't happen again.

So I ask, why do we do this?

I couldn't imagine having this happen on a brewery scale.

I am thankful that it was the cold in and not the hot out and spraying hot water all over me or possibly the cat.

Originally the beer was called Honey Make It! Cream Ale. Because it had honey given to me from a friend and I asked the wife what style she wanted. Maybe I shouldn't have done that.

Suggestions for a new name?

Moral of the story. Always check your fittings and connections.

 

[ChelisHubby]

W T F Honey!

 

[schematix]

Had something similar happen once before. Immersion chiller sprung a leak towards the end of chill down. Ended up bringing it back up to boil for 10 minutes, while I ran to the LHBS for an immersion chiller.

Ended up being a damn fine beer in the end. So good we tried to recreate it, and well, it just wasn't as good. Go figure.

I think you did the right thing to save it.

 

[stlblues5010]

Thanks for the reassurance. I friend say the same thing about a dinner FU best dinner they ever had and can't duplicate it.

 

[Aristotelian]

1. Reboil it and boil off to your target volume, as long as it takes. You can save this batch.

2. No offense, but I have never seen the point of the immersion chiller. Just seems like more trouble than it's worth. Just give it a water bath or use frozen water bottles if you are really pressed for time.

 

[catdaddy66]

1. Reboil it and boil off to your target volume, as long as it takes. You can save this batch.

2. No offense, but I have never seen the point of the immersion chiller. Just seems like more trouble than it's worth. Just give it a water bath or use frozen water bottles if you are really pressed for time.

Agree completely in point #2! Cold water with frozen 2L bottles do the job quickly and efficiently. If i want to hopstand then I use the water only for 30 minutes before adding the ice.

 

[Braufessor]

Sounds like you handled it perfectly to me. I ALWAYS keep DME on hand for various screw ups in regard to gravity etc..... simple, and easy fix for a variety of problems. Based on my experience, your biggest problem is going to be this beer turning out awesome and never being able to replicate it

Personally, I think immersion chillers are great. Mine has garden hose connects and disconnects... nothing to "pop off." They are simple, fast, and most of all - super easy to clean.

Sounds to me like a bad situation turned out ok for you - or at least as well as it was going to turn out.

 

[Transamguy77]

2. No offense, but I have never seen the point of the immersion chiller. Just seems like more trouble than it's worth. Just give it a water bath or use frozen water bottles if you are really pressed for time.

Have you ever tried to cool 11+ gallons in a water bath? Not to mention having a container big enough to put a 20 gallon pot to cool it?

As to the OP I think you did what you needed to do to make it work, not sure how your chiller is set up but I have hard pipe on mine with 90 degree bends at the top and it's all soldered so no leaks. Hope you get is fixed before your next brew day.

 

[passedpawn]

I've had light beers (pilsner, pale ale, etc) come out low for whatever reason. They were suprisingly good, which made me come to the conclusion that a beer under 1.050 is an awesome, refreshing beer. So, I don't correct mine. Now, if it was under 1.040, I'd probably just boil longer (which is easy for electric brewers).

 

[55x11]

Have you ever tried to cool 11+ gallons in a water bath? Not to mention having a container big enough to put a 20 gallon pot to cool it?

As to the OP I think you did what you needed to do to make it work, not sure how your chiller is set up but I have hard pipe on mine with 90 degree bends at the top and it's all soldered so no leaks. Hope you get is fixed before your next brew day.

DITTO! (No point in immersion chiller? Water bath, seriously?!)

even for 5G it would take a long time. The goal of chilling the wort is to go through "danger" temperature zone of say 150F to 100F as quickly as possible.
My 50 ft immersion chiller can chill 5G from boil to about 90-95F in about 10min. Water bath would take a good part of an hour. My 10G batches (more like 12-13G of wort) would take forever without my wort chiller.

Even wort chiller is not sufficient by itself, I am doing recirculation arm for the wort and recirculation ice-cold water for chiller. Which is WAY better than your cold bath but still not good enough by itself.

But back to your question - you could brew a stronger beer and blend the two. Or boil it for 5-10 hours more. Or add sugar. Or keep it weak as it is, and call it a "session beer".

Or - let it ferment out, then freeze it, dump the ice, keep the liquid (which will be very rich in alcohol) and make it stronger that way.

I would do the combination of some sugar and freezing if I were you, could be an interesting experiment.

 

[madscientist451]

The original question was "why do I want to keep brewing"
The answer is that no one can answer that except you. Give it a rest for a month or two or longer and see if you want to come back to it.
You can always store the brewing stuff away and take an even longer break if that suits you. After a while, you can get back into it or sell everything on craigslist. Hobbies are supposed to be fun, so if its not fun anymore, do something else. Cheers!!!

 

[Alpotun]

Had kind of the opposite problem, about 0.012 pts high on the preboil gravity. Decided to dilute with some additional sparge water I had plus some distilled. Ended up with 3 extra gallons that I'm gonna throw some Brett in to an additional fermenter to have my first sour. Things can work out, even with massive screw-ups.

 

[MaryB]

We are not perfect, screw ups happen. I forgot to add chemicals to my Caribou Slobber brewing water... it still hit OG and is fermenting well... beer is pretty forgiving stuff!

 

[Redtab78]

I'd have to say we keep doing this after those kinds of mistakes because it's relaxing, fun, keeps the wife off you for a while, and there's always a light at the end of the tunnel...

I brew in my garage, and I truly enjoy cranking the tunes and just going to town...no one bothers me out there, and even if I have to dump what I made, I'd rather brew and dump it then sit on my butt watching TV drinking commercial beer thinking about ingredients ��

 

[stlblues5010]

Sounds like you handled it perfectly to me. I ALWAYS keep DME on hand for various screw ups in regard to gravity etc..... simple, and easy fix for a variety of problems. Based on my experience, your biggest problem is going to be this beer turning out awesome and never being able to replicate it

Yeah I have the DME for the same reason. I just never expected to need to use that much at one time.


Personally, I think immersion chillers are great. Mine has garden hose connects and disconnects... nothing to "pop off." They are simple, fast, and most of all - super easy to clean.

I agree with the simple, fast and easy. I had done a modification to it that needs some tweaking.

Sounds to me like a bad situation turned out ok for you - or at least as well as it was going to turn out.

Have you ever tried to cool 11+ gallons in a water bath? Not to mention having a container big enough to put a 20 gallon pot to cool it?

How about lifting a 20gal kettle of 210 degree sticky wort?

As to the OP I think you did what you needed to do to make it work, not sure how your chiller is set up but I have hard pipe on mine with 90 degree bends at the top and it's all soldered so no leaks. Hope you get is fixed before your next brew day.

Yes it will be fixed for sure!

I'd have to say we keep doing this after those kinds of mistakes because it's relaxing, fun, keeps the wife off you for a while, and there's always a light at the end of the tunnel...

It's a good thing the wife wasn't home she would have said "Having fun yet?"

I brew in my garage, and I truly enjoy cranking the tunes and just going to town...no one bothers me out there, and even if I have to dump what I made, I'd rather brew and dump it then sit on my butt watching TV drinking commercial beer thinking about ingredients ��

 

[eadavis80]

Connection cream ale

 

[treacheroustexan]

Originally the beer was called Honey Make It! Cream Ale. Because it had honey given to me from a friend and I asked the wife what style she wanted. Maybe I shouldn't have done that.

Suggestions for a new name?

Moral of the story. Always check your fittings and connections.

Honey, I added too much water.

Perfect

 

[Stillraining]

Don't be so sure that things like this dont happen at the commercial level to some degree. Life isn't perfect for anyone.

You/we brew because we enjoy it, not because its guaranteed perfect.

I like to golf...not because I'm a great golfer I'm actually horrible...but at least one stroke of the day is darn-near as good as a pro...That one stroke keeps me coming back for more.

 

[zefbrew]

watch as this becomes one of your best beers and you can never replicate it again 😂

 

[Morrey]

watch as this becomes one of your best beers and you can never replicate it again 😂

That is funny but probably true!!

It's always good to have a bag or two of DME handy. Making starters, adjusting OG, correcting for mistakes and other issues and the like.

You improvised and overcame! The mark of a good brewer.

 

[Photopilot]

Since you were brewing yesterday my advice is too late. But I use DME to cover up any "clerical" errors, like missing O.G.

I have had bad brew days that were painfully long and sometimes just painful. It usually ended up with good beer 30 days later. Take the bad days in stride and aim for more good days.

 

[Morrey]

Don't be so sure that things like this dont happen at the commercial level to some degree. Life isn't perfect for anyone.

You/we brew because we enjoy it, not because its guaranteed perfect.

I am good friends with a gent who started with me as a home brewer, got hooked up with a financial backer, then went pro with his craft brewery. He told me he dumped way more beer as a professional than ever as a home brewer. One issue comes up when he experiments and throws off weird flavors, others have to do with consistency from one batch to the other. One slip like you mentioned, and your consistency goes out the window. His fermenter's computer controller fritzed recently and he dumped 15 barrels of beer. If I dumped almost 500 gallons of beer, I'd be a basket case. Pitching 5 gallons darn near makes me cry, so other's mistakes are bigger in comparison than ours.

 

[stlblues5010]

Connection cream ale

Disconnection Cream Ale

 

[stlblues5010]

watch as this becomes one of your best beers and you can never replicate it again 😂

I'm kind of hoping for that problem. I would hate to go through all the extra work and still have to dump ~15gals.:smack:

 

[MaryB]

Has to be really bad before I can't choke it down!