Had to toss out 5 gallons of IPA

[jgalati]

Did a 5 gallon batch of IPA last night in my keggle with a 6" bazooka screen at the bottom with silicon tubing connecting to the output valve.

I'm almost positive the hops clogged my screen because when I opened the valve to drain, nothing came out. absolutely nothing. After fighting it for an hour and a half with the boil still going, I realized that my late edition hops (5 minutes left in boil) were now 60 minute hop additions. At this point, I said screw it, turned off the equipment, and tried to drain it to the carboy. My output valve was still clogged so I went back to my roots and tried an autosiphon. After trying to get the autosiphon to work, the small valve at the bottom of the autosiphon came loose because the hops were stuck inside the autosiphon now, and I realized I was never going to get it to flow. Now, I'd had my mouth all over siphon trying to get it to flow, touched everything in the kettle, and been very unsanitary. Usually, I'd say meh and let it ferment as I had a 2L starter ready to pitch so I'm usually not too worried about an infection. But being that it was midnight, I finally called it quits and just went to bed.

But still... you really do have to love how difficult this hobby is sometimes. In all, maybe cost me $15 for ingredients (hops are cheap in oregon), and $3 in propane. So i'm not too disappointed. It's all a learning experience right?

Going to build a hop spider next.
-JG

 

[Poobah58]

Need to get a big funnel and strainer. Dump it into a bucket and your good to go in a pinch...

 

[jgalati]

hard to lift 6 gallons of water in a 1/2bbl keg

 

[Poobah58]

That's when you have to improvise for the sake of the beer!

 

[outside92129]

My emergency plan-C for a stuck brew kettle, i've had to invoke it twice in the last 3 years. A few bucks for the filters, a few more for the wire frame, and the kitchen pyrex measuring cup to scoop it out!

http://www.webstaurantstore.com/10-paper-grease-filter-cone-50-box/121100.html

 

[xjmox14x]

I just put a 5 gallon paint strainer bag in the bucket and empty straight into that. Once it's done, lift and drain the bag, and viola.

 

[wilserbrewer]

Two quart pitcher or kitchen stock pot...bail the wort just like you would in a sinking boat.

Or hell, pitch the yeast in your kettle and come up with a solution in a week...
Sorry to hear your struggle.

Cheers!

 

[Xpertskir]

wait huh?

were you trying to recirculate boiling wort through your pump and plate chiller?

Why didn't you just kill the boil at the appropriate time and chill with an IC, ice bath, time, ect. Then siphon to your fermenter

 

[jgalati]

I was recirculating through the pump to clean the inside of the silicon tubing instead of using star san. I also had the output end of the silicon sitting inside the boil kettle to sanitize it as well.

Anyway good news!

After failing to drain my kettle, I let it sit in the kettle, hops and all, overnight.

I came back the next morning and thought, hell why don't i just take my bazooka screen out of the kettle, clean it, remove all the hops from the kettle with a stainless steel colander, and reboil the wort for 15 minutes to pasteurize it. So i scrubbed my screen with oxiclean to remove the hop gunk, and reattached it to my output valve.

So after i had removed the majority of the hops, i started the boil again, with my immersion chiller in it as well. I boiled for 15 minutes, with my pump running to sanitize my silicon tubing, and i had no problem with the bazooka screen clogging!

I then chilled it to pitching temps, drained it to my carboy, and pitched my yeast.

We'll see how it turns out!! But if it comes out tasty i'm going to call it "Overnight IPA".

Thoughts? Opinions? I'm pretty sure no one's left their chilled wort overnight with the hops still in it, and on top of that, boiled it for 15 minutes again the next day after removing the hops to pasteurize it.

I'm kinda excited to see how it turns out.

-JG

 

[krackin]

I leave my chilled wort for 2 weeks with the hops still in it. I call it fermenting. LOL.

 

[TheZymurgist]

You seriously need to post updates on this when it's done. My guess is it'll be super bitter since you boiled for so long, but it may not be bad. With the extra boil time, was your OG higher than expected? You may have just made an Imperial IPA. I would dry hop the hell out of it and see how it turns out.