So, I thought this would be a good place to share abnormal brewing experiences, as I just had an interesting one myself. Not necessarily mistakes that ruin a batch, but situations that really make this hobby one of a kind. I'll start.
We were brewing 10 gallons of our favorite beer. A Honey Ginger Belgian Double Wit that gets in about 7.2% ABV. It was my first 10 gallon beer, let alone first 10 gallon AG BIAB. What could go wrong? Well, the brew day went on without a hitch. Had a near perfect mash and boil. Only required a 40 minute boil which I think is where things went wrong. We rinsed the grains with double the amount of water we used on the 5 gallon recipe and it wasn't until we had chilled the beer and were moving it to the carboy that I realized that was a huge mistake. We undershot our gravity by 25 points.
Mid-way through filling the fermenter, my brain racked for what to do. Add more honey? Bring it all back to a boil? I decided to RDWHAHB and continue filling the carboy and then bring the rest to a boil to boil off some of the water and hit our gravity. Mind you, we still had 4 oz of ginger root, 1.5 oz of coriander and 2 oz of tangerine peel in it (but we had already removed the hop bag). We got it back to a boil, boiled another 40 minutes and added 2 lbs more honey at flameout. We put the rest in the fermenter and closed her up. Added our yeast once it had chilled to the appropriate 65 degrees and they are both bubbling away happily.
My friends and I were pretty bummed that we didn't create the same high octane, drinkable and delicious creation we were planning, but we all agreed some good will come out of this. We've decided to name these beers Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde because they are one in the same, but one will be SIGNIFICANTLY stronger in the subtle flavors and ABV we were going for.
What's your most interesting brew day?
We were brewing 10 gallons of our favorite beer. A Honey Ginger Belgian Double Wit that gets in about 7.2% ABV. It was my first 10 gallon beer, let alone first 10 gallon AG BIAB. What could go wrong? Well, the brew day went on without a hitch. Had a near perfect mash and boil. Only required a 40 minute boil which I think is where things went wrong. We rinsed the grains with double the amount of water we used on the 5 gallon recipe and it wasn't until we had chilled the beer and were moving it to the carboy that I realized that was a huge mistake. We undershot our gravity by 25 points.
Mid-way through filling the fermenter, my brain racked for what to do. Add more honey? Bring it all back to a boil? I decided to RDWHAHB and continue filling the carboy and then bring the rest to a boil to boil off some of the water and hit our gravity. Mind you, we still had 4 oz of ginger root, 1.5 oz of coriander and 2 oz of tangerine peel in it (but we had already removed the hop bag). We got it back to a boil, boiled another 40 minutes and added 2 lbs more honey at flameout. We put the rest in the fermenter and closed her up. Added our yeast once it had chilled to the appropriate 65 degrees and they are both bubbling away happily.
My friends and I were pretty bummed that we didn't create the same high octane, drinkable and delicious creation we were planning, but we all agreed some good will come out of this. We've decided to name these beers Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde because they are one in the same, but one will be SIGNIFICANTLY stronger in the subtle flavors and ABV we were going for.
What's your most interesting brew day?
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