Short story long, this was a brew weekend of personal firsts:
1) I brewed a Roggenbier.
2) Given the high rye bill with Pilsner and Munich, I also performed my first decoction mash (double) along with an infusion step (111 F to 131F) :rockin:.
3) Taking a cue form Gordon Strong's book, I mashed and sparged Saturday night and boiled my wort Sunday morning for family planning purposes.
4) I also cold steeped some midnight wheat overnight for color adjustment as a late boil addition.
5) I split a little under 6 gallons into two 5 gallon carboys to help with the aggressive fermentation of the Wyeast 3068 that I used, so I split the 1.5L starter equally.
Everything, on the whole went well. I was 4 pts low on Pre-Boil gravity and adjusted with a bit of Pilsner DME. Lots of protein left in the mash tun. Between that, protein skimming during the boil, and hop bags for the Sterling pellets, I got very clean wort to the fermenters. Chilled down to 58F, added pure O2, and pitched my yeast.
Cue the last first. In advance of meeting friends for lunch Sunday, I loaded the carboys into my two stage fermentation freezer, programed the controller for 62F, and left for around 3-4 hours. I got home and something, deep down in my soul, simply felt wrong. I didn't think it was the overindulgence of sushi nor the hour and a half spent looking at condos with my Designer wife for "ideas." I rushed down to the basement and confirm my fears.
6) The temperature probe was hanging out in the breeze on the basement floor, happy as can be.
For some reason, the freezer running full bore for 4 hours had not lowered the basement from 66F down to 62F. I opened the freezer to find frozen Star San in the airlocks, frost on the curves slopes of the carboys, and a temperature reading on the wort of 40F. In went the temperature probe on one of the carboys and the heating pad and I ramped the temperature up from 40F to 62F over the next 12 to 16 hours.
Besides not repeating "First #6" again. Anything I should have done differently or that I should pay attention to? As the wort never froze, I am assuming I sent happy yeast into dormancy as opposed to a ruptured, crystallized death. Should I have slowed the ramp up? I am planning on agitating the carboys a bit when I get home to get the yeast back into suspension.
My main concern is the temperature swings the yeast went through, from a 70F+ starter, to the 58F wort, to 40F in 4 hours up and back up to 62F in half a day. Not too worried, and hopefully I don't have to deal with this situation again, but I am always looking to learn.
1) I brewed a Roggenbier.
2) Given the high rye bill with Pilsner and Munich, I also performed my first decoction mash (double) along with an infusion step (111 F to 131F) :rockin:.
3) Taking a cue form Gordon Strong's book, I mashed and sparged Saturday night and boiled my wort Sunday morning for family planning purposes.
4) I also cold steeped some midnight wheat overnight for color adjustment as a late boil addition.
5) I split a little under 6 gallons into two 5 gallon carboys to help with the aggressive fermentation of the Wyeast 3068 that I used, so I split the 1.5L starter equally.
Everything, on the whole went well. I was 4 pts low on Pre-Boil gravity and adjusted with a bit of Pilsner DME. Lots of protein left in the mash tun. Between that, protein skimming during the boil, and hop bags for the Sterling pellets, I got very clean wort to the fermenters. Chilled down to 58F, added pure O2, and pitched my yeast.
Cue the last first. In advance of meeting friends for lunch Sunday, I loaded the carboys into my two stage fermentation freezer, programed the controller for 62F, and left for around 3-4 hours. I got home and something, deep down in my soul, simply felt wrong. I didn't think it was the overindulgence of sushi nor the hour and a half spent looking at condos with my Designer wife for "ideas." I rushed down to the basement and confirm my fears.
6) The temperature probe was hanging out in the breeze on the basement floor, happy as can be.
For some reason, the freezer running full bore for 4 hours had not lowered the basement from 66F down to 62F. I opened the freezer to find frozen Star San in the airlocks, frost on the curves slopes of the carboys, and a temperature reading on the wort of 40F. In went the temperature probe on one of the carboys and the heating pad and I ramped the temperature up from 40F to 62F over the next 12 to 16 hours.
Besides not repeating "First #6" again. Anything I should have done differently or that I should pay attention to? As the wort never froze, I am assuming I sent happy yeast into dormancy as opposed to a ruptured, crystallized death. Should I have slowed the ramp up? I am planning on agitating the carboys a bit when I get home to get the yeast back into suspension.
My main concern is the temperature swings the yeast went through, from a 70F+ starter, to the 58F wort, to 40F in 4 hours up and back up to 62F in half a day. Not too worried, and hopefully I don't have to deal with this situation again, but I am always looking to learn.
