Brewday Disaster!

[Fingerlickin_B]

What a shocking afternoon!

Firstly it started to rain (very bad as I boil outside with an electric element ).

Rain died down without soaking any connections, so that was ok.

Then I dumped my 5 minute (110g of pellets) addition into the hop sock & it just turned into one lump of sludge that wasn’t really being boiled properly.
In an effort to alleviate this problem I emptied the sock’s contents directly into the kettle…bad move!

The 60 minute addition was flowers, which of course blocked the hose connector on my kettle tap when transferring to the no-chill cube.

As a result the following things happened:
a: My dirty hands made contact with the wort (ouch <_< ),
b: Two separate wire coat hangers made contact with the wort.
c: Most of the wort ended up being poured from the tap into the cube after finding the only way to stop it getting blocked was to remove the hose connector altogether.
d: By the time it was cubed and sealed up the wort must have dropped to a temperature of no more than 75 degrees (at least that's what it felt like...ouch again ).

So a, b & d are scary infection-wise. c gives concern about HSA.

Oh, and I lost about 4 litres of concentrated wort in the process. Just add some DME when fermenting and dry-hop the hell out of it I guess?

What a **** day :angry:

/[rant]

PZ.

 

[delboy]

SORRY TO HERE ABOUT YOUR DAY OF DESTASTER.

but then from disaster cometh knowlege so its not all negative!

what did you learn?

i shed a tear for you ,now time for a beer and plan your next one .

DEL

 

[Brewtus]

This is the closest I have heard of someone in Canberra complaining about the rain for years. I did note you never actually said you didn't want the rain, it was just at the wrong time.

Anyway, if you are bitter, remember - mobitta-mobetta......

 

[blackbock]

At least you didn't forget to turn off any taps! Your brew still has every chance of survival.

 

[facter]

i bet you any money that your beer ends up tasting awesome

 

[Fingerlickin_B]

what did you learn?

Plugs/flowers in the sock, pellets straight into the kettle

I've made this mistake before, but with a connector with much smaller ID...did not at all expect it to happen with this one...live and learn from one's own mistakes I guess :lol:

PZ.

 

[Adamt]

i bet you any money that your beer ends up tasting awesome

Yep... it's brewdays like those where you make the best beer you've ever made, but dare not try and recreate it.

 

[warrenlw63]

FB

Mixing those pellets and flowers, particularly in those amounts was a SNAFU waiting to happen. :blink: It's also happened to me before just using a pickup tube though I was lucky enough for the kettle to drain even though it took around 90 mins.

To get past it I always leave the pellets bagged which I find to be no problem at all in a hopsock. I chuck the flowers or plugs straight in the boiler. You should put a false bottom on your kettle. Drains with ease then (50 litres in 15 minutes).

Hope your beer still turns out OK.

Warren -

 

[razz]

No chance of scorching the liqour when you first set the burner Warren ?

 

[warrenlw63]

Razz

I don't light it until the sparge has finished (I use a NASA). I just give it a gentle stir just before lighting too. No problems thus far. There's been no burned stuff on the base when taking the FB off to clean too.

Warren -

 

[Fingerlickin_B]

Well it's been in the (refrigerated) keg for almost exactly four months now.

The keg lid sprung a leak (only noticed whilst under pressure) way back then and it's been sitting in the furry mould-infested, unmaintaned fridge disconnected from the gas ever since.

Today I pulled the keg out, poured some iodophor solution over it, quickly replaced the o-ring, put it back in and on the gas.

By now it's had a million ways of getting an infection..."How could it possibly be any good?" I thought...

OMG, shock, horror...........it's a pretty nice drop that one!!!! :chug: :super: B)

PZ.

p.s. Taking the lid off will obviously leave me open to problems, so this must be consumed FAST...anyone in Belconnen (or anywhere in Canberra for that matter) like APAs? If so, let me know and we'll drink the lot tomorrow arvo after work! h34r:

 

[Phrak]

<snip>Taking the lid off will obviously leave me open to problems, so this must be consumed FAST

Not that I'm trying to prevent you sharing your brew but I'd be surpised very much if you're at risk of infection from taking the keg lid off.
Now I'm not a microbiologist, but as far as I have experienced, bacterial infections require warm, damp and oxygen-rich environments to thrive - the same condition of your fermenting wort to sustain yeast growth.
Your alcoholic beer in a refridgerated, carbonated keg should be the antithesis to an infection. Regardless if you take the lid off for a short time or not.

Relax, don't worry and have a home-brew :lol:
:beer:
Tim

 

[Fingerlickin_B]

Point taken man...and I'm still willing to share the beer if anyone wants some :beer:

PZ.

 

[Uncle Fester]

Had my first mini disaster last night....

When closing the tap on my boiler after draining the sparge water out, I overtightened the bloody thing and I think I have stripped the internal thread. The result: The tap handle spins, but does not unwind.

Fortunately I had a mate around to have a look at the brew process. Ended up whirlpooling and syphoning the wort into the no chill cube.

A little scary syphoning boiling wort when your'e 3 sheets to the wind though

Ended up about a litre down. May have to rename the "Pigs Arse Pale Ale" to "Pain in the Arse Pale Ale"!



Fester

 

[johnnymax]

I just dump the hops in my kettle. Now I don't recirculate with a pump or anything. After I chill down the wort, I remove the chiller and whirlpool the hell out of it, then I let it settle for at least 45 minutes. I just run the wort into my carboy until it gets to the hops. I leave all the hops, cold break and hot break in the bottom. I also have a 1/2" (13 mm) valve in it also.

I wish I lived close enough to help you polish the keg off//// :chug:

 

[RobboMC]

Had my first mini disaster last night....

When closing the tap on my boiler after draining the sparge water out, I overtightened the bloody thing and I think I have stripped the internal thread. The result: The tap handle spins, but does not unwind.

Last brew I stripped the thread on the tap handle of my secondary as I was setting up for racking.
25 litres of fresh beer opened to the atmosphere and not tap. Luckily I had the original blank plug to the barrel, so i stuck it in and racked away. But now I had a full brew in the secondary and no way to drain it out.

My racking tube was my saviour, I siphoned off the top into my bottling bucket and it worked a treat, might even make this my standard method. I found it was a great help having a short piece of different tube about 2 cm long on the end of the siphon tube with some graduation marks, so I knew EXACTLY how deep the tube was in the liquid.

Running from tap to tap seems better, but this worked in an emergency and stopped it becoming a full disaster.

 

[barls]

i just finished my first partial on the new setup and all went well until i knocked over the bottle on the stir plate spilling the yeast. i lost about half of what i had in it so hopefully its still good as ive just pitched the remainder