Help Trying To Salvage The Worst Brew Day Ever

[kanemari]

hi guys,

by the mistake i made i should be posting in the newbie forum but i figured it would take some brew master expertise to try and salvage what i have done so here goes.

started off brew day all good. prepared everything. i was doing a biab in a 40L urn by the way. so getting about 30L of water up to low 60 degrees (was trying to do a drier style pilsner) all going well. hits about 62-63 and i decide to throw in the bag and grains. give it a bit of a mix and read the temperature again, and its dropped more than i expected down below 60.

no worries, turn on the urn again to give it a bit of a warm up. this is a good time to mention i did the rolling boil mod to my urn. so i start to hear a slight water bubbling sort of sound and figured it might be getting hot around the element, no need to worry cos the kettle sounds like that at low temps as well right? measure the temp again and its not going up for some reason. then suddenly there is a electrical short circuit sound and a bright flash from under the urn, so i rip the power cord out. couldnt even smell any burning or anything up to that point, but i smelled it after that.

so it turns out the pegs came off my bag and it was in direct contact with the element. it burnt onto it then must have somehow insulated it from the water around it. the element overheated and fried itself even thought the bloody thing was full of tepid water. so now i have a mash that is at high 50 degrees, with a burnt bag so all the grain has spilled into the mash, and no way of boiling the volume to sterilise it and cube it or whatever. this happened late yesterday.

i tried decocting the mash to bring the temp up a bit but the volume of water was too big and i didnt have a big enough pot. kept losing the heat too fast. so after a very low temp 3 hour mash, i poured off the wort into another container and sealed it. i figure i wont be able to replace the element until tomorrow when crown opens, so will this couple of days be enough to infect the mash to the point where reboiling it would be too late because its soured or whatever? or would mashing that long result in superdry brown water?

to make matters worse, i already smacked my wyeast pack so thats about to explode in the fridge too and ive got nowhere to use it. if the wort will last until tomorrow night without going bad i could probably make a starter in a small pot today and continue tomorrow. but if the wort wont last i may as well can everything now.

any suggestions to try and salvage what i have and not waste everything?

cheers.

 

[Bandito]

Its dead.

 

[barls]

where are you someone close by may be able to lend you a burner and pot to get it up to temp to cube it.

 

[eamonnfoley]

Put this one down to experience, start a new mash. The yeast will be fine however. You should make a starter with it after it swells anyway.

 

[jiesu]

Check the gravity of your wort, you may have just made a large batch of all grain starters

 

[kanemari]

bummer... consensus seems to be its gone.

just out of curiousity, is it the long mash time that makes it useless, or the temp being too low, or the standing time between mash and boil?

or just plainly the taste of burnt swiss voile?

 

[katzke]

bummer... consensus seems to be its gone.

just out of curiousity, is it the long mash time that makes it useless, or the temp being too low, or the standing time between mash and boil?

or just plainly the taste of burnt swiss voile?

Yes to the last 2.

 

[manticle]

Time between the mash and the boil allows higher likelihood of bacterial infestation which can lead to sour flavours. That can be a good thing if you're aiming to do a sour mash. I have mashed one night then boiled the next day (and have heard of other people doing the same thing. However I treated mine like a no chill after doing a mash out so the wort would have been at pasturisation temperatures.

I would say at the very least, you could boil and cool a small portion on the stove-top to make a starter wort for the smack pack. Alternatively, clean a longneck, sanitise it, pour the yeast with some boiled cooled water and seal it up. Put it in the fridge until your ready for your next one.

 

[kanemari]

sour beer... hmmmm

i might make a starter anyway and have a bit of a taste after boiling before it cools... the grain profile i used could be similar to a berliner weisse. apart from the burnt polyester... but i did get it out of that pretty quick after it happened and the grains werent scorched. might be lucky.

anyway if its rubbish its rubbish. i wont have the time between now and next weekend to go get more grains so may as well try and get something with what i have. ill know better next time.

thanks for the idea about the sour mash though. ill let you know if it actually works. probably wont, but still worth trying for everyone elses amusement if nothing else.

 

[zoidbergmerc]

Just brew it anyway, what's the worst that could happen.

 

[kenlock]

i wont have the time between now and next weekend to go get more grains ...

You can order online from one of the sponsors, and it will be delivered in time for next weekend. Up to 20kg (numerous recipes) with a postage cost of ~$8 Melboune to Melbourne Suburbs. Certainly less that what your timeis worth, and the petrol it will cost you.

PS. No affliation, just time, money and energy efficient in this day and age.