PostModern
Iron Wolf Brewery
- Joined
- 9/12/02
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I've had my first real brew panic over the last 24 hours. It seems OK now, though. What happened is this:
I was brewing a batch last night. The recipe is this:
Blakey's Little Nevada Pale Ale (#17 on periodic chart), Modified by me to be a little maltier - double the Crystal.
3.4Kg Light LME
50g Crystal Malt steeped for 20 mins @ ~70C
40g Cascade 60 mins
40g Cascade 15 mins
25g Cascade 1 min
20g Cascade dry hopped.
White Labs WLP001 California Ale.
After the boil, which I had to put in 2 pots due to a miscalculation in headspace required, I cooled the wort down in a sink full of water and ice packs. I think I may have used too little LME (gotta remember to count the number of jugs of LME as I put them in) as the OG was 1.040 rather than the 1.05x I was aiming for. Not to worry, a lighter beer will be OK, as the Crustal should make up a little body, and the Cascade hops smell wonderful... anyway, I had the yeast out of the fridge at room temp for 2 hours, then popped it into my pocket for half an hour as room temp was pretty cold.
Pitching temp is supposed to be 25-ish but as the tap water was so cold, the 23l batch was only 21. As this is still within the fermenting range of the yeast, I pitched anyway, thinking it might just take a little longer to start. That was about 11pm.
The temp overnight must have dropped like a rock as in the morning, the carboy was showing 20C and there was nil activity in the airlock. I gave it a few hours and at about 10am was in a panic as there was still NOTHING coming out of the airlock. I gave the carboy a shake, hoping that would wake the yeast. Nothing an hour later but the temp was back up to 21 or 22. Anyway, I got my 20l bottle and filled it with steriliser (it needed a wash) and hot water from the tap and placed it flush against the fermenter. I covered both vessels in towels to act as a blanket. The temp of the wort rose slowly to 25C by about 6pm but still no bubbling action. I shook the fermenter again. Still nothing by 7pm, so I put the big spoon into some steriliser and decided to risk opening the fermenter and re-rousing the wort.
7:30pm, still nothing and way past the 15 hours I'd expect as a maximum lag time, so in I went. Washed my hands in steriliser and grabbed the big spoon, gave the wort a good mix-up, recapped, recovered in blankets... at 9pm, there was bubbling. I was || this close to rehydrading my backup yeast, willing to kiss the $15 White Labs bye-bye. Anyway, it's been ticking out a bubble every minute or so since then, so I think I saved the beer... we'll see if there's any krausen by morning. Hopefully continuous bubbling too.
Lesson learnt: take notice of the pitching temp.
I'll post back with results of this batch - stay tuned to see if PoMo can pull this one back from the brink!
I was brewing a batch last night. The recipe is this:
Blakey's Little Nevada Pale Ale (#17 on periodic chart), Modified by me to be a little maltier - double the Crystal.
3.4Kg Light LME
50g Crystal Malt steeped for 20 mins @ ~70C
40g Cascade 60 mins
40g Cascade 15 mins
25g Cascade 1 min
20g Cascade dry hopped.
White Labs WLP001 California Ale.
After the boil, which I had to put in 2 pots due to a miscalculation in headspace required, I cooled the wort down in a sink full of water and ice packs. I think I may have used too little LME (gotta remember to count the number of jugs of LME as I put them in) as the OG was 1.040 rather than the 1.05x I was aiming for. Not to worry, a lighter beer will be OK, as the Crustal should make up a little body, and the Cascade hops smell wonderful... anyway, I had the yeast out of the fridge at room temp for 2 hours, then popped it into my pocket for half an hour as room temp was pretty cold.
Pitching temp is supposed to be 25-ish but as the tap water was so cold, the 23l batch was only 21. As this is still within the fermenting range of the yeast, I pitched anyway, thinking it might just take a little longer to start. That was about 11pm.
The temp overnight must have dropped like a rock as in the morning, the carboy was showing 20C and there was nil activity in the airlock. I gave it a few hours and at about 10am was in a panic as there was still NOTHING coming out of the airlock. I gave the carboy a shake, hoping that would wake the yeast. Nothing an hour later but the temp was back up to 21 or 22. Anyway, I got my 20l bottle and filled it with steriliser (it needed a wash) and hot water from the tap and placed it flush against the fermenter. I covered both vessels in towels to act as a blanket. The temp of the wort rose slowly to 25C by about 6pm but still no bubbling action. I shook the fermenter again. Still nothing by 7pm, so I put the big spoon into some steriliser and decided to risk opening the fermenter and re-rousing the wort.
7:30pm, still nothing and way past the 15 hours I'd expect as a maximum lag time, so in I went. Washed my hands in steriliser and grabbed the big spoon, gave the wort a good mix-up, recapped, recovered in blankets... at 9pm, there was bubbling. I was || this close to rehydrading my backup yeast, willing to kiss the $15 White Labs bye-bye. Anyway, it's been ticking out a bubble every minute or so since then, so I think I saved the beer... we'll see if there's any krausen by morning. Hopefully continuous bubbling too.
Lesson learnt: take notice of the pitching temp.
I'll post back with results of this batch - stay tuned to see if PoMo can pull this one back from the brink!
