Hey guys,
Discovered a bit of a blunder I made tonight and thought I'd share it in the hopes that no ones else makes the same mistake.
Last Saturday I mashed a bunch of grain but ran out of time to do the boil etc. so I left it sitting in one of my fermenters (a coppers plastic one) until tonight (Friday).
I went to pour the wort into my kettle get to get the boil underway and noticed it was moving in a circular motion. I removed the lid and received a blast of Co2 to the face and discovered it had been fermenting without my knowledge.
I didn't take a SG reading before the boil but according to my mash schedule it was estimated to be around 1.056 pre boil. I took a SG tonight and it had fermented down to 1.020 so I felt I had no choice but to dump it, and that was painful.
Not 100% sure how any yeast got into the wort. Possibly some residual yeast was present around the thread of the tap or the rubber seals of the lid? Only other thing I could think of wound be some airborne kind getting in but that seems pretty unlikely. Needless to say it must have been pretty lively to have survived the mash temp of around the high 60's and then managed to ferment the wort down to 1.020 in 6 days.
Anyway I won't be leaving wort out for any extended period of time from now on. Lesson learned!
Glenn
Discovered a bit of a blunder I made tonight and thought I'd share it in the hopes that no ones else makes the same mistake.
Last Saturday I mashed a bunch of grain but ran out of time to do the boil etc. so I left it sitting in one of my fermenters (a coppers plastic one) until tonight (Friday).
I went to pour the wort into my kettle get to get the boil underway and noticed it was moving in a circular motion. I removed the lid and received a blast of Co2 to the face and discovered it had been fermenting without my knowledge.
I didn't take a SG reading before the boil but according to my mash schedule it was estimated to be around 1.056 pre boil. I took a SG tonight and it had fermented down to 1.020 so I felt I had no choice but to dump it, and that was painful.
Not 100% sure how any yeast got into the wort. Possibly some residual yeast was present around the thread of the tap or the rubber seals of the lid? Only other thing I could think of wound be some airborne kind getting in but that seems pretty unlikely. Needless to say it must have been pretty lively to have survived the mash temp of around the high 60's and then managed to ferment the wort down to 1.020 in 6 days.
Anyway I won't be leaving wort out for any extended period of time from now on. Lesson learned!
Glenn