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Author Topic: Oh no!  (Read 4332 times)

Offline richardt

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Re: Oh no!
« Reply #15 on: April 16, 2012, 01:25:35 pm »
The containers often pick up dust while sitting around.  I often relieve my mind by just rinsing off the container and then dunk the sealed container into a bucket of starsan and let it air dry for a few minutes before use.  If it has been opened before and you want to sanitize the opening, then try a few alcohol wipes to get the edge of the opening clean and sanitized again.
I also use an alcohol wipe (bottle of isopropyl alcohol and a paper towel works OK, too) to wipe down the outside of yeast smack packs, scissors blades, and even the outside of spigots and various attachments.

Offline FirstStateBrewer

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Re: Oh no!
« Reply #16 on: April 16, 2012, 01:35:49 pm »
+1.  If you have a 'warm syrup' setting on your microwave, I would do that before pouring in.  Otherwise 10-20 seconds should warm it up enough to get a good pour.  If you have a StarSan spray handy, sanitize a spoon and scoop the rest out.  You should get most all of it that way and not water down the beer by boiling.  Good luck!
The recipe only called for 0.75 lb (340 g) Dark candi syrup, but I'll use your method and add in the entire pound.  I never like to waste! 
Scott B

Offline FirstStateBrewer

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Re: Oh no!
« Reply #17 on: May 01, 2012, 12:02:08 pm »
One question though.  The recipe calls for 75% efficiency and 1.069.  By my calcs, adding the syrup you will bring it up to 1.054.  Did you hit your numbers?

Dave
No, I'm sure I didn't do a perfect job.  My crush was suspect.  I batch sparged.  My sparge temp was a little too low...  A number of things could have lowered my efficiency.  I'm not really concerned with that at this point.  But 1.049 was sooooo low and it had me very confused.  Glad I figured that out!
Sorry to dig up an old thread, but I just realized something else that was giving me a lower than expected gravity reading. 

The wort coming out of my counterflow chiller was only down to 75°F, so the 1.049 reading I took when adjusted for temperature is really 1.0507.  That plus the extra pound of dark Belgian candi syrup I added directly to the primary should have given me a decent original gravity. 

I racked the wort into a secondary about a week ago and it tasted like a relatively high gravity beer.  So, I think I'm good to go!  :-)
Scott B