Friday I brewed a stock/Burton ale recipe for 1846 Truman XXXXK, found in Ron Pattinson's book
The Homebrewer's Guide to Vintage Ales.
Recipe called for an OG of 1.117. I hit 1.107. So close enough.
5 gallons
17.5 gallons 2 row
10 gallons Maris Otter
Mash in at 145°F for 30 mi. Add boiling water to raise to 152°F for another 60 min.
Lauter and sparge to collect 12 gallons of wort. Boil for 5 hours down to 7 gallons (actually 5 gallons when accounting for the losses to the hops).
4 oz. 10% Northern Brewer (Pellets) 90 min - The receipe called for 8 oz. of EKGs, but I only had 8 ounces in stock.
8 oz. 5% East Kent Goldings (leaf) 30 min
Pitched 3 packets Nottingham yeast. Whacked it with oxygen once I chilled it down to 55° prior to pitching the yeast.
48 hours later.....
25 years of homebrewing, and I still can be an idiot. Friday night, I chilled the wort, then opened the ball valve to let it drain into the primary.
About a gallon and a half flows into it, and then it is stuck.
How could this be? I have a false bottom over a screened tube.
Here is why I am an idiot. I bought these giant stainless steel tea balls at the World Market a couple of weeks ago, thinking they would be great to dry hop kegs with. Friday when I am brewing, I needed a pound of EKGs, and only had 8 ounces. So I substituted some Northern Brewer.
Only the Northern Brewer hops were pellets. Instead of using a hop bag, I thought, why not use those tea balls.
Turns out hop pellet particle size is much, much smaller than the mesh of the tea balls.
I let the wort slowly drain into the primary overnight. When I got up Saturday morning to go ice fishing, all five gallons had drained through the hop goo.
Topic: What's Brewing This Weekend? 2/13/15 (Read 7366 times)
