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Author Topic: Brew Day Sh!t Show  (Read 1011 times)

Offline John Mac

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Brew Day Sh!t Show
« on: October 23, 2020, 10:59:04 pm »
It’s been a few years since I used my giant relatively complicated three tier RIMS system, and the lack of recency bit me on the butt the other day. My project was to make two back to back 12 gallon brews of Belgian inspired Tripel, blend them after the boil and inoculate four 6 gallon batches with a different Belgian yeast. 
The wheels fell off relatively early when I failed to install the washer on the dip tube that keeps grain out from under the mash tun false bottom. The strike water calculation led to a perfect mash temp right away. But after turning the pump on the flow rate wasn’t what it should have been and it was acting like a stuck mash.  Something was clearly wrong but the snag wasn’t obvious yet.  After going through the normal steps to fix a stuck mash I saw that the pump and tubing were loaded with grain.  32 lbs of grain and brewing liquor barely fit in my cooler while I emptied the mash tun and unstopped the plumbing. By this time the temp had fallen from 148 down to ~110. Once the gear was sorted out the rest of the process went just fine. I actually hit my predicted wort volume and gravity target.

The second batch was off to a late start after some domestic reality infringed on my planned timeline. I ended up holding the mash at the mash-out temp of 168 for about 40 minutes. After sparging  I heated the wort to 180 degrees to ensure all enzymatic activity was stopped, put a lid on it and called it a night.   The next am I performed a normal boil and split this batch among the four fermenters. 

The grain bill for each brew consisted of 28lbs Pilsner, 2 lbs Munich and 2 lbs red wheat malt. 2 lbs turbinado and 1 lb light candy syrup were also added at 10 min remaining in the boil. The hop additions were at 60, 30, and 10 min.

At this point all the fermenters are showing signs of normal activity.  The plan is to bottle it all up and let it condition for a bit. 

While this was certainly a humbling experience I’m pretty confident that the final product won’t be toxic. Hell, people have been screwing up brew days for thousand of years.


Questions for the group:

What effect would allowing the mash temp in the first batch drop to typical acid / protein rest ranges have overall.

What are the downsides to allowing the mash to remain at mash-out for so long. 



Education costs.....
-Unknown

Offline chinaski

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Re: Brew Day Sh!t Show
« Reply #1 on: October 24, 2020, 03:05:30 pm »
Sorry to hear about a painful brew day.  I don't have the answers for your questions.  I used to have my share of bad brew sessions, mostly because of me stubbornly refusing to recognize that fly sparging with my gear was too complicated.  Over the course of many years since then, my processes keep getting more simple and my attitude more flexible.  I enjoy it more and my beers are great.

Like you said- it will still be beer.  And it might be damn great beer.  Time will tell.  Enjoy the ride as much as you can!

Offline John Mac

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Re: Brew Day Sh!t Show
« Reply #2 on: November 16, 2020, 07:22:46 pm »
Here’s a quick update. All four fermenters have produced absolutely undrinkable swill. Live and learn.

Offline 69franx

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Re: Brew Day Sh!t Show
« Reply #3 on: November 16, 2020, 08:55:33 pm »
That is sad to hear

Sent from my SM-A515U1 using Tapatalk

Frank L.
Fermenting: Nothing (ugh!)
Conditioning: Nothing (UGH!)
In keg: Nothing (Double UGH!)
In the works:  House IPA, Dark Mild, Ballantine Ale clone(still trying to work this one into the schedule)