Hello to everyone who has been working with me through this time, you've all provided some great feedback. I wanted to provide an update to you. I took some time to lick my wounds but ultimately couldn't let the despair of defeat overwhelm me. I went back and reordered my grain bill and set to work yesterday. Volumes were checked in triplicate, temperatures diligently monitored, and that damn bazooka screen was removed from my mash tun. Everything went off positively without a hitch right up until my post-boil. You didn't think I would post an update without having something to add to my prior ludicrous displays, did you?
I had put my wort chiller into my boil pot ten minutes prior to flame-out to sanitize it. I then took the whole assembly over to my sink to begin chilling. I have an in-line hose attachment under my sink that I added just for the chiller so I have to reach all the way back to the cold-water line to turn on the chiller. Once I had done so I noticed a slight leak where the rubber hose was clamped to the copper tubing, never have I had this issue. While it is obviously concerning to have something added to the pot post-boil I really didn't have another option and so held on as tight as I could and reduced the leak. This worked for a while until I noticed more and more water coming from the leak. Something had to be done. I reached up to shut off the water and in doing so pulled the drain end of the chiller from the sink, causing water to spray all over my kitchen. Panicking, I grabbed the drain hose and attempted to stick it back in the drain, in doing so I let go of the entry hose and it broke free from the copper wort chiller. Now water was spray out of that end as well. Absolute Looney-Tunes comedy.
I finally managed to get the water off and took a minute to assess the damage. No water had really gotten into the wort, just all over everything else. My next move was to grab a screwdriver to tighten the clamp that holds the rubber hose to the copper piper. This went well until the clamp snapped off as I was tightening it. What a pickle. There weren't a whole lot of options at this point so I jammed the rubber hose onto the copper pipe as best I could and prayed. Luckily the beer gods were with me as the leak had seemed to fix itself and I proceeded to chill as usual.
My OG hit perfectly, my volume is statistically accurate, and my yeast is chugging along beautifully today. I wanted to share my story and I hope you all got a few laughs out of it along the way. I appreciate you all stepping in to keep me encouraged. My luck may not have changed but hopefully sheer force of will will be enough to overcome it. Prost!
Topic: A woeful tale in the land of brewing. (Read 1830 times)
