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Deadhead

Female Brewer
Joined
Feb 28, 2016
Messages
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Location
Scotland
Uggh, lots of things went wrong on Saturday.

First! A very stuck sparge. I've been having issues with my mash tun anyways, so I tried 200g of rice hulls and played around with the false bottom a bit. But yeah, nothing wanting to actually come out. Had to do a lot of jiggery-pokery to get some wort. Mashing and sparging took about 4 hours!!

Thanks to jiggery pokery, my wort was full of gunk. It settled right onto the element of my buffalo boiler. I didn't realise right away, because it kept cycling as it does, so I was waiting and waiting and waiting for the boil and it didn't. So after an hour of no boil, had to transfer everything to the stovetop. Took forever, but finally got it to boil. But stunk my house out! Luckily, no boil overs, but add 3 hours of boil time to my day!!

Then, finally start to chill - and it's taking ages too. Check after 50 minutes and its only dropped to 34ºC...uggh... And guess what? Water was leaking everywhere from the chiller hose and I flooded my utility room. That turned my hubby really grumpy by this point, because I had been brewing all day.... and we had a big flood to clean up.

Transferred my wort to a bucket and threw it outside to cool down further. Went and drank beer and said 'screw this'. HAHAHA.
Finally, pitched the yeast about 11 hours after I started.
It was knackering.

I *almost* convinced hubby that I should get a Grainfather, to cut down these issues. He was almost there, until I told him the cost. I might have better luck convincing him of an Ace Microbrewery.

In the meanwhile, looks like I'm being moved into the freezing garage for brewing now, since if it floods out there, it won't ruin the floors.
I really need to get a grain mill and a new false bottom of some kind. Cleaned the boiler out with oxi cleaner and scrubbed the element, so hopefully that won't happen again. And need to replace the chiller hoses....
Joy joy!

Beer smelling lovely though (Rye IPA).
 
That sounds like a nightmare. Good job on not giving up.

I've just bought a second hand 20L buffalo boiler and it wouldn't reach a boil when I tested it. I managed to fix it very easily without any rewiring.

If you open up the base (the screws are hidden inside the feet on mine). You can move the thermostat temperature sensor away from the bottom of the kettle. The temperature sensor is the long silver blob thing that's attached to the thermostat by a curly wire. Just unscrew the retaining screw and reposition it away from the bottom of the kettle.

This means that you have to control the temperature manually for heating strike water or mashing for BIAB but it will reach and sustain a boil with no problem.
 
Get an ace microbrewery or equivalent Klarstein :) of course having a stuck sparge is still a real thing especially when your adjuncts approach 40% or more.

Hope your beer turned out okay! Boy that reminded me of my first brew ever- nightmare flashbacks lol
 
Another Alternative is go for a big pot full BIAB (no sparge) and a gas burner.. Might not suit but if you're brewing outside or in the garage it certainly is a good and solid simple option eliminating a lot of the problems you faced today for example.

Just a thought!!
 
i love the role reversal of this,,,,
Hubby kicking the wife out in to the garage..
icon_lol.gif

first time ive read that in this forum
grin.gif

well done for sticking with it,,
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Wow sounds like an epic day, and not necessarily in a good way! The one time I've used rye it was very sticky so I can imagine it causes issues with the sparge.
 
.... and we had a big flood to clean up.

........

We?

Hubby has obviously never heard of The Lone Ranger who, surrounded by Indians, said to his faithful side-kick "It looks like we are finished Tonto." who promptly replied "Why you say 'we' white-man?"

If he actually helped with your clean-up campaign (as opposed to merely supervising) you should buy him one of these for his Birthday!

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B01MTMAIXH/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20

It's a bit expensive and high-tech, but it should encourage him to approve a Grainmaster! :whistle:
 
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We?

Hubby has obviously never heard of The Lone Ranger who, surrounded by Indians, said to his faithful side-kick "It looks like we are finished Tonto." who promptly replied "Why you say 'we' white-man?"

If he actually helped with your clean-up campaign (as opposed to merely supervising) you should buy him one of these for his Birthday!

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B01MTMAIXH/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20

It's a bit expensive and high-tech, but it should encourage him to approve a Grainmaster! :whistle:

:grin::grin::grin:
Hahah! He was a good sport, but only because my brew day would have been probably even longer!
 
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Hubby racked off the beer yesterday for me (since I was away competing in a brass band competition) and he dry hopped it. He said it cleared really well. That's promising, since it was full of gunk after such a hard time sparging. I forgot to tell him to take a gravity though, so will need to do that tonight.
 
Well... rye IPA now off conditioning and looking really nice and clear, so I must not have screwed up too bad, getting higher OG than expected and finished with abv at 5.6% when it should have been 4.9-5.0% according to my normal efficiencies

My hubby tasted my cherrywood smoked porter last night which in my opinion needs another 2-3 weeks before it's mature enough for real drinking, but hey, doesn't hurt to sample early! and his reaction was "Wow, you should brew beer every week" :-D

Well if you want me to, I will...... :lol:
 
Well... rye IPA now off conditioning and looking really nice and clear, so I must not have screwed up too bad, getting higher OG than expected and finished with abv at 5.6% when it should have been 4.9-5.0% according to my normal efficiencies

My hubby tasted my cherrywood smoked porter last night which in my opinion needs another 2-3 weeks before it's mature enough for real drinking, but hey, doesn't hurt to sample early! and his reaction was "Wow, you should brew beer every week" :-D

Well if you want me to, I will...... :lol:

Brewing faster than you can drink it makes a lot of sense. Brewing every week for a couple of months will give you a big store of beer that is unlikely to deteriorate badly in PET bottles inside a year or so.

I can recommend a GF, incidentally. I only cocked it up about 4 of the first 6 brews, rescued them all, although the BIAB equipment helped, as it was possible to strain through the BIAB bag.. They were all good in the end, too.

2L PET bottles (supermarket cider) are good because they tend to be brown, and 12 of them fit nicely in a laundry crate. They are also re-usable and essentially indestructible. Like Captain Scarlet.
 

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