Burnt hops

[Tony]

Brewday: I got up at 5.30am this morning to do a brew (I'll post the pics and schedule a little later when I've eventually stopped crying).

5 mins from the end of the boil I could smell burning. Somehow, some of the hops had gotten below the plate covering the elements on my boiler and got burnt. Only a small handful, but enough to give smell and colour to the brew.

Has anyone ever had this happen? I carried (cried) on to the (bitter) end, added my yeast and now have a good ferment going, but am expecting to have to tip this down the drain in a few days.

I bought extra pale malt too, to get a nice light coloured ale and all was going well, until....

What's the consensus.... will I have to empty it down the drain?

I'll take the advice along with the finger pointing and laughing... bring it on

Oh why me....................... :pray:

 

[rickthebrew]

Unlucky Tony This hasn`t happened to me (yet!) So i`d say ferment it out and see how it is - it might taste better after four weeks in a bottle ?

Good luck :thumb:

 

[robsan77]

You never know, it might taste superb and you could have discovered a new technique that revolutionizes the brewing industry!

 

[prolix]

sorry mate burnt taste and smell is not good hard to disgise and even harder to stomach. I had a brew not so long ago that nearly went that way hops for some reason got stuff under the element and would have burnt luckily I was there at that moment and saw the rolling boil vanish as the element got smothered so stuck the spoon in to find out what was going on, only to have to dig the element out. The element was slightly darkened at the end but as it was a porter I got away with it.

Give it a bash anyhow see what it tastes like. hopefully it will taste like black malt!

 

[Tony]

Thanks for the words of encouragement folks!

I have fingers crossed as it wasn't a great deal of hops (in a brew of 200g) that actually got stuck and burned. There's very little available on the net with regard to burnt hops - other than some ***** about how guinness was discovered. Obviously written by someone who knows nothing about brewing.

I, on the other hand...

I'll report back in a few days.... as you say, I may have discovered something (other than what a :!: I am)

 

[BarnsleyBrewer]

Never had that problem but thanks' for highlighting it :thumb:

 

[A T]

This is not something i've heard of before, is it a home built boiler? are the elements fitted to low? My only thinking is that if the elements were very low then maybe the hops could clog up underneath them? Just a shot in the dark as i don't really know

 

[evanvine]

What terrible luck Tony, I do feel for you.
Unfortunately this something that can happen, especially when adding sugar to the boil too quickly.
I know this sounds morbid, but I would like to see pics of your boiler both with and without the offending cover.
Do you use the cover as a hop strainer?

 

[Tony]

hi again folks!
The boiler I use is a baby burco with a (removable) plate over the elements. Two things are different with this brew though:

I have a new hop-strainer fitted and (and more importantly) the fitting clip on the cover came off. I rather stupidly thought that the hop-strainer would hold the plate down (as its such a tight fit) and presses against the plate - however, it obviously didn't. I've checked it this morning and there's a fair bit of vibration at the back of the plate. The little devils must have got under the plate at the back.

Odd that a few burned hop[s can alter the colour of a brew so much. Started life as something a little darker than water (when I opened the tap on the mt at the start of the sparge, I thought something was wrong as there was so little colour!), and now it looks like a porter!

As you all say... live and learn. I'll post pics a bit later, although there's no pics of the disaster, I couldn't see through the viewfinder for tears :lol:

 

[evanvine]

A tragic lesson to learn Tony, but at least you are being phlegmatic over it!
Bet that clip never gets forgotten again.

 

[BarnsleyBrewer]

phlegmatic :? :?

I'll Google it

phleg·mat·ic–adjective
1.not easily excited to action or display of emotion; apathetic; sluggish.
2.self-possessed, calm, or composed. :thumb:

:drink:

 

[evanvine]

"phlegmatic"
Laid back, not making a big thing of it.

 

[BarnsleyBrewer]

"phlegmatic"
Laid back, not making a big thing of it.

Lol, wasn't been sarcastic ev, never heard of it before

John :thumb:

 

[evanvine]

wasn't been sarcastic ev, never heard of it before

Never thought you were John, just threw it in cos it summed the situation up.
Maybe I was being a bit clever as well. (pride and falls)

 

[Tony]

That's me .. although I am closer to the first definition than the second.

Thanks also to BB for looking it up and saving me a job!

Ok .. update. the kraussen was very dark and the yeast had picked up a great deal of the burnt bits (unfortunately very small and couldn't be filtered out with a piece of muslin) so - and encouraged by what I had read on the double-drop fermentation and removing the kraussen - I sterilized myself and everything within 20 miles and removed it. Surprised to find that most of the burnt smell had disappeared and that even though I haven't got the incredibly light beer I was planning on .. I do have a deep golden one.

Time will tell!

 

[prolix]

good signs :thumb:

 

[rickthebrew]

hope it turns out a good `un tony

 

[evanvine]

AG can be very forgiving, I wish you well!

 

[Tony]

Here's the pics folks, fairly normal looking brewday really... I didn't take pics of the 'strange Incident of the Hop Burning in the Nighttime' (well, early morning)

I kept the spec to the basic as I wanted to find out how the palm sugar would affect the taste. I did a brew before christmas with it and I think it added a nice 'full' mouthfeel. So trying to find out now - well, if I can get beyond the burnt hops.
Batch Size: 23.00 L
Estimated OG: 1.069 SG
Estimated Color: 8.2 EBC
Estimated IBU: 59.0 IBU

6.00 kg Pale Malt (2 Row) UK (2.5 EBC)
0.50 kg Wheat Malt, Bel (3.0 EBC)
70.00 gm Goldings, East Kent [4.60 %] (60 min)
70.00 gm Fuggles [3.90 %] (60 min)
30.00 gm Goldings, East Kent [4.60 %]
30.00 gm Fuggles [3.90 %] (0 min) (Aroma)
1.32 tsp Irish Moss (Boil 15.0 min)
0.30 kg Palm Sugar (15.8 EBC)

Mash Schedule: Single Infusion, Full Body, Batch Sparge 66.0 C

Only hit 1067 with the FG but not too bad, although I only got 21ltrs out - and I'm thinking that I lost the 2ltrs in the hops, they seemed to soak up a lot!

 

[jonewer]

Haha! Love the 'toons!