mysterio wrote:Well, the beer is made! We ended up getting very good efficiency and overshooting our OG by 10 points. So we've got a 1.055 ESB. It's a split batch so I went in with WLP002 and the other half some US-05.
I think it's fair to say there were a few hiccups, one of the elements packed in before the wort came to the boil so we had to pump 5 gallons into the HLT and boil half in there. That was fine, but then we dumped the Immersion chiller into the HLT to sanitise (by this time we'd had a bunch of beers), and at the end of the boil pumped the wort through to the HLT to chill it (can you see what's coming.....)
No hop strainer in the HLT of course
and by that time there were too many hops to pump it back into the kettle
So we just went ahead and chilled it, then Owen and I lifted the 10 gallons of wort while Robbie tipped it back into the kettle so we could pump it into the fermenters.
Oh yeah and we forgot the whirlfloc
Anyway, it should be fine. Homebrewers are a resourceful bunch so we managed to save it. Thanks to all who came. Not many folks had come across Jims Beer Kit which I was surprised by so I expect there will be a few new sign ups off the back of this. Nobody had heard of Rob's homebrew supplies either so he'll hopefully get a few customers out of this. We used 180g of Goldings he donated and threw in his 80g of Williamette too. We used some Nelson Sauvin and Pacific Gem for bittering.
We used these 'better bottle' fermenters which were a godsend, by the way. Easy to lift in and out of the car, and sealable.
Can't be easy brewing in front of people you don't know in a different enviroment. +1 for having the balls to do it.