If it could go wrong it did... a tale of brewday stress...
Posted: Mon Apr 26, 2010 3:16 pm
After a few months off brewing (after the arrival of our daughter) I decided it was time to "get back on the horse" and get some beer brewed - a Pendle Witch Clone from DW's marvellous book.
Decided to set alarm for 6am and get the brew done and dusted nice and early, in time to spend the afternoon in front of my beloved Birmingham City's derby match with Villa on the box..
Well, her royal highness kept us up all night crying for a bottle, and so the brew day did not get off the ground until 10am after actually catching up on some sleep...
It went down hill from there..
Mash and sparge went v well, and then the wheels fell off..
Kettle element No 1 in the boiler stops working about 5 mins into boil... its OK I thought, still got No 2.... but no!!! That cuts out about 5 mins after....
Panic..
No boiler..
realises it could be the boil dry cut offs on my decidely grubby elements (I know!!!!!! - should have cleaned them!!! hindsight is a wonderfully thing!) so transfer the unboiled wort to an FV to clean the elements and try and get them working again..
Clean elements, get one of them working again and then transfer wort back to boiler...
You've guessed it....I had left boiler tap open.. sticky floor, and more importantly, lose about 3 litres of wort before I realise..SCHOOLBOY ERROR!!
So, huffing and puffing I put the boiler back on.. POP element blows!!!
Cue me transfering wort to 3 pans, totalling about 20 litres....
Boil goes on stove top... and then I have to seive the wort into the FV... burning my hands, and introducing god knows what into the brew.. (I had sterlised the seive, but who knows with the track record of the day)
So in the end, get about 18 litres from a planned 23 lt brew.. God knows what its going to taste like, if it makes it that far..
To make matters worse, the Blues got beaten by a late dodgy penalty..
Its a great hobby aint it
It'll probably end up being the best tasting beer I have made, and I'l have to try and recreate the above conditions every time
(I have another brew planned for in the week... I will be making sure this one goes smoothly!)
Decided to set alarm for 6am and get the brew done and dusted nice and early, in time to spend the afternoon in front of my beloved Birmingham City's derby match with Villa on the box..
Well, her royal highness kept us up all night crying for a bottle, and so the brew day did not get off the ground until 10am after actually catching up on some sleep...
It went down hill from there..
Mash and sparge went v well, and then the wheels fell off..
Kettle element No 1 in the boiler stops working about 5 mins into boil... its OK I thought, still got No 2.... but no!!! That cuts out about 5 mins after....
Panic..
No boiler..
realises it could be the boil dry cut offs on my decidely grubby elements (I know!!!!!! - should have cleaned them!!! hindsight is a wonderfully thing!) so transfer the unboiled wort to an FV to clean the elements and try and get them working again..
Clean elements, get one of them working again and then transfer wort back to boiler...
You've guessed it....I had left boiler tap open.. sticky floor, and more importantly, lose about 3 litres of wort before I realise..SCHOOLBOY ERROR!!
So, huffing and puffing I put the boiler back on.. POP element blows!!!
Cue me transfering wort to 3 pans, totalling about 20 litres....
Boil goes on stove top... and then I have to seive the wort into the FV... burning my hands, and introducing god knows what into the brew.. (I had sterlised the seive, but who knows with the track record of the day)
So in the end, get about 18 litres from a planned 23 lt brew.. God knows what its going to taste like, if it makes it that far..
To make matters worse, the Blues got beaten by a late dodgy penalty..
Its a great hobby aint it
It'll probably end up being the best tasting beer I have made, and I'l have to try and recreate the above conditions every time
(I have another brew planned for in the week... I will be making sure this one goes smoothly!)
)