AG#2 The Worst Day/Beer Ever!

[wburgess]

This morning started so well, my WYeast Activator pack came through the post nice and early and I had treated all my water to perfection using the figures teased out of Sutton Water the day before.

Water was on the rise to the correct temperature for mash, so I decided to measure the hops out. Now, word of warning! If you decide to try and cut the hops with a bread knive be VERY CAREFULL!

Needless to say the blade went straight through my nail and .5cm into my flesh! Thankfully I got it sorted without A&E and the bleeding eventually stopped. (Hops were blood free!!!)

This is where the day started to go wrong. In goes the brewing liqour into the mash tun... small brew length so only 7.5L to go in. Well 7.5L left the grain still very dry. Why? Easy explination, the bloody tap was open! Treated water full of lovely sugars leaking all over the ground

By the time I had sorted it all, my mash temperature was a crap 62C... oh dear.

Batch sparged for the first time... went crap!

All in all, I'm now the proud owner of just under 10L of Wit beer at 1.027... Great!

So, for next time. I'm not cutting the hops! I'll just peel them off like before. A new check list with reminders of the factors that caused my brewday to go so sour.

Hope you've had a better day!

If you're interested and can spot another reason my gravity was so low, here is my recipe!

1.5Kg Larger Malt
0.75kg Torrified Wheat
0.75kg Wheat Malt

40g Hallertauer 2.2%

0.5oz corriander seed
0.5oz orange peel.

I had great hopes for this beer, maybe next time!

[196osh]

If you have any spray malt then I would whack some in. Also if you dont I would order some and add it to the fermenting beer.

That is if you want to get a beer that is >3%

[Bobba]

Unlucky mate.
You could do another small brew and blend them?

[wburgess]

You could do another small brew and blend them?

Good idea, but to be honest it's such a small brew length, I'm not too bothered about how it comes out. If it tastes ok, but weak on alcohol, it is a good sign to go ahead and make a full 5gal batch...properly!

Mind you, there are some scrumptious smells coming from the fv already!