Today I’m brewing my 511th batch. It’s 11 gal. of Rye IPA. Out of those 511 batches, I bet 500 of them have been 5-5.5 gal., but I need to crank out a lot of beer quickly right now. I’ve been kludging together various equipment I have around, but for some reason I’m feeling a bit of trepidation at how it’s all gonna work. Silly, huh? I’ll split it into 2 5.5 gal. batches. Both will be fermented with a slurry of 1450, but one half will also get some “special” brett that Wyeast is sending to me to test.
Bad news…overestimated the water temp for strike and ended up at about 170. Added ice to cool it down. Good news…estimated volume correctly. My 70 qt. cooler is full to the very top.
Well this is gonna be interesting. Just discovered that my thermometer was 30F low
So did you have your mash at 200F?
Oops, I meant high…I can’t even get that right! Gonna do a hot sparge and let it sit a bit to hopefully help correct.
Be honest, you were secretly step mashing weren’t you!
Amatuer
In this situation, absolutely! But 5.5 gal. of boiling sparge water got me to 153. I’ll let it sot there for 20 min. and it’ll be fine.
Sometimes, fate takes control!
I came in low yesterday in my ESB and added hot water to get it to my mash temp. I probably have around 50 all grain batches in the books. It’s good for us neophytes to hear those with 10x more experience still adjust as needed.
I would have done that, but there was no room in the cooler. Ended up at 50% mash efficiency into the kettle…oh, well!
It catches up with all of us eventually, Denny. ;D I had a couple solid years of things going smoothly, but lately it’s been a challenge for some reason, whether it’s mash temp or whatever. Eh, builds character!
Yeah, we all have a bad brew day or a short slump every now and again. Guess what? You’re human. Yes, even you, Denny! In a weird sort of way, I respect you more so for it. Brew on, Dude.
eh, you say that but I’m still going with ‘visitor from Proxima B…man’
20+ points low on OG even with an extra 45 min. of boiling. I shoulda gone with 2 5.5 gal. batches instead of one 11 gal.
Bust out the DME!
The great equalizer on a big beer.
Totally! Nothing to see here, folks, just back away.
;D
You’re me eight days ago. Eight days later I’m totally ok with it.