Have fairly ruined my first batch. When I discovered the hotplate just wouldn’t get the wort up to a boil (only 180deg). After about 30 minutes, transferred to the kitchen stove to get it going. Problem was, some of the grain particles small enough to get through the cheesecloth, stuck to the bottom of the kettle, and now the sample I pulled for measuring tastes scorched. Going to let it run its course, hoping that once it all settles some of the scorched taste will be diminished.
Upshot of it is this: my dumbassity of not fully testing with plain water beforehand…
You are right about let it run it’s course. Sometimes in homebrewing the mistakes we make turn out to be great beer.
I used to use a hot plate to brew outdoors at our winter home. It took forever to boil and I had to put the lid on. That meant checking it often to make sure it didn’t boil over. Turned out no problem there since I couldn’t maintain a rapid boil anyway. I also ended up using the kitchen stove.
First beer i ever did. Did use one of these convection. Plates. Took forever to come to a boil. But still proud. On my first. Brew. Even before brew day was over. Did buy a. Burner. With high btu
Neglected to mention I’m using a FastFerment (no leaks or other horror stories outta the box) the son bought without my knowledge - was just going to use the buckets. Fermentation was active over 2 days (a bubble every 10 seconds) then ceased. Braved it out as I knew my temp was always within norms. Just pulled the collection jar to dump out and start week 2 of the fermenting - and sweet mary joseph the stench! Smelled like a backed up septic tank! I was just about to toss the whole batch, but decided to pull a sample and measure. Good thing I did! Hyrdo gave me a 1.20 on the button. Steeled myself and took a sip - not bad at all. Definite beer taste, with very little bitter or aftertaste and the sewage smell was not present either. Still some grain fiber suspended, but hopefully most of that will settle out over the next week.
Just finished wrestling a Coke commercial fridge into the basement ($300 after haggling on FB Marketplace). One of the 5’ tall ones you see at checkout counters. Letting it run for a few then start moving the brew into it for the big tasting tomorrow.
