Back to Shopping at NorthernBrewer.com

I KNEW things were going too smoothly

Northern Brewer General
#1

Today’s batch of espresso stout went like clockwork. I mashed in at 8 am and was all done and cleaned up by noon, which was perfect because we have to leave home around 2 pm. Everything was clean and put away, and I was feeling really good about myself. Until…

I checked my wort gravity against the recipe and realized I was 14 points low. Turns out I was supposed to boil for 90 min, instead of 60. Doh!! I considered just keeping it as it was, at 1.054. But I knew it would bug me, and decided to go ahead and bring it back to a boil for another 30 min.

I decided against adding any more hops, since it would only be a difference of 6 IBU, and I’ll get some bitterness from the espresso.

Anyway, so I was obviously pretty frustrated at this point and really cranked the burner to get it boiling again. Ran down to get my spoon, came back to a full-on boilover. :evil:

Dear God, talk about going from one extreme to the other. So now I’m trying to beat the clock and get this thing boiled, chilled, and cleaned up sometime in the next hour. Wish me luck. :roll:

#2

Well, I made it. All cleaned up with three minutes to spare. Just in time to sit around waiting for my wife to get ready, so we can still be half an hour late.

:cheers:

#3

Some days it’s just better to stay in bed, but how boring is that. Happy to hear you were able to finish it. Cheers!!!

#4

It’s amazing to me that you have dialed in the process to the point that you get done in time to move onto the next event for the day, by midday! Most of the time, when I brew, that is the day’s only focus, but then again, I’m not married, nor have kids, so I have total freedom to schedule. My AG brew day takes a minimum of 7 hours. Glad you were able to make your deadline and make the beer you wanted, AND didn’t keep your wife waiting! :cheers:

I spent a few hours today kegging 3 kegs from primary (1 with oud bruin/oak cubes added, 2 with Scottish 80 shilling), and a cherry bruin into carboy with oak, to be bottled in a month. All went well, except that I had to work pretty hard to drain a stout keg (actually only a couple glasses) to make more room in the kegerator, and had a quart leftover of the Scottish, that I kept sampling to get a feel for whether to put it on nitro or not. I quit drinking so I won’t show up at church drunk, where I’m going next and cleanup will wait until a little later.

#5

Sorry to hear you had a rough brew day. Been there - really sucks when a relaxing day of brewing turns into a big mess. . . . . . . Still better than work though.

#6

A bad day brewing is better than a good day at work! :mrgreen:

#7

A bad day brewing is better than a good day at work! :mrgreen: [/quote]

Not if your job is getting loaded :wink:

Back to Shopping at NorthernBrewer.com