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One of "those" brew days

Northern Brewer General
#1

I’m in the middle of one. Brewing a 2 gallon BIAB batch of a SNPA clone.

Got the water up to 158 and added the grain. Temp dropped to the desired 153. Perfect. I watched it come down to about 150 in the next 15 minutes or so. So, I figured, “I’ll just goose the heat a little for a while to get it back up.” Put it on low-low/med and went to play with the baby.

Came back about 20 minutes later and the temp had jumped to ~164. Ah, crap. turned the heat off, pulled the lid off and started stirring. Got it back down to ~157 by the end of the mash. Pulled the bag out and got most of the liquid out.

Started the heat back up to get it up to boil and started weighing out the first .1 oz of magnum. “Huh, that looks like a heck of a lot more hops than .1 oz.” So, I dump the whole pack in and it says it’s only .5 oz. (supposed to be 1 oz.) Crap. Got gyped on .5 oz of hops. Oh well.

Wort comes to a boil and I add my magnum. Then, I start to weigh out my .3 oz addition of perle. The scale has turned itself off by now so I turn it back on. “Huh, that looks like a whole lot less than the .1 oz of magnum” Scale must have been mis-calibrated. FML.

I’ve got enough ingredients to try again next week and compare. We shall see.

#2

I hear you.

I think with brewing as a hobby, I am excited about it. Almost like a trance-state. (don’t laugh!) If I’m cooking or cleaning, I get the supplies I need and normally work fine. I think I am just excited to brew.

Good news: you made beer.

#3

I had somewhat of a brewday from hell today too. I took video of the whole thing though, uploading it as I type. Everything worked out in the end but stressful day for some reason.

#4

Next time add a few ice cubes to bring temp down quickly (aslong with your stirring).

When a scale goes off and you turn it back on, it tares itself to zero. If you have something sitting on the scale already, it tares to zero with that on it. I’ve never seen an ounce of hops come up short, I very much doubt thats the case.

#5

[quote=“tom sawyer”]Next time add a few ice cubes to bring temp down quickly (aslong with your stirring).

When a scale goes off and you turn it back on, it tares itself to zero. If you have something sitting on the scale already, it tares to zero with that on it. I’ve never seen an ounce of hops come up short, I very much doubt thats the case.[/quote]
Yeah, I had a bowl sitting on it when I turned it on specifically to make it tare the weight of the bowl. Not sure what threw it off. I kept pouring and pouring and pouring. “Man, this seems like a lot of hops for .1 oz!”

#6

Does your scale have a selection where you can measure in grams? For small amounts an ounce scale is not real accurate.

We all have those days though.

#7

[quote=“tom sawyer”]Does your scale have a selection where you can measure in grams? For small amounts an ounce scale is not real accurate.

We all have those days though.[/quote]

I didn’t think about that but, yes, it does! I may have to convert all my hops measurements in brewtarget to grams now!

#8

I brewed Tuesday and I laid out a lot of items that I would use the night before. It was a great brew day because of some preparation. I think that’s a word that is not mentioned or emphasized enough. It should be right there with sanitize and temps.

#9

Totally agree. I always get my ingredients, water additions, kettles, etc. ready the day before and it just seems that the brew day goes a lot better. Not to mention, making it shorter. It can take awhile to weigh out 20+ lbs of grain, milling it, weighing out the hops and the water additions. Can make for a MUCH longer brew day.

#10

Totally agree. I always get my ingredients, water additions, kettles, etc. ready the day before and it just seems that the brew day goes a lot better. Not to mention, making it shorter. It can take awhile to weigh out 20+ lbs of grain, milling it, weighing out the hops and the water additions. Can make for a MUCH longer brew day.[/quote]
Same here. A few years ago I sat down and wrote down everything I did on a brew day, and thought about how I could make each step easier or save time. One of the biggest improvements I made was to prep everything I could (including grinding the grain) the night before.

#11

I wish I could lay everything out the night before. However, I brew in the kitchen and SWMBO would not be happy with me if I had stuff laid out on the kitchen table during breakfast. Maybe I could weigh everything out in some bowls (hops) and a bucket (grain) and have it sitting downstairs in my office. I’ve got some of the Corelle soup/cerel bowls that came with lids that would keep my hops secure after weighing. Of course, I also have lids for all my buckets.

Bottling has gone this way because I always run out of time: Sanitize everything the night before and then bottle any time in the next day that I have 45 min.-1 hour free.

#12

So, I keep seeing SWMBO posted here and there. What does it mean?

Paul

#13

Significant wife must be obeyed. I’ll hold all comments on the people who use that anagram.

#14

Oh! Hey! I have one of those!

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