Brewday nightmare

[thejesmonddingo]

Decided to do two brews today,both extract,a Schneider's Edel Weiss clone(my own recipe,still tuning in),and a NZ Pale Ale,with lots of Nelson Sauvin.Started with the wheat beer,3.5 kg Muntons Wheat DME in 25 litres of water,going to use 30g Cascade at 15 mins,5 mins,and at 80 degC after boil.Got boiler up to 96 degC just getting ready with first hops,when both fuses on both elements blew within 5 mins of each other,leaving me with 25l of almost boiling wort,and no spare fuses,none of local shops have any,ended up decanting 8 litres into a big stockpot,and doing the 15 and 5 mins additions in there,then adding it all to the boiler,chilling to 80deg then adding the steeping hops.Seems to work fine,have now been to town and got 12 13A fuses,and boiler seems OK,so going to have ago at the Pale tomorrow,just stopping panicking now.
Ian

 

[Mark1964]

we had a bad day too element kept cutting out so we had to transfer the lot to HLT and boil in that but apart from that was ok :thumb:

 

[Runwell-Steve]

Your elements shouldn't be blowing the fuses, the fact they are suggests there is a problem.

I'm no electrician though, so couldn't begin to guess what that problem may be.

 

[dps]

i would check all electric connection.also make sure nothing is getting wet that should not be wet

 

[thejesmonddingo]

Connections were all dry and are shielded anyway,I haven't mucked about with the elemnts,apart from removing the cutouts,and the leads are fine,it worries me that they didn't trip the RCDs in the house,we were rewired about 6 months ago,and they're pretty sensitive.I'm just going to ahve another go tomorrow,to see if I can work out what's happened.
Ian

 

[dps]

check your wall socket also plugs.have you got the right amp fuse in the plug.
check all cables also

 

[rossi74]

i wouldn't worry about your house wiring to much, as the fuses have blown it would suggest a live to neutral fault on the element wiring somewhere which won't trip the rcd.

are all your terminations tight, no loose strands of flex that could cross terminals, elements clean so not going to over heat. just a couple of things to check out.

good luck kyle

 

[nuggitmv]

you think thats bad knock over the boiler loseing 90% of wort on the kitchen floor and then having to tell the wife what happend

 

[thejesmonddingo]

At least I didn't lose any beer.I tried another brew yesterday and the same thing happened excapt one element got 30 mins into the boil,so I improvised as per 2 days ago,but didn't change fuses.Today when I was cleaning the boiler,I took the elements apart,and realised I'd not removed the bi-metal strips from the cutouts ,so removed them,reinserted element,still the old fuses and lo and behold,a boiler that works.Will do a full 25l 90 min boil later today to make sure I've solved the problem,so keeping my fingers crossed.
Ian

 

[pittsy]

btw can you post your Schneider's Edel Weiss clone recipe , i'm a big fan of wheat beers cheers jes :thumb:

 

[thejesmonddingo]

This was my first try,ti's adapted from a AG recipe on an American site.Edel was originally a Munich Festival beer,but the ones I've had are brewed for the American market,with Cascade for flavour.This one is nice,but porbably needs cacaed at 80 degc post boil,and at 6.3% it's a bit strong for everyday

wheat edel try 1 metric
Recipe wheat edel try 1 metric Style Weizen/Weissbier
Brewer Batch 17.00 L
Partial Mash
Recipe Characteristics
Recipe Gravity 1.066 OG Estimated FG 1.016 FG
Recipe Bitterness 12 IBU Alcohol by Volume 6.4%
Recipe Color 8° SRM Alcohol by Weight 5.0%
Ingredients
Quantity Grain Type Use
0.01 kg Chocolate Malt (British) - [Chocolate, Coffee, Nutty, Toasted] Grain Mashed
0.12 kg Crystal 60L - [Body, Caramel, Head, Sweet] Grain Mashed
2.90 kg Muntons DME - Wheat (60%/40%) Extract Extract
Quantity Hop Type Time
20.00 g Cascade Whole 5 minutes
10.00 g Northern Brewer (Germany) Whole 40 minutes
Quantity Misc Notes
Recipe Notes
Schneider yeast cultivated from bottle
Batch Notes

This is what I brewed 2 days ago,less alcohol and more Cascade,I'll let you know how it goes.

Edel try 2
Recipe Edel try 2 Style Weizen/Weissbier
Brewer Batch 23.00 L
Extract
Recipe Characteristics
Recipe Gravity 1.053 OG Estimated FG 1.013 FG
Recipe Bitterness 13 IBU Alcohol by Volume 5.1%
Recipe Color 4° SRM Alcohol by Weight 4.0%
Ingredients
Quantity Grain Type Use
3.50 kg Muntons DME - Wheat (60%/40%) Extract Extract
Quantity Hop Type Time
30.00 g Cascade Whole 15
minutes
30.00 g Cascade Whole 5 minutes
30.00 g Cascade Whole 0 minutes
Quantity Misc Notes
Recipe Notes
Batch Notes

Yesterday I brewed this,a sort of New Zealand American pale ale

NSAPA
Recipe NSAPA Style American Pale Ale
Brewer Batch 23.00 L
Partial Mash
Recipe Characteristics
Recipe Gravity 1.052 OG Estimated FG 1.013 FG
Recipe Bitterness 51 IBU Alcohol by Volume 5.0%
Recipe Color 5° SRM Alcohol by Weight 3.9%
Ingredients
Quantity Grain Type Use
0.30 kg CaraPils - [Body, Head] Grain Mashed
3.75 kg Muntons LME - Light Extract Extract
Quantity Hop Type Time
35.00 g Generic Whole 0 minutes
35.00 g Generic Whole 5 minutes
35.00 g Generic Whole 60 minutes
Quantity Misc Notes
1.00 unit Safale S-05 Dry Ale Yeast Yeast American: Temperature Range: 59°-75° F 11.5 GRAMS
Recipe Notes
Hops all Nelson Sauvin,steep in boiler for 30mins at 80 degC
Batch Notes

If you like wheat beers,this thread viewtopic.php?f=14&t=10257 is excellent,the tips about controlling fermentation temerature work,I prefer the clove types to the banana types
and it has helped my brewing loads.I converted aleman's recipe to extract and used all tettnanger,and it was vert nice indeed.
Ian

 

[pittsy]

nice 1 the more recipes i can try the better :thumb:

 

[gurtpint]

Technical problems surely can take a lot of fun away from the brewday. Been there, done that. Hope your problems are solved now! Good luck!

 

[thejesmonddingo]

Thanks gurtpint managed to boil 25l water for 90 mins this afternoon,so looks ok.I've another brew to do tomorrow,then I've caught up with my post New Year idleness,and I'll have a bit of stock in in about 4 weeks, so I can get back to a brew aweek.
Ian