Brewing day from Hell!

[Fat of the land]

Started brewing today, after a break of 5 years. I got all my ingredients ready and all the malt was in the mash tun. When I loooked around to weigh the hops, I discovered my stupid dog with a half eaten bag of hops. :evil:
I zoomed up to the homebrew shop to replace the damaged hops, yeast, gypsum, Epsom salts, etc.

I have a new fangled hydro jar with a removable bottom. I filled it to test and the bottom fell off, broke the hydro, soaked my ph strips (all 120 of them) destroyed my electronic thermometer and left gooey wort every where. Luckily I has a spare hydrometer. I discovered I have tourettes. :evil: :evil:

Got the wort into the brand new boiler which worked for 10 minutes then gave up! The shop had no more in stock. I had eight burners with eight saucepans of various sizes on the boil. :evil: :evil: :evil:

Just poured the wort through the grain bag and hoped for the best. Chilled and pitched the yeast.

6 hours of hell. If this brew is drinkable after all this then boy am I gonna enjoy the first pint.
Ps And no it has not put me off brewing! :hmm:

 

[Wez]

Congratulations for sticking with it :thumb:

I discovered I have tourettes

:party: join the effin club :

 

[percival]

a beer deserving of a special name!

 

[Fat of the land]

Thanks for your support, this a great forum.
I think I'll call it Perseverance

3.5kg Pale Malt
330g Crystal Malt
50g Black Malt

220g syrup talte & lyle
70g fuggles
50g goldings
i tsp of irish moss (divided between 8 pans) last 15 minutes

o.g. 1035 for about 25 litres at 3.7%
The water was RO just because my tap water tastes rubbish. added 15g calcium sulphate, 5g salt and 3g magnesium sulphate.
home made wort cooler using 25m of 6mm copper in 2 tight loops cooled to 25oC in 12 minutes.

If it turns out at all, at least I had the wonderful aromas all day
Next saturday will be a better brewing day (stout I think)

 

[Wez]

Brewing beer is great isn't it. If it doesn't work out, hey you learn from it.

:thumb:

 

[Vossy1]

Fotl, well done for sticking with the brew :thumb: ...but

keep an eye on your pooch, hops are poisonous to dogs, here's a quick exert from a site on dogs

Hops, the plant used to make common beer, can cause malignant hyperthermia in dogs, usually with fatal results. Certain breeds, such as Greyhounds, seem particularly sensitive to hop toxicity, but hops should be kept away from all dogs. Even small amounts of hops can trigger a potentially deadly reaction, even if the hops are "spent" after use in brewing.

 

[Fat of the land]

thanks for that, The dog ate nothing just destroyed the lot. The bag was open and being fought over by a pair of crows which had already seen off a squirrel.
Never ever buy a white boxer dog!

 

[percival]

good name for it :thumb: :thumb: :thumb:

wow ... scary thing about dogs and hops!

 

[Vossy1]

thanks for that, The dog ate nothing just destroyed the lot

Phew

Never ever buy a white boxer dog!

Boxers are fun at the best of times :lol:

wow ... scary thing about dogs and hops!

Yeah, and there's a lot more to boot. Here's just one site.

 

[brewzone]

I sympathise with You mate!

Glad the Dog is OK!

Today I got hailed on, rained on and underestimated the strike temperature as I could not find a thermometer. Dipped My finger in the HLT which seemed to be about right. I found the thermometer and checked the mash temp which was at 55c. Had to do a decoction style mash which took three or four decoctions to get up to 64C. Took bloomin ages.

The new stainless fittings gave Me trouble as I could not get a good seal which took ages to sort out and meant the pumphead kept filling with air and I had to keep sorting that out.

I was testing the brewery prior to shipping out to the customer on Wednesday.

Hoping I can resolve all the issues before Wednesday so I don't have to ask the Guy for a couple more days grace.

As a result I was not in the mood for any brewday pics and nealry slung the digital camera at one point as the CCD in the lens now seems to have a mind of it's own.

Will be boiling the hops tomorrow as I gave up and packed it in for today.

BZ

 

[Fat of the land]

I am sorry for your your woes but at the same time I am smiling coz it aint just me that has problems!!!!
Just checked my brew and there is a thick head of yeast already. I feel much better

 

[A T]

The joys of brewing :grin: Well done for sticking with it guys :thumb:

 

[Wez]

I hate brewing :lol: :lol:

 

[brewzone]

Glad it's looking good FOTL !

I managed to get 50L split between two fermenters

I really had to work for this brew so hope it turns out OK.

BZ

 

[Fat of the land]

gravity has halved and I will drop it into another bin to hopefully leave most of the **** behind

Its starting to smell like beer! :party:

 

[A T]

That's good to hear

 

[jamesb]

We've just lost 4bbl worth. Someone didn't make sure something on the fermenter was secure.

 

[A T]

We've just lost 4bbl worth. Someone didn't make sure something on the fermenter was secure.

:shock: What happened?

 

[jamesb]

We've just lost 4bbl worth. Someone didn't make sure something on the fermenter was secure.

:shock: What happened?

A bodged up sight tube was fitted, which promptly came loose sometime last night and drained all the beer to the floor.

 

[A T]

Crikey, that has to hurt :cry: