Don't be shy :-[
I was brewing yesterday, everything going spot on, temps, volumes, numbers etc.. You get the drill
Boil off a little low but grand...
Start chilling....still chilling, wtf is going on I'm still chilling, 40 mins later I coped that I had hooked up the water in side of plate chiller the same direction as beer in....wort in water out, wort out water in, Childs play but I'm not a child...duh
There was another thread here somewhere full of em.
Leaving valves open is a personal favourite
Don't mention valves.....grrrr
Ever try chilling while recirculating back into your kettle and forgetting to turn off the element? ., FACT - It takes a long time.. Don't try it its not fun.
Did a brew a while back and everything went off without a hitch. Next day still no sign of activity.
Did the usual swirl and oxygenate. Nothing. Was getting worried till I noticed the yeast still on the stir plate doing it thing.
Turned out grand in the end.
Ah feck it did I tare that or not
Ah sure 15g lets go 20
Ah sure 42g lets go 50
Ah sure 82g lets go 100
First brew i ever made
started at 9pm. (started work the following morning at 7)
Giving people samples of first brew :-[ as I taught it was awesome , it wasn't awesome.
How long have you got :) some of the more memorable ones along with some lessons learned.
First all grain brew was a Russian imperial porter. Started brewing @21:00 finished boil @01:30. My son hid the connector for the outdoor tap and after spending two hours looking for it only to give up on frustration. Ended up chilling in a bucket in the kitchen sink with my chiller. Birds were starting to sing @4:15 when I got everything finished. Found the tap connector six months later in my son's bedroom. Lesson learned keep redundant copies of key parts.
Had an element short out from burnt on scorched wort that accumulated from three consecutive 90 minute boils for Russian imperial porters.Element was tripping when doing a 90 minute boil in a scotch ale that imparted a really nice unreproducable smoky after taste to the beer :) Lesson learned clean elements properly using tooth brush after every brew. Disassemble & physically remove any charred/burned wort using the back of a knife.
Heating element secured with a plastic collar detached from boiler leaking 25 litres of just chilled wort on to garage floor. Thankfully no other issue than 5 hours of effort down the drain.Lesson learned double check the collars before each brew. Even this wasn't fool proof as it happened a second time do eventually I replaced them with stainless steel lick nuts.
On an early brew got interrupted @flame out and forgot to switch off & remove power leads to the heating elements. Spent 15 minutes scratching my head wondering why the temperature drop of the wort was especially slow. I checked water temp & water pressure only to eventually twig the elements were still plugged in & switched on. Lesson learned @flame out leads switched off & physically removed before enabling the pump for chilling.
Bought replacement element for a boiler (originally had 2 * 2.7kw) heating elements. Had a weird sensation boiler was only half working as I could not maintain a rolling boil like previously. When reading a forum thread RE stainless steel lock nuts I realised I had bought 1.5kw heating element. Lessons learned always pay attention to confirm specification & if something is cheaper than elsewhere it's probably because it's not the same quality or spec as the more expensive item.
Spent months using the dish washer for cleaning bottles.and ended up with more gushers than a park full of geysers. Despite being told to switch the method of sanitation I persisted with predictable bad results. Lesson learned when somebody with more experience constructively critiques what your doing & points out a flaw in your system/procedure listen to what they are telling you & follow their advice.
Shanna
It all ahead ov me!!!😂😂😂😂
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About the dishwasher. I sometimes clean my bottles in it without a tablet and then bucket dunk them in starsan after . Is that OK?
It won't clean the inside of them very well, but once they're scrubbed before going in that's ok.
Avoid the dishwasher to clean or sanitise bottles
Why?
Dishwasher has a lot of leftover organic matter that it will spray into the bottles, which in turn will give the bacteria somewhere to breed post sanitise.
Is that from personal experience?
Don't really use bottles anymore but never had problems when I put bottles in the dishwasher. Mind, always rinsed after use, only did it to clean and then just with water and sanitised after. Seem to vaguely remember something about a risk of etching bottles if cleaning in the dishwasher but can't remember if the risk was detergent, or using the dishwasher >70C.
Quote from: mr hoppy on July 10, 2016, 12:08:14 AM
Is that from personal experience?
Don't really use bottles anymore but never had problems when I put bottles in the dishwasher. Mind, always rinsed after use, only did it to clean and then just with water and sanitised after. Seem to vaguely remember something about a risk of etching bottles if cleaning in the dishwasher but can't remember if the risk was detergent, or using the dishwasher >70C.
My experience was that bottles stored for a period of time can have dirt in them that the dish washer won't remove. It probably says something about the bottle storage & length of time they are stored for also. I had bought/received nearly 400 bottles over the years & so it can take a while between bottles being used even if they are washed out, sometimes things have stuck on dirt that is impossible to spot in a brown bottle. Personally I can't argue with the results & would not recommend it.
Shanna
So using the btl washer and hot soapy water the way to go?
Soap will kill head retention.
For bottle washing, I have a few tricks. First, I never let my bottles dry. After use, I fill them with water and put them somewhere. Once there's about 19 I do a soak in warm tao water with lidl W5 oxi for about 20 mins, then a quick run through a bottle brush and 3 thorough rinses. Cling film then goes over the tops to keep dust out until I need to bottle.
On bottling day, it's a quick shot of starsan with my bottling tree attachment and then off I go.
I don't clean old bottles anymore because I keg and new clean ones are so cheap.
When I did with the 2k from the group bottle buy the only real way of removing crud was to put them in a builders bucket, a pinch of W5 in each and and inch of hot water, leave 20 mins to remove the heavy stuff and top up with water and leave
overnight.
It shifts everything then a good rinse to be absolutely sure everything has gone and then the starsan and bottle tree.
I really don't miss bottling at all. The only bottles I fill are the ones I bring along to meet ups.
Err, not making enough!
Quote from: Will_D on July 10, 2016, 07:51:33 PM
Err, not making enough!
Nah nah nah...that's not a mistake....that's an outright sin
Forgetting to turn off the element once I had reached strike temp for my mash whilst doing BIAB....
Not a huge mistake, but probably my silliest. Went to shake out excess wort from my hydrometer test jar, but completely forgot I had put my hydrometer back into it. Cue hydrometer being fired like a missile across the room and smashing off the wall. Took me a second to realise what the hell I'd just done!
Was ramping a Saison up to 27° using a heat wrap. Checked it about 8 hours later and the probe had fallen away giving an ambient temp reading so the heat never switched off. Could feel the warmth coming from the fermenter 2 foot away. It was at 48c. Racked it off the yeast straight away and it turned out fine because I think it had finished fermenting anyway by that point.
On a recent brewday I got everything up to the boil and I knowing I had 45 mins to my next step, I went out to the shop to grab some lunch. I got about 2 meters past my gate before the panic hit me...I'd left my keys in the back door!! I ran around to the back lane to see if I could climb over the garage..no luck. So I started banging on neighbours doors. No one seemed to be home in the first few I tried but eventually I found someone who was. They brought me out their back garden and gave me a step ladder to get over the wall...I just about managed to jump clear of the gooseberry bush on the otherside and made it back just in time for the next hop addition!
First extract brew of mine was fun. Started it in the evening, didn't think about extracting the steam and after a while the steam built up like a mist in the kitchen. Realised my mistake but I wasn't gonna stop now, so i opened all the windows and back door. That didn't do much good and so i was left with walls dripping with condensation. Lucky for me the wife was asleep in the sitting room, while i was out with a towel drying the walls :P Never again
Just started a brew now. Grain measured out and mash water heating - drill battery needs charging >:(