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Fail Thread (Mistakes You've Made) 2020


ben 10

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Due to a Melb visit and several personal issues, I've had to delay bottling my Exbeeirment. It's now been CC'ing since last Wed. Not a problem.

As I am setting up to do bottling it suddenly occurs to me I have not dry hopped.

Do I just accept the situation? What is the minimum period for hops to be in the FV to transfer flavour and aroma AND, will it work in 3°C brew? (I raised the CC temp yesterday to put a light crystal steep in overnight)

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2 hours ago, Journeyman said:

I raised the CC temp yesterday to put a light crystal steep in overnight

I hope you raised the temp to more than 3C to let the steeped crystal ferment out (it does add fermantables as well as non-fermentable sugar). Otherwise could be gushers or even worse, and you may have to report again in this thread.

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26 minutes ago, Dozer71 said:

I hope you raised the temp to more than 3C to let the steeped crystal ferment out (it does add fermantables as well as non-fermentable sugar). Otherwise could be gushers or even worse, and you may have to report again in this thread.

😄 Well it got boiled for 15 mins when I was doing hops additions. Does that count? 😄

I ended dry hopping the long-term CC brew. 

And the XPA-clone is heading to the fridge right now.

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Why didn't you add it with the rest of fermentables? You boiled it so that should kill any germs,but did it sit somewhere afterwards?  I have never heard of doing it that way, but I don't know everything, barely me name. I would be worried about an infection.

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21 minutes ago, Norris! said:

Why didn't you add it with the rest of fermentables? You boiled it so that should kill any germs,but did it sit somewhere afterwards?  I have never heard of doing it that way, but I don't know everything, barely me name. I would be worried about an infection.

You mean the crystal? That was for the XPA brew, steep o/night, boil for 15 mins with hops. 

The dry hops omission was for the previous beer, the Exbeeriment one where I played with partial mash, adding oats etc. So THAT one now has the dry hops in it and seeing I wasn't bottling, the XPA got done today. Tomorrow is (likely) the Sort Kicker for the missus and then bottle the Exbeeriment on Wed.

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17 minutes ago, Ben 10 said:

Cold steeping in the same fridge I read that as.

Yes, I cold steeped it in the same fridge as the CC'ing Exbeeriment FV.  It was at 1°C for the CC and most fridges don't sit that low so I cranked it a touch to 3° and put the cold steep crystal in there. My reasoning was the extra wouldn't change anything for the CC but 1° might change the steeping.

The XPA recipe says, "Add the cracked grain and 3 litres of cold water, fit the lid and sit in the fridge overnight." 

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So...it had been a pretty busy weekend and I'd had a big Monday looking after the little one; but I hadn't pitched my weekly brew yet. I was brewing this porter and accidentally grabbed El Dorado hops from the fridge for the bittering/steep. I always smell my hops just for funzies when I first open them and actually mentally noted that they smelled a little bit 'zesty' for a porter, but was obviously too tired to think anything of it. Given it's 12.5g for a 10 min boil and 12.5g for a 15 min steep, I don't think it's actually a large enough quantity to take over a punchy beer like a porter. Either way, what's done is done.

The issue, though, is that I had exactly 25g of El Dorado hops to dry hop my Saison tomorrow and really don't want to go to the LHBS. The hops I have on hand are the Styrian Goldings that were meant to go into the porter and some amarillo. Given Styrian Goldings are a Fuggles-style hop, I don't think they'd be ideal for a citruisy dry-hop, but amarillo might suit? Any thoughts? I was planning on using the zest of two lemons, rather than the one called for in the recipe.

TIA, Cassius.

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11 minutes ago, Cassius said:

So...it had been a pretty busy weekend and I'd had a big Monday looking after the little one; but I hadn't pitched my weekly brew yet. I was brewing this porter and accidentally grabbed El Dorado hops from the fridge for the bittering/steep. I always smell my hops just for funzies when I first open them and actually mentally noted that they smelled a little bit 'zesty' for a porter, but was obviously too tired to think anything of it. Given it's 12.5g for a 10 min boil and 12.5g for a 15 min steep, I don't think it's actually a large enough quantity to take over a punchy beer like a porter. Either way, what's done is done.

The issue, though, is that I had exactly 25g of El Dorado hops to dry hop my Saison tomorrow and really don't want to go to the LHBS. The hops I have on hand are the Styrian Goldings that were meant to go into the porter and some amarillo. Given Styrian Goldings are a Fuggles-style hop, I don't think they'd be ideal for a citruisy dry-hop, but amarillo might suit? Any thoughts? I was planning on using the zest of two lemons, rather than the one called for in the recipe.

TIA, Cassius.

Amarillo will work for that recipe 👍

 

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  • 4 weeks later...

Cleaning beer lines.

Keg 2 filled with water for a flush. Open tap one, stand there thinking hmm, this is still pouring foamy stuff. Pour out two litres before I work out it is the wrong tap.

Fugg HEad

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2 hours ago, Ben 10 said:

Cleaning beer lines.

Keg 2 filled with water for a flush. Open tap one, stand there thinking hmm, this is still pouring foamy stuff. Pour out two litres before I work out it is the wrong tap.

Fugg HEad

Did basically the same thing a couple of months ago. except I only got through two pints ha hahaha.

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A fail of sorts. I made a double batch of Fat Yak Pacific or was it pale? Anyway cooled and cubed 20+ litres for the son in-law and threw mine straight into the FV and pressure fermented at 22with US05 that day.  Son in-law pitched his the next day. He had no US05 so used a couple of packets of kit ale yeast.  Boy it did not go well for him. Tastes nothing like mine.  My brew is a good clone and his is OK but tastes totally different and has a terrible aroma.   He is annoyed to say the least.  I have been trying to convince him to harvest yeast even if he still wants to use fresh packets just so he had some on hand for times like this.  He has now paid the price.  Using old kit yeast is not a good idea.   

 

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  • 3 weeks later...

Well a real busy day in the brewhouse. 4 fermenters and 2 kegs to clean and bottle my small batch experimental maris pekko smash. Primed all the bottles and found out bottling wand didnt fit the outlet of the 30l brewtech fv and i didnt have a hose that fitted either. Fkn dilemma. Searched around the garage for a solution even a clamp that could go around a larger tube to seal the wand. Solution!! Well i have 2 wands so boiled up the kettle dropped blunt end of the wand in there and was able to force it onto the barb and bottle the beer.

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Sort of a fail, but also a fix.

My Real Ale hopped with Galaxy stopped pouring, keg was 3/4 full, traced it back to a blockage in the dip tube inside the keg ( that was my hunch ).

I hooked up my adaptor I made and blew some CO2 down the beer out post, cleared the blockage.

All I can think is some hops must of got into the mix in the fermenter, although I used a hop sock during fermentation, first time that’s ever happened to me, but she’s flowing like a beauty now.

Cheers 🍺

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I was doing two half-batches a couple of weeks apart with the same yeast. After the first batch I rolled up the top of the dry yeast packet, held it with a peg and chucked back in the fridge. I was a bit nervous about the viability of the yeast for the 2nd batch. 48 hours after pitching there's no action in the air lock so I open a new pack of dry yeast, screw the lid off the fermenter and find......a beautiful thick krausen. Turns out there was an air leak somewhere else. At least I'm more confident that my open full packet of yeast will survive until I need it.

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  • 2 months later...

Not a mistake I made but a fail nevertheless.

I had a brewday just like any other yesterday...or so I thought until a bit of a hardware failure put a damper on things. The mashout had just finished and I'm inserting the handle into the mash tube, start lifting it out and splash, the bottom plate fell out of the mash tube, releasing all grains into the kettle. Those plates are bending a fair bit over the course of a few batches and every now and then, I do a few batches turning them upside down in order to bend them the other way. I looked at them when I assembled the mash tube and thought I better turn it around but because I had already attached the overflow pipe and all, I decided not to. Shoulda, woulda, coulda right? 

 

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1 hour ago, Beerlust said:

That's not a school I'd send my kids to. 😜

https://spikebrewing.com/blogs/ask-a-pro/dry-hop-temperatures

Generally, I find warmer is better.

Just my 20 cents,

Lusty.

I actually try to avoid dry hopping. If I have a brew that needs dry hopping I increase the size and length of the hop stand.  I will  add that I am not a hop head. The most  I would use in a beer would only be 120-150g for an APA.  I suppose from previous posts it is evident that am really  not a fan of modern IPA or NEIPA. 

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9 hours ago, MartyG1525230263 said:

I actually try to avoid dry hopping. If I have a brew that needs dry hopping I increase the size and length of the hop stand.

I'm hearin' ya Marty.  I've found that sometimes though I want the malt flavour of the beer to be more prominent even in pale ales/IPA's & using a hop stand/steep does interfere with that as there is a hop flavour that is also imparted, whereas a dry hop does not (IMHO).

9 hours ago, MartyG1525230263 said:

...The most I would use in a beer would only be 120-150g for an APA. 

If they are used wisely, that can be plenty. 👍

Cheers & good brewing,

Lusty.

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