IowaStateFan
Well-Known Member
And did I have a bad day brewing. To start the day, I had a Maibock that needed bottling. I use the dishwasher to sanitize my bottles and my kids didn't clean the kitchen the night before - it's one of their chores. So I emptied the dirty dishes in the dishwasher and washed them by hand while the bottles were sanitizing. (I did make the kids dry the dishes and clean the rest of the kitchen).
The rest of the bottling went fine, until I got to the last 6 bottles. They were Bass Ale bottles and the lip that the capper grabs is pretty thin so I always have trouble getting a seal on that style bottle. I ran out of the better ones so I didn't have any choice but to use them. I'm certain that the first three didn't seal, but I think the last three might have. I had just enough caps, so I couldn't retry the first three. (note to self - make sure you order enough caps to have spares). The good news is that I got about 3 or 4 extra bottles from this batch so it's a net wash if they didn't get sealed.
I did say brewing, didn't I? After a yummy lunch of grilled cheese sandwiches and tomato soup, I started brewing a Marzen to have in the fall. I steep my specialty grains without a grain bag and just strain them into my brew pot. My strainer is only 8 inches 'cause I was too cheap to by a 12 incher. It'll hold a pound of specialty grains, but this one had a pound and a quarter, so it overflowed and I got a few grains in my brew. Not many, no big deal, but still ... (note to self, quit being such a cheap bastard and buy the proper tools for the job).
Everything went fine the rest of the brew until I went to add the rest of my extract at flameout for steeping. Problem: I forgot the flameout part. Scorched my extract. (Note to self, liquid malt extract burns easily).
I strain my hops out when I pour into the fermentor, using the same 8 inch strainer. Once again it overflowed. Once again no big deal, just a minor pita. (Note to self, see early note about being a cheap bastard).
Lastly, I overfilled my fermentor when I topped off. To make it worse, I had a half gallon of starter to pitch. Not much headroom in my bucket. I hope the lid holds. It's just got a small drilled hole with a gasket for an airlock so I can't really add a blowoff tube. The good new is that it's in a fridge by itself, so if it blows the mess will be contained. (Note to self, pay attention to the markings on the bucket you idiot.
All in all I had more problems than ever, though except for the scorched extract I don't think any of them will have an impact on the final product. And I'm not too worried about having a burnt flavor. As I said, I'd much rather suffer through a brewday like yesterday than have a good day at work.
The rest of the bottling went fine, until I got to the last 6 bottles. They were Bass Ale bottles and the lip that the capper grabs is pretty thin so I always have trouble getting a seal on that style bottle. I ran out of the better ones so I didn't have any choice but to use them. I'm certain that the first three didn't seal, but I think the last three might have. I had just enough caps, so I couldn't retry the first three. (note to self - make sure you order enough caps to have spares). The good news is that I got about 3 or 4 extra bottles from this batch so it's a net wash if they didn't get sealed.
I did say brewing, didn't I? After a yummy lunch of grilled cheese sandwiches and tomato soup, I started brewing a Marzen to have in the fall. I steep my specialty grains without a grain bag and just strain them into my brew pot. My strainer is only 8 inches 'cause I was too cheap to by a 12 incher. It'll hold a pound of specialty grains, but this one had a pound and a quarter, so it overflowed and I got a few grains in my brew. Not many, no big deal, but still ... (note to self, quit being such a cheap bastard and buy the proper tools for the job).
Everything went fine the rest of the brew until I went to add the rest of my extract at flameout for steeping. Problem: I forgot the flameout part. Scorched my extract. (Note to self, liquid malt extract burns easily).
I strain my hops out when I pour into the fermentor, using the same 8 inch strainer. Once again it overflowed. Once again no big deal, just a minor pita. (Note to self, see early note about being a cheap bastard).
Lastly, I overfilled my fermentor when I topped off. To make it worse, I had a half gallon of starter to pitch. Not much headroom in my bucket. I hope the lid holds. It's just got a small drilled hole with a gasket for an airlock so I can't really add a blowoff tube. The good new is that it's in a fridge by itself, so if it blows the mess will be contained. (Note to self, pay attention to the markings on the bucket you idiot.
All in all I had more problems than ever, though except for the scorched extract I don't think any of them will have an impact on the final product. And I'm not too worried about having a burnt flavor. As I said, I'd much rather suffer through a brewday like yesterday than have a good day at work.
