Brew day crisis!!

scrapsmac

Hi folks,

So I was starting my first all grain BIAB today and I went to fire up my boiler (only used once before for a one hour boil) and it tripped the house. I have replaced the fuses in the power lead and it keeps tripping. I'm guessing this is a problem with the element. Needless to say I'm gutted and annoyed.

I have two 8litre stove pots however I would not know how to convert my recipe or if it is even possible to do a mini mash of sorts.

This was my first day off from work in a long while and I was all set to brew!!

Any advice? Is it possible to do a mini mash with two 8 ltr pots? If so can someone help with the water volumes and calcs?

My recipe is an american wheat, along the lines of blue moon.

Maris Otter
Flaked Wheat
Flaked Oats
Dry Malt extra light
Dry Malt Wheat

Coriander
Orange Peel
EK Goldings

Safale US-05 (want to keep it neutral)

mayto

Can you try running power to the element from a different circuit in the house. The element could be overloading the circuit if you have other high power appliances running. Of course the element could be at fault but worth trying out.

scrapsmac

Thanks for the quick reply Mayto. Tried it around different rooms and it keeps tripping so must be the element.

Argh!! Cheers for the tip but. Take it an 8ltr stockpot brew is not possible?

mayto

I'm sure you could do a mini mash, working out recipes is a bit messy though. I went straight from extract to all-grain with a mash tun, never thought much of biab. What is your current recipe? Do you have a sparging bag to do biab.?

scrapsmac

Yes I've a sparging bag. Was all set for brew in a bag, purely because I don't have a mash tun and I could calculate it quite easily.

I'm willing to give a mini mash a go but most guides call for a 12ltr or larger pot. So I'm in a bit of a pickle

mayto

If you had a spare fermenter I would try and do a mash in that. If you wrap it very well it should keep enough heat to do the mash. Pre heat the fermenter with some boiling water and then add 2.5L of water per kg of grain at about 76C to the fermenter. The temp should go to about 67C range when you add the grain in the bag. You could tie a know in the sparging bag. You want the mash temp in the range min 64C to 70C max. Check mash every 15Min maybe, lifting out the soarge bag and add some boiling water if the temp has dropped to much. You do not want to put boiling water directly on the grains as it will kill the enzymes you need. What is the weight of your ingredients and could work something out.

scrapsmac

Grains are roughly 2.4kg. I can do a smaller batch if needs be.

That sounds a good idea. How will I do my boil however? Split it between the two stock pots?

mayto

You can do the boil in the two pots and dilute the concentrated wort to 23L? with water after the boil. Split the hops and other additions between the two pots. Do you have the recipe you are doing? There might be too much air space in a fermenter if only mashing a small amount of grain.

scrapsmac

Maris Otter - 1.4kg
Flaked Oats - 0.5kg
Flaked Wheat - 0.5kg

Dry Malt Extra Light - 1kg
Dry Malt Wheat - 0.4kg

EK Golding - 25grams 60mins Boil

Coriander - 15grams 10mins Boil
Orange Peel - 30grams 10mins Boil

scrapsmac

I have 3kg of Maris Otter,

1kg of Flaked Wheat and 500grams of Flaked Oats at my disposal

mayto

Mash your grains in the recipe either in the fermenter or could could mash them in a sauepan in the oven at low heat just to keep at mash temp. Keep an eye that mash temp is in the 64-70C range. Try using 2.5L of water per kg of grain. After the mash rinse out the sparging bag with a few litres of water at about 80C. Split the wort to the two o pots and add water if needed to get the pots fairly full. You do not want to overfill the pots either as the hot break will begin foaming at the start of the boil and can overflow. Add the spraymalt when its nearly boiling but take the pots off the heat when stirring in as you could burn some of the spraymalt at the bottom of the pot.

scrapsmac

Cheers Mayto! I take it I then just top up the fermenter with roughly 10 litres or so of water?

Will let you all know how it goes!

mayto

Ye top up your fermenter to your recipe final volume but check with hydrometer first as your efficiency from the grains might not be great. I would slowly add extra water until the anticipated orignal gravity is reached in the cooled wort. Make sure of course wort in fermenter is about 25C or below before adding yeast and try ferment at about 20C or below.

scrapsmac

Well folks. Just waiting for the temp to come down before I pitch. Ended up with 7 litres of wort, topped up to 21 in the fermenter. Starting gravity is 1.043 taking into account the temp correction. Predicted gravity was 1.046 so I'm not too upset. Predicted gravity was also based on 20 litres so I think Im closer.

Just want to thank Mayto for the help! A potentially awful day rescued haha

mayto

Glad to hear it worked out for you, should taste great . Its a while since I did a wheat type beer myself, maybe a hefeweisen is due.

scrapsmac

its bubbling away nicely!

Small concern for me now is the ambient room temperature. Room temp is a fairly constant 22degrees. Bit warm right?

Unfortunately the temp doesn't drop below 22 in the house. I could move it to the shed which was a constant 18 today, but I'd imagine it gets quite cool at night.

I can't decide whether it's better to leave it be or move it.

Any suggestions?

mayto

A recipe book I have mentions fermenting a witbeer from 20C to 22C, so its probably fine at that temp. The shed would probably be ok with a blanket around the fermenter at night but moving fermenter during fermentation usually not advised.

scrapsmac

Good stuff. It certainly smells citrus-y which is what I was after.

Am I right in saying that a neutral yeast such as Safale US-05 is also a bit more forgiving at higher temperatures?

Have you any brews on the go Mayto?

lang

scrapsmac wrote: »

Unfortunately the temp doesn't drop below 22 in the house. I could move it to the shed which was a constant 18 today...

Any suggestions?

Hey,

I'm not at the stage of All-grain or even partial but what I did with my latest brew re temp was to wrap the fermenter in a damp towel. I added water on top of the fermenter which the towel soaked up and it brought the temp down fairly well. Was at 25C on Friday when I brewed (London Porter) and now it's sitting at about 18C. I haven't added any extra water since Saturday evening. Putting the towel around it also prevents the Sunlight getting in at the brew. I'll probably wrap the fermenter in a duvet today to try and keep it at a constant 18-20C for the next week or so.

scrapsmac

lang wrote: »

scrapsmac wrote: »

Unfortunately the temp doesn't drop below 22 in the house. I could move it to the shed which was a constant 18 today...

Any suggestions?

Hey,

I'm not at the stage of All-grain or even partial but what I did with my latest brew re temp was to wrap the fermenter in a damp towel. I added water on top of the fermenter which the towel soaked up and it brought the temp down fairly well. Was at 25C on Friday when I brewed (London Porter) and now it's sitting at about 18C. I haven't added any extra water since Saturday evening. Putting the towel around it also prevents the Sunlight getting in at the brew. I'll probably wrap the fermenter in a duvet today to try and keep it at a constant 18-20C for the next week or so.

When you say added water do you mean pour water over the top? Might give this a go!

mayto

scrapsmac wrote: »

Good stuff. It certainly smells citrus-y which is what I was after.

Am I right in saying that a neutral yeast such as Safale US-05 is also a bit more forgiving at higher temperatures?

Have you any brews on the go Mayto?

I made up a stout with a mate recently and will be kegging it soon enough, tasted really nice.
During the summer I ferment in a fridge using a temp controller. The brewbelt around the fermenter goes on when too cold and fridge goes on when too hot. I can ferment within around a degree, so set it at 18C and can forget about it for a few weeks

AmyRacecar

I had a similar problem with my kettle after a few brews. Try descaling the element then see if it keeps tripping, the limescale can insulate it and cause it to overheat. Hope you don't need to replace it!

scrapsmac

I'll give it a go AmyRacecar!

What did you use to clean it?

lang

scrapsmac wrote: »

When you say added water do you mean pour water over the top? Might give this a go!

That's exactly what I did. The towel covered the top and sides of the fermenter so just poured a bit of cold water on lid of fermenter for towel to soak up....also gently poured it around the side of the top of the fermenter to let the water slowly soak down the sides.

scrapsmac

AmyRacecar wrote: »

I had a similar problem with my kettle after a few brews. Try descaling the element then see if it keeps tripping, the limescale can insulate it and cause it to overheat. Hope you don't need to replace it!

This worked!! Fantastic. Gave it a quick clean with limescale remover, fired it up and hey presto. thanks folks!:D

Baz_

scrapsmac wrote: »

This worked!! Fantastic. Gave it a quick clean with limescale remover, fired it up and hey presto. thanks folks!:D

Haha gas, the little fixes are the funniest, I wasn't expecting that towork for you. I'm glad it did great outcome, but something ironically funny about such a small fix causing you somuch stress on day... nice one

oblivious

scrapsmac wrote: »

This worked!! Fantastic. Gave it a quick clean with limescale remover, fired it up and hey presto. thanks folks!:D

Vinegar or citric will work in a pinch too

scrapsmac

Bottled this brew this morning. Took a quick sampler and it tasted very sharp. A bit bitter almost. I think I may have overdone it with the orange. Any idea if this will calm?

I will be trying one out next weekend before the Craft Beer Fest!