I had an opportunity to brew at short notice. I hadn’t planned ahead, but fortunately had all the required ingredients. (Except I later realised that I didn’t have any yeast, until I then realised that I actually did, but that was way after the fact).
So in between getting on with some work, I set up my electric boiler to heat the strike water. All good.
Now, my electric boiler isn’t the fastest thing in the world, but some time later, we hit the target temperature of 70° (that’s Celsius). 6kg of crushed Maris Otter (oh, the smell!) nicely doughed in, no dough balls. All good.
Mashed the grains for just over an hour with the aid of a sleeping bag to maintain temperature. All good.
Now the boiler gets switched on again to start the boil. I remove the grain bag (did I mention that this is a brew-in-the-bag batch? It’s how I roll), and squeeze the bejeezus out of it (yeah, I’m a squeezer, I squoze that bag up right nice). Time passed, a boil was reached, hops went in. First hop addition was just over an ounce and a half of Northern Brewer. Yes, I know that I’m mixing metric and old-fashioned, in metric that’s an ounce and a half’s worth of grams. All good.
The plan was for a 45′ boil. Mock all you want. I do it this way and it works a treat
but
not this time. 30′ into the boil I’m preparing to add Irish moss for clarity and then a flame out hop addition (already measured out to exactly one and three eighths of an ounce).
Hmmmmm!
I think to myself.
Why doesn’t the wort seem to be boiling as vigorously as before?
Because the boiler’s packed up
Ok. We can deal with this. I’m sure it’ll be fine! I threw in the Irish moss and gave it a stir. I checked the temperature and the wort was still over 98°C. Late hops went in.
I’m also a no-chiller. I don’t have a wort chiller, don’t want to buy one, and don’t agree with the amount of wasted water they produce. So I leave the hops in for a further 10′ and then take them out and leave the wort to chill, covered, until the next day, ready for yeast.
And that’s where the story ends for now! The wort is cooling slowly, and tomorrow the yeast will go in. A few days after that I’ll dry hop, this is supposed to be an IPA, and then let it go.
The proof will be in the drinking.
Have you had any similar experiences, or do you think my beer is ruined? Maybe you think my technique is shoddy. Drop a comment on the article!
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