New Brewer Questions

I'm in Phx also, feel free to pm me with any questions! Have about 14 batches under the belt and would love to give any assistance that I can! Good luck!

 

Hello all! I also need help and advice!
I brewed on Monday and i had a few hiccups. Instead of letting the mash 'rest' to convert the starches to sugars, I didn't realize the heat was on!! The bottom of my mash burned a tiny bit... (honestly not a lot at all) before I caught it, turned the heat off and continued.

I then proceeded to sparge and kept in the first runnings of the water, which were cloudy and thick!

THENNN...after a long night of really fun first all-grain batch brewing, I cooled it, pitched the yeast (which was room temp and puffed up for a good 4 hrs) and waited.

4 days later nothing is it from the burning? is it the thickness?
My culinary friend just said to add some sugar to the brew just to see what happens...mine as well try something if I'm going to lose the batch! So Firday I added some sugar and it is in full fermentation mode now! I am aware that it might explode so I am taking extra precaution with that but any comments on anything??

 

What was your entire process? It sounds like you ended up boiling your grains, which would pretty much denature them. I don't understand what you mean in " sparge and kept in the first runnings of water".

You did boil your wort after you collected your runnings from the mash?

What makes you think nothing happened in 4 days? Airlock activity? Did you check it with a hydrometer?

 

Yes I boiled the grains

When I ran the water through the grains gathering the wort to boil, I didn't catch them in a pitcher and put them back through I just drained it right into the boil kettle.

there was a pretty clear seperation of sediment and wort in my carboy and as soon as I added sugar the fermentation was evident

 

and....

 

I did not check it with the hydrometer because I was worried about contamination...so what do I do?

I boiled the grains and feel like the yeast is eating the sugar I just recently added. It might have been active and I just didn't see it but is that normal for 4 days?

 

Tjumfrid - I lived in Phx until very recently so I feel your pain about keeping the wort cool, a t-shirt with small aquarium pump in a tub works like a charm. Use the pump to cotinuously dump cool water on the top of the carboy/bucket and it'll keep nice and cool. Doing this I only added 4 frozen 2L bottles a day to keep the temps down for the primary

I also highly highly suggest using RO water for your brews as Phx water is terrible for brewing, aside from the crazy amounts of chlorine it is very high in almost all minerals important for brewing

 

What was your recipe's target Original Gravity and what was your actual reading if you took it? You may not have gotten much sugar from your grain. By chance did you taste the wort after the boil? Sweet?

 

If you don't have a wine thief, sanitize something like a turkey baster and draw a sample for your hydrometer.

How long did it take for your mash to reach a boil? Or more importantly, how long would it have been below 170F? And yes, fermentation in four days is quite possible.

 

The mash was never below 170 degrees the problem is I think it was too hot.

I tasted the wort before putting it into the carboy and it was sweet. I will get my recipe and get back to you on the OG. Thank you for the continued responses!

 

If your wort tasted sweet, there was probably a significant amount of sugars in it. If the mash was never below 170F, you would not have had much conversion. The sugars in your wort would have been almost limited to whatever steeped from any crystal/caramel/roasted malts. What was your grain bill (types of grains and amounts)?

 

8.5# Pale Malt (2 row)
.38# Crystal 60L
.50# Biscuit Malt

I used 1028 London Ale yeast as well

 

The anticipated OG is 1.050

 

I wouldn't expect the wort from this grain bill to tastes sweet, unless you got some conversion.

Did you measure it yet?

 

No I havent measured it yet (I will tonight!) but is it ok if I measure it while it is still fermenting? I won't lose anything by opening the carboy will I?

 

Nope.. be sanitary about it, and you'll be fine.