a faux pass?

Last night was yet another brew night. However, it didn't go as smoothly as it usually does. This was an Irish Dry Stout kit that my buddy Skip sent to me.

I got everything cleaned and sanitized and got my yeast rehydrated without issue. However, I was worried about where I was going to ferment this because the yeast for it needs to ferment between 65* and 70*. That is difficult this time of year, when your fermentation chamber is tied up lagering (at 34*) -- especially when we don't run the AC.

So while my water is coming up to temperature, I am scouting a solution of how and where I will ferment this batch. I finally decided, I could set it in the master bathroom bathtub, as Dad only uses his shower stall. I could run a fan in there and it wouldn't bother him and fill the tub with some water to keep it a cooler, more even temperature. Super! got that solved.

Problem was, the time it took to come to that conclusion, my steeping water had exceeded 155* by about 30*. DOH! Now I had to wait until it cooled. I could add some cold water but I didn't want to mess up the water:grain ratio. I could have dumped it and started over, but that seemed to be a waste. So I just waited.

Once it got to 160*, I set my grain bag in and let that help bring the temp down some. I steeped for 35 minutes instead of my usual 45 this time, as I had lost time waiting on it to cool down. Heck, I didn't wish to be up all night.

While steeping, the bag kept "sticking" to the bottom of the brewpot, if I stopped stirring it, for even a second. This is highly uncharacteristic. I can usually walk away for a couple seconds (to get another beer, or whatever) without that happening.

At the end of the 35 minutes, I attempted to pour the grain tea over the grain bag. I had the bright idea that I could hold my collander (that was too small) on the edge of my 7.5 gallon brewpot that I had my boiling water in while pouring the grain tea over the grain bag.

Heh,, that's what I get for thinking! Sure as anything I dropped the collander into the boiling water, before I even began pouring. I needed to get it out of there quickly as it was plastic and the water was boiling, so I quickly grabbed it with my bare hands. Yow! boiling water and bare skin are not a favorable match -- just in case you ever wondered.

I called Melissa in to help me transfer it over. Using an extra set of hands seemed to work a little better. However, upon pouring it all over, I had a molasses-like syrup left in the bottom of the steeping pot. WTF?!? never seen that before! Anyway, I went ahead and used a rubber spatula and transferred the syrupy goo into the boiling water.

The rest of the process went without any more trouble. I added my extracts, sugar (it's a DRY stout), and first and only hop addition and let it boil.

At the end of the boil, my 4 bags of salted ice got the wort cooled down to 70* in a reasonable time. I didn't time it, but it seemed to take the normal 20-ish minutes. I racked it, aerated, and pitched the yeast.

My gravity sample came out within .002 of what it was supposed to be and tasted okay. So despite, my "trying" to screw it up, it seems it will be fine. It was already bubbling at a good rate within 12 hours of pitching it.