Bad Day?

I really wanted to brew this weekend and work on a new recipe. I am very detailed and take lots notes so I can repeat the process and get the same beer every time.  I have had this idea for a new recipe and really wanted to try it out.  I was thinking that this weekend would be the perfect time.  I have been working on the recipe for a little while.  It’s a variation of one I came up with last year, and I really wanted to see how it would turn out. 

I decided to brew early in the morning so I could get other things done later (it is Mother’s Day weekend).  The weather has been bad, rain and thunderstorm.  I was not going to let that stop me, so I went ahead with my plans. When I was about to mill the grain I decided to check my grain mill and somehow the rollers were really out of wack.  It’s a good thing I checked.  

Maybe I should have taken this as a hint that things were going to go wrong. I moved them back into position and began to mill.  I had the grain weighed out in a couple of different paper bags.  First one went well, then I grabbed the second bag and it ripped as I was lifting it up.  I lost about 2 – 3 lbs, and the floor was not clean enough to try and use it anyway.  I did not have any more.  Now I could have stopped and go out to buy more, but for some reason I decided to press on.  I figured I was going to lose a little bit of the alcohol content. 

So I started to mill that bag.  About ½ way through, the grain mill just stopped moving the grain through.  The rollers were turning, but nothing was going through.  I had to scoop the grain out and see.  Nothing, it looked fine.  I dumped the grain back in and same problem.  After trying that whole process again and pushing on the grain it finally started to mill again.  I was getting pretty ticked off at this point.

I started the mash and as I added the grain, I realized that some of the un-milled grain was mixed in with the milled.  It must have been when the grain mill stopped working.

So now, I have a mash going with an unknown amount of grain and I am not sure how much is not milled properly.

I tried to relax and figured I would just push on.  At this point I should have realized that the whole idea of trying this new recipe was shot since I don’t know what I have in the mash tun.  Of course I was not thinking that clearly. 

I was heating the sparge water and then looked back at my recipe.  Somehow I had set it for a batch sparge and not fly sparge, so my grain amounts were off anyway.  I had too much grain for where I originally wanted to end up.  I reduced the sparge water amount a little and pressed on. 

The rest of the process went well.  Somehow I ended up with the SG in the range I wanted, but I am really not sure how.  And I still will have to try this all over again with the recipe, because I really have no idea what I did.  One nice thing about brewing is that if you make a mistake you still get beer, so at least it will be something to drink.  However, no matter how good (or bad) it is, I will never be able to repeat this one. 

After lunch I was thinking I was going to try the last new beer I made.  I have been tweaking my IPA recipe and brewed it last month. I knew it was ready to drink, but had not tried it yet.  This made my day.  It’s prefect, exactly where I wanted it to be!  Great aroma, the flavor is wonderful.   So this recipe is final and I will certainly make it again.

With that I can say the day was a success.