Brew Kettle Down!

May the first part of this blog entry serve as a PSA for all you homebrewers out there, and add something to your “don’t do this” list…

So, I had planned on brewing an English bitter right after Christmas, and had gotten all the ingredients at the new homebrew store up in Denton, Baron’s Brew Works, and got my yeast starter going.  I got a stir plate for Christmas, so I put the starter on that for the rest of that day, then put it in the fridge in the evening to drop all the yeast out of suspension.  Everything was ready to go for brewing the next day.

I got everything setup on Saturday, the 26^th, to start around noon.  I called/texted/Facebook messaged all my regular brew day attendees, and I was ready to go.  I started filling up the brew kettle with my mash water and start heating it up.  As it’s heating, I notice that water is dripping from the bottom of the kettle onto the propane burner.  This is odd, since I haven’t had a leak before.  I thought maybe the seal on the spigot wasn’t good, but I checked it, and that’s not where the leak was coming from.  I turned off the heat and let the kettle cool back down, and found the site of the leak was on the underside of the kettle, and the kettle was warped on both the inside and the bottom at the leaking spot.  There wasn’t a clear hole, though, that I could see.  So, brew day was cancelled.

I eventually worked out what happened.  When I brewed the dunkelweizen a few weeks before, I had done what I always do and used the lid from my old 8-gallon aluminum stock pot as a heat shield at the bottle of the kettle during the mash.  I do that so that if I have to heat the mash, I don’t have to worry about melting my BIAB bag.  Well, I totally forgot about it when it came time for the boil, and left it in there.  Big mistake.  Not only did the kettle get pretty badly scorched, but it also apparently caused the warping, which must have caused a small crack to develop in the steel (single ply bottom on this kettle).  So, there would be no brewing on that day.

I considered trying to fix it, as we have some friends with welding equipment and experience, but since I couldn’t pinpoint and exact spot, or see the crack, I thought that might be too difficult, so eventually I just ordered a new brew kettle, this time with a triply bottom.  I got a Concord 20-gallon kettle with 2 welded couplers for a ball valve and a thermometer.  It’s very nice, and it got here on Monday.

So, what did I do?  I brewed, of course!  My efficiency actually jumped up a few points with the new kettle, too.  I also got a Thermapen instant read thermometer for Christmas, so I don’t really need the thermometer on the kettle, but it is nice to have it to know when I’m getting close to hitting my strike temp for the mash, and to check the temp during the mash without removing the lid and whatever I’m using to insulate during the mash (usually a handful of blankets).  I hit my strike temp and mash temp right on the nose, and lost a couple of degrees in the first 30 minutes, so I turned the burner on and stirred the mash with my fancy new mash paddle while it was heating to avoid scorching the wort or melting the bag.  Way better than using a heat shield and possibly forgetting it again.  After I got back to 153°F, I covered the kettle back up and let the mash work its magic.  Another 30 minutes and I started the boil.  No problems at all with the brew day, and with the colder temperatures, I was able to get the wort cooled do to 85°F pretty quickly, and got it into the fermenter and got that into the chest freezer to cool the rest of the way overnight.  I’ve been doing that lately when I’m pressed for time, and haven’t had any ill-effects.  I pitched my yeast starter Tuesday morning before leaving for work, and that afternoon it was happily bubbling away!  I didn’t get quite as much into the fermenter as I wanted, but I’ll figure out the quirks of the new kettle pretty quick and get my volumes dialed in.  The only thing I miss about the old kettle is the volume markings on the side.  I used a tape measure to help calculate my volumes as I went, but that’s probably not the best way to do it.

Here’s the recipe for The Chestnut Troop (the name come from A Battery, Royal Horse Artillery, the senior battery in the Royal Regiment of Artillery, British Army):

7.5lbs Maris Otter

1lb British Crystal 60L

.5lb Flaked Corn

.5lb Flaked Barley

Mash @ 153 for 60 minutes

1.5oz Fuggles (UK) @ 60 minutes

1oz East Kent Goldings @ 15 minutes

.5oz Fuggles (UK) @ 5 minutes

60 minute boil

WLP007, fermenting at 65 for 3 days, then bumping up to 70F until finished.  Probably going to naturally carbonate with priming sugar in the keg to 1.3-1.6 vols of CO2

My OG target was 1.043, but since I got higher than expected efficiency, I hit 1.045.  This might be closer to a Strong Bitter (ESB) than a Best Bitter, but we’ll see what the FG ends up being.

This weekend is going to be my collaboration brew day with David from New Main Brewing.  We’re doing a double batch of a British Dark Mild, and each take half to ferment. Hopefully it turns out well!