Author's Note: I struggled and fought tooth-and-nail with this batch every step of the way. While most people would take that as a bad omen and quit while they're ahead, I'm not a superstitious person. Plus I'm an idiot. That said, I did learn two important techniques during this batch that have become a mainstay of my brewing; (a) yeast starters and (b) racking the beer to a secondary fermenter.
1 x 1.7kg Mangrove Jack's Mexican Cerveza (LME)
2.5kg NZ Pale Malt
1kg Flaked Maize
25g Southern Cross Hops (30 mins)
25g Southern Cross Hops (15 mins)
1 tsp Irish Moss
1 x Mangrove Jack's US West Coast Yeast (M44)
1 x Crappy 5g Yeast Sachet
10ml Clarity Fern
Made up a yeast starter last night using 3/4 cup of pale Dry Malt Extract and the yeast. It's my first time making one, so I hope I didn't screw it up too badly!
I'm super excited about this batch! It'll be my first time using (a) yeast starters, (b) the 30L stockpot and (c) more than one type of grain. I'm a little on the fence about whether or not to spike it with raw sugar. According to BeerSmith, with the amount of grain I'm using, it should come out at 5.4% (OG 1.055 - guess who finally learned how to read the hydrometer!). Raw sugar would bump it up to 6.8% (OG 1.066.)
With regard to the volatile nature of the Strontkop, it may be that the yeast hadn't stopped fermenting when I bottled it. As my hydrometer broke, I had no way of checking. I've got a better hydrometer now, so I'll make damn sure with this batch!
I've since learned that - as a general rule of thumb - the higher the alc/vol, the longer it should be left to ferment. I'm also giving some thought to getting a siphon and a bottling bucket, so I can decant it and remove some of the sediment before bottling.
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Well, that was an ordeal. A lot of shit may potentially go wrong with this batch. And now I realise, having just added the yeast starter that I FORGOT to take a hydrometer sample! Although I thought it might be the solution to all my problems, the 30L stockpot is a gigantic pain in the arse to work with. For one thing, it takes bloody ages to heat. You really don't wat to know how long it takes to cool either.
Mashing/infusing the grain was a gigantic fucking nightmare! The strainer bag was very little help, so there goes $20 down the drain! Ironically, it was a lot easier last time when I strained a 15L stock pot into a bucket. Getting a stable temperature was damn near impossible too. There's a chance I may have bashed too low (in the low 60s), which is why the wort came out darker than I would have liked. Until I get a proper Mash Tun going, I'm just going to hold fire on brewing, because I'm sure as shit NOT doing it on a stove again! The actual boil itself went totally by the book, so nothing to report there. Once I tried to cool the wort, that's where the real problems begun...
After an hour (and three refills) in a cold water bath, I lost patience. I took everything out of my fridge, awkwardly crammed it in and left it for an hour. I should mention that somehow I still had about 20L of wort at the end of the boil with very little boiloff. For some reason, this makes me suspicious.
After an hour, I really lost patience and decided that a change of recepticle might help expediate the cooling process. So I poured it through a sieve into the fermenter... in my goddamn room. I topped it up with about 3 litres of cold water, aerated it, added Clarity Ferm, aerated some more and lugged it to Bill's car-hole. At this stage, I was beyond caring about things like 'ideal pitching temperatures', so I biffed the yeast starter in and sealed it up. True story.
All in all, I've got a bad feeling about this batch. A lot of shit went wrong, I got sloppy in a lot of places and I think I've learned a lot about how NOT to brew beer. Whatever this abomination turns out to be, it probably won't be Cerveza. Oddly enough - if it's drinkable - I may have Malt Liquor on my hands, which was next on my to-do list. And I STILL have to go to work in less than an hour! I can safely say this is the worst brewing day I've had so far...
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