So I just jumped back into brewing after a long dry spell - several years. I just didn't take to the long brew days with my 3 vessel system.. so decided to go BIAB to perhaps cut the time required, and remodeled my system for that. I have been using a rectangular cooler (big enough for easy 10 gallon batches) that really sucked the heat out of strike water I guess.
The Brewtarget process I had created before for this porter recipe said this:
So I think I killed the enzymes. I pitched the yeast after the boil/cool down and initially - 24 hours - got some bubbling going. That was Sunday. Now on Tuesday, I don't really see any activity at all. Never had the big krausen I usually got. I did try some more yeast in case that was the issue (Safale 04) but nothing. Preboil gravity was 1052 and post 1062. (8.5 was too much to begin with.. plus had some issues with my PID not doing a full rolling boil and I'm now using for the first time a Steam Slayer so with the lid on.. hard to monitor the boil. Going to have to go for an Auber EasyBoil I think.).
So I think I know where I went wrong. But question is: what to do with the 6 gallons in the carboy. My wife doesn't like alcohol at all.. can it become a non-alcoholic beer? Is there a process for that? (I normally keg with CO2).
thanks for reading, Jim
The Brewtarget process I had created before for this porter recipe said this:
That might be because I'm in the basement (still snowy here) wearing a jacket and knit hat (chilly) and the 13-14 lbs of grain temp was around low 40's F. New to BIAB, I was following BobbyinNJ's lead and used around 8.5 gallons in the kettle - my big mistake on strike temp as it wouldn't cool so quick. (New system.. had too many things on my mind to think it through..) So my mash temp started out at 168 deg. - I quickly threw in ice (didn't have enough) and some freeze blocks to try to bring it down... but it took awhile.Add 4.316 gal water at 176.031 F to mash to bring it to 150.000 F. Hold for 60.000 min.
So I think I killed the enzymes. I pitched the yeast after the boil/cool down and initially - 24 hours - got some bubbling going. That was Sunday. Now on Tuesday, I don't really see any activity at all. Never had the big krausen I usually got. I did try some more yeast in case that was the issue (Safale 04) but nothing. Preboil gravity was 1052 and post 1062. (8.5 was too much to begin with.. plus had some issues with my PID not doing a full rolling boil and I'm now using for the first time a Steam Slayer so with the lid on.. hard to monitor the boil. Going to have to go for an Auber EasyBoil I think.).
So I think I know where I went wrong. But question is: what to do with the 6 gallons in the carboy. My wife doesn't like alcohol at all.. can it become a non-alcoholic beer? Is there a process for that? (I normally keg with CO2).