Always check your crush

[barleypopmaker]

Well, I have never had a problem with my crush at my LHBS before, and got a public burn this Saturday. I did an all grain brewing class at the LHBS this Saturday and everything went real smooth, until it came time to measure our pre-boil gravity. We did an APA, Pre-boil should have been 1.047ish and instead was 1.020 at 150 degrees, but by the time it cooled it was 1.032. Still, it sucks when you are doing something in public and say, "now we will check our pre boil gravity and it should be around 1.045 or 1.047...............and it is......Oh shit..1.020.(time for some damage control) OK, every now and again you may run into a problem. We can either just leave it as it is and call it a session beer, or boil the wort down to a gravity we want. We will have less beer, but it will still be close to what you are shooting for. Now let's try to figure out what went wrong." It took a while to figure out what may have happened, but upon inspection of the mash after it was all drained, lots and lots of the grains were not even cracked. How stupid could I have been? I had 2 guys go crush the grains while I got everything else ready and they brought over the grains and I just dumped them into the mash tun without even second guessing it or really looking at them. The good news is that the club paid for the ingredients and the mill problem was caught early. In the end we boiled it down to 1.042 and fixed the grain mill. But the lesson learned was that even if you don't have problems over many many batches, don't become complacent. That is when something simple like that will bite you in the ass

[brewsters millionths]

could have been worse, could've happened when you were paying for the ingredients always good to learn at other peoples expense

[barleypopmaker]

I don't know, I would rather screw up at home in private, than in front of a group of people I am supposed to be showing how to do All Grain. I felt like a schmuck.

[brewsters millionths]

at least you break them in gently. now they won't be paranoid that they're total idiots if they mess something up. they might have been too scared to try it. they can now say to themselves, well if he can make mistakes it's not so bad if we do either when he's been doing it a while. lets give it a go and rdwhahb

[barleypopmaker]

I didn't think of it that way. I guess I was too self absorbed to think that my mistake may actually have helped in some way.

[Techie101]

Yeah, I agree. I think it was a positive mistake. They were able to see an important part of AG brewing, troubleshooting. Especially since you were initially so far off from your expected OG and were able to get it pretty close by changing your brew schedule.

...I say job well done!

[brewsters millionths]

and just think jason, whhen you get these guys going, who do you think they're gonna want to sample their beers. man you're gonna be drunk.

[Thirsty Mallard]

Hey, at least you checked the pre-gravity runnings! The guy that taught me how to brew didn't even have a hydrometer...

Imagine getting the final product and tasting the thin lifeless beer... far more embarassing than finding a problem and fixing it!