See if you can top this

Brewing processes and methods. How to brew using extract, partial or all-grain. Tips and tricks.

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fitz
Strong Ale
Strong Ale
Posts: 442
Joined: Thu Dec 19, 2002 8:36 am

See if you can top this

Post by fitz »

Speaking of stupid brewers tricks.
I have a double batch of beer going. I had been so busy working on this addition to my house, that the brewing had taken a backseat. I finally had enough and was detemined to make not one, but two batches. I went to a club I belong to since there is no wife and kids, and they have this great kitchen with large pots, the whole works. Anyway, I start to boil the wort, both batches, and notice I only have one hop bag. Home is 10 miles away. Brewing store is 12 miles away and that guy probably doesn't have one in stock(completely different frustrating story) Anyhow, the grocery store is 2 blocks away, and the hop bags are made out of nylon?!?! Her I go to buy some panty hose. Anyway, the only ones I found, were black, would my hops notice a difference? I soaked them in some one step solution to "wash" them and start to hoil the hops in both pots. Now the pot with the new "hop bag" looks a lot darker than the regular hop bag. Almost coal black! Then it was coal black. Well, I'm not goin to waste all of that wort, so I keep doing my additions. I add an extra pound of DME to the pot with the real hop bag, because I wanted one to have a little more kick to it and a little more amber color. I cool them down, and the lesser of the two malted pots has a significantly higher sp gr. I don't know if the dye from my "hop bag" could raise the gravity 10 points or not, but hey, you can always drink your mistakes right!
Both have fermented for 8 days. The wort that had the extra malt added is still slowly fermenting 1.090 the other quit days ago and has a gravity of 1.020. I have tried to resume fermentation with yeast energizer and Amalaze Enzyme, the yeast is still alive, but I think I have a beer that is going to have a high gravity. I hope the flavor is not tainted by the dye. The color is pretty much gone now, but the gravity won't go down. Anyway, make sure you have everything you need on hand before starting your boil. Who knows, Maybe I'll be trading all of my hop bags in for black pantyhose!
Team Beer
Light Lager
Light Lager
Posts: 38
Joined: Wed Jun 13, 2001 6:20 pm

Uhhhh...

Post by Team Beer »

I could be wrong on this, but I wouldn't think the dye they use on pantyhose would be safe for human consumption. But if it is, I think it would most definitely cause an off flavor. Of course I have absolutely no background in hosiery.
fitz
Strong Ale
Strong Ale
Posts: 442
Joined: Thu Dec 19, 2002 8:36 am

Update

Post by fitz »

Here is an update on my Hop bag fiasco.
I bottled the quuestionable beer the other night. It no longer had any dye color still remaining in the beer. The beer also tasted fine. I have to assume the yeast did their job, and not only fermented the wort, but actually cleaned it as well when it settled out. No wonder the European contries make such fine beer out of some of the most disgusting water in the world.
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