It seems I can’t brew without making at least one mistake. Is it my poor note-keeping, my short attention span, or the fact that I’m always brewing late at night? Whatever the reason, just about every time out, I do something big or small that adversely affects my brew. There was the time I forgot to put water in my airlock; the time I forgot to put my wort on ice and waited and waited and waited for it to cool on its own. As Napoleon Dynamite would say, “Idiot!”
This time out, there were several knucklehead moves that will likely lead to a finished product that’s slightly “off.” And a handful of little missteps that were just annoying. I learned a few things along the way, however.
I learned that little things are important. Like making sure to open your canisters of liquid malt extract before the moment you need them. This I highly recommend.
As I’ve mentioned, I want my hefeweizen amber-brownish. I’m using Carafa III for that purpose. I threw them in cold water and raised the temperature. My goal was between 150 °F and 160 °F but … I had to put my daughter to bed. Child asleep, I raced downstairs to a faint burnt smell of too-roasted barley. Not what I was going for. Also, I couldn’t remember how long to let them steep. My lame notes from the last time I brewed were useless. So I winged it and left the malt in for 20 minutes. Wort looks awfully dark. Twenty minutes is too long and I should’ve removed it from the heat. Idiot!
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