BEER Explosion
I wish I could load these pictures, they are worth thousands of words.
As you know, I brew beer as a hobby. Today, I had two major beer explosions in my kitchen. The first happened last night, the second just happened minutes ago. Both put hops and malt all over my kitchen floor and the cabinets.... tonight most of the kitchen was saved because the explosion was blocked by my face. I look pretty funny covered in sludgey green hops and malt.
So, this past Tuesday was a pretty normal brewing day for Adam, Matt and I. We bottled a few batches that we has brewed over the past few weeks and months. We also brewed a Belgian Saison. It has three pounds of candy sugar in the boil, which is three pounds more than most brews we make. To appreciate the story, you must first know about the process of beer: Boil and mix it, cool it down, add yeast, let sit to ferment, bottle. That's the short, short version. The functional part is the fermentation stage: the yeast eats the sugars and produces alcohol. It also produces a lot of gas that must be let out of the sealed fermentation bucket. It is sealed with an air lock which lets gas OUT, but not IN, past the bubbles. This particular brew ferments very furiously. So much, that it puts abby-normal amounts of pressure on the inside of the bucket. I'm not sure if it was overfilled when we added the yeast, or if there is a problem with our air-lock, but the system broke down somehow.
Last nights explosion left a big puddle in the kitchen floor and the air-lock several feet from the bucket. It happened quite on its own, and I did not witness it first hand. I boiled the bung and air-lock and replaced them in the mouth of the bucket this evening. Adam came over to survey the damage, but I had it pretty much cleaned up by then. Then later, he left for the airport and I inspected the roiling fermentation. It looked like our fermentor was bulging in a strange way, so I checked on the tightness of the bung. I twisted it slightly, and BANG, I had hops in my eyes and green in my hair. It was everywhere. Yuk. Weird feeling to be sober and covered with beer.
Never fear, another five-gallon batch is just around the corner.
As you know, I brew beer as a hobby. Today, I had two major beer explosions in my kitchen. The first happened last night, the second just happened minutes ago. Both put hops and malt all over my kitchen floor and the cabinets.... tonight most of the kitchen was saved because the explosion was blocked by my face. I look pretty funny covered in sludgey green hops and malt.
So, this past Tuesday was a pretty normal brewing day for Adam, Matt and I. We bottled a few batches that we has brewed over the past few weeks and months. We also brewed a Belgian Saison. It has three pounds of candy sugar in the boil, which is three pounds more than most brews we make. To appreciate the story, you must first know about the process of beer: Boil and mix it, cool it down, add yeast, let sit to ferment, bottle. That's the short, short version. The functional part is the fermentation stage: the yeast eats the sugars and produces alcohol. It also produces a lot of gas that must be let out of the sealed fermentation bucket. It is sealed with an air lock which lets gas OUT, but not IN, past the bubbles. This particular brew ferments very furiously. So much, that it puts abby-normal amounts of pressure on the inside of the bucket. I'm not sure if it was overfilled when we added the yeast, or if there is a problem with our air-lock, but the system broke down somehow.
Last nights explosion left a big puddle in the kitchen floor and the air-lock several feet from the bucket. It happened quite on its own, and I did not witness it first hand. I boiled the bung and air-lock and replaced them in the mouth of the bucket this evening. Adam came over to survey the damage, but I had it pretty much cleaned up by then. Then later, he left for the airport and I inspected the roiling fermentation. It looked like our fermentor was bulging in a strange way, so I checked on the tightness of the bung. I twisted it slightly, and BANG, I had hops in my eyes and green in my hair. It was everywhere. Yuk. Weird feeling to be sober and covered with beer.
Never fear, another five-gallon batch is just around the corner.
posted by Jay at 10:22 PM
1 Comments:
And may I say that when I got home on Friday I immediately noticed the overwhelming smell of ass. When are you relocating this nastiness to someone else's house?
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