R.I.P. Li'l Bo-Pils

I thought it only happened to other people. I never thought it would happen to me. Now it has, and I just don't know how I'll get over it.

Totally not acting

Watching that 5 gallons (19 liters, same diff) of beer go down the drain really broke my heart. It was so young, so innocent, seemingly healthy and ready to go out into the world and become something. But it was all snapped short by some bad yeast.

At least I'm pretty sure that's what it was. In hindsight I'm kicking myself for being so caught up in the pellet hops versus leaf hops thing, and not paying more attention to the yeast. The YEAST! The lifeblood of any beer--more than that, the very thing that makes it beer. Well, I said it in that earlier post, 'anything could happen,' and it did. I just wish it hadn't been this.


Lessons learned:
Do not believe everything you read about brewing on the Internet. No matter how legit it may sound, do independent research (such as reading the effin' manufacturer's instructions on your dry yeast!) On the reasonable-sounding advice of someone on the Internet, I opted not to rehydrate the dry yeast I was using. This may not have been the sole reason for the yeast crapping out, but it undoubtedly helped in their demise. I also pitched a bit too cold, and didn't pitch enough cells. The poor little critters never had a fighting chance.


Fermentation with good lager yeast should definitely be noticeable by the end of the first week if not sooner. This was my first lager attempt, and I didn't know how long to wait before taking evasive action when I noticed fermentation was sluggish or non-existent. Had I pitched new yeast earlier on, I might have saved the batch. But by the time it seemed like that was what I needed to do, the wort was already starting to get colonized by other non-yeasty critters, taking advantage of the vacant party zone. It was starting to taste "off". I considered re-boiling it and using it for starter wort, but did not want to use bad wort for that. The only option open then (thanks to urging by some of my brew brothers) seemed to be to dump it. So that's what I did.


Silver linings? Well, I learned lessons. That's always a good thing. I also realized, almost from the start of fermentation on this, that brewing a lager takes a bit more finesse than doing ales. A bit more gear too. But it's all good. I need the challenge. I was starting to hit a comfortable plateau with ales. Got a good solid brew routine down (a 'brew-tine'?), and some good solid recipes. Easy peasy. Just a tweak here and there, but not really breaking any new ground, and kind of starting to drift, goal-wise. This situation gives me a problem to chew on, and a renewed sense of passion for brewing.


So lagers are the new thing. I'm gonna figure this out, nail it, bring it on home. Li'l Bo-Pils "The Return" is on the horizon. I can see her now, shimmering alluringly in her crystal golden glory.


Keep you posted.