unfortunately, mistakes had been made before anything was even heated up - putting the sugar in at the beginning of the mash. probably not a huge problem, and the specific gravity was pretty much exactly what it should be at the right time.
also killed the yeast by putting it in too hot water. getting some more today - hopefully it wont ruin the mixture making it wait this long.
and general other poor practices abound. one of the reasons i could never be a professional scientist i guess....
a bit more respect for the old brewers and monks is given i think - i was up till 2.30 getting it all finished! not enough time after all.
in the lords hands now - it will certainly require a miracle to rescue this one....
on a slightly more odd note, dan and i were reading the book about how different ales came to be, and the story of porter ale had an amusing story (although probably not for those involved). a long time ago, porter was actually a mixture of cheaper mild ale and more expensive sour ale. someone then worked out a way of artificially aging the ale to make the sour stuff cheaper to produce. this was then brewed in the same barrels as the mild, and lots of porter could be made quite cheaply. at its peak of popularity, huge vessels holding 1/2 million gallons of beer (2 million litres or so) were used to make the stuff, with big parties held in their honour. at one such event, one of the tanks burst open, washing away richard meux's brewery and a row of terraced cottages, killing 8 people in the process!!
all interesting stuff...
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