2 Brews and 2 Balls Ups help

[Alex O]

Ok Im rather new to brewing and had started with a kit all being fine untill I put it into the barrel ( the barrel being a 15 year old specimen which was thourougly cleaned etc, I replaced all the seals but still the barrel has lost pressure, so i put a massive amount of pft tape around the and still it failed to hold pressure so my thoughts are to bottle it as I have enough bottles lying around. The question is I did put a primer in the barrel so do I still have to prime the bottles or could I give the barrel a gas with Co2 and leave it a day for the gas to settle into the brew a little and bottle a day after?, the barrel will hold pressure for appoximatley 2 days.

On to my next brew being an extract recipe and the secong balls up, I had started the boil in an old burco which was up to temp and boiling away happily, I added the crystal grain and dred malt extract and and it had boiled about 30 mins as suggested in the recipe then the catastrophy happened, the boiler died so the only thing I felt I had left to do was to get two of the biggest pans I had and fill with wort (about 3 litres to each pan) and finish the hopping and boil of in these for the rest of the boil duration, After this had finished I poured the pans and hops back into the boiler to mix and put into a fermenting bin the next day after it had cooled. My question being will that have messed the final results up?, Im guessing yes but how much will it be ruined? N.B I have bought a new barrel if it is ok to get that far.

[floydmeddler]

Did you boil the crystal malt?

[Alex O]

that was boiled yes for the 30 mins, id read loads of bumf on whether or not to boil and the man who seems the most in the no wasnt that worried

[floydmeddler]

You shouldn't boil grains. How's it tasting? Might turn out OK and surprise you. Has happened to me plenty of times!

My advice is to RESEARCH RESEARCH RESEARCH and build yourself a new brewery. With working equipment and more knowledge of the brewing process, you'll get it right next time.

[OldSpeckledBadger]

You shouldn't boil grains.

I've done it the past and couldn't tell the difference between the resulting beer and one brewed using steeped grain. But I was only using just crystal and black malt. Other speciality grains may not like being boiled for all I know.

[WishboneBrewery]

Don't worry about boiling your grains, I've made good extract beer when boiling the grains.