Gopher40

Recipes 

Am in process right NOW with my first all grain batch. Desired mash temp was 254 (beersmith). I hit 153. Is that close enough?? If you lose a degree or 2 in the 60 minutes is that okay?? If it is dropping can you add a little hot water to bring it up?? Sorry for all the questions. All grain newbie!

Denny

Recipes 

Assuming you mean 154 and not 254, yes, you're plenty close enough. Malted barley WANTS to become beer....brewing is very forgiving! Don't worry about it dropping a few degrees. AAMOF, if you keep opening your mash tun to check it, it will cause you to lose heat.

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Gopher40

Recipes 

Oops my bad...154. Actually climbed a couple degrees during wait

Guerrilla

Recipes 

Yea no worries about some variability in temp... generally lower temps in that range will get you more maltose so it will be a lower FG in the end, higher temps will be a higher FG/ less attenuated. 154 is a nice middle temp and i usually use about a 152-156 range due to the low level of engineering of my system, which consists of a large rectangle cooler i found on a beach one time that doesnt even close all the way.

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billl

Recipes 

Just for future reference, you should keep stirring until the temp stabilizes. You want a nice, uniform and constant temp through the whole tun. It helps with efficiency and, more importantly, consistency.