thermometer was off...help

Brewed 2 weeks ago. I didn't notice during the mash, only during the boil, that the my thermometer was off. I thought i was mashing at 151-152 but it could've been 10F (or more?) lower.

Well it's been in the fermenter for two weeks. Week one at 64, week two at 67. OG was 1.060. Now it's reading 1.040.

Is this batch recoverable? Was my mash temp too low to convert to get any fermentables and hence the lack of loss of gravity pts?

I can post recipe if that helps.

How about heating the wort to your (correct) strike temperature for 1 to 2 lbs of malt? Let it mash for a good hour. That should allow the enzymes to convert the remaining starches down to sugar. You'd have to reboil and repitch. Lotta effort, but it might work. Otherwise it sounds like a good base for BBQ sauce...

would that work? Using just 1,2 lbs of malt to 'kickstart' the conversion process? Would there be enough in the partially fermented wort to essentially re-do the mashing process?

I'm only poking for more opinions because i had not heard of that.

I wouldn't bother trying that, but that's just me. If you're going to try something that drastic you're better off just getting some amylase enzyme.

Thinking about this made me grumpy. So I went and dropped $100 on a thermapen. It'll be so worth it for brewing and in the kitchen.

now I feel better

TacoGuthrie said:

Thinking about this made me grumpy. So I went and dropped $100 on a thermapen. It'll be so worth it for brewing and in the kitchen.

now I feel better

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Sorry to say the thermapen isn't always accurate either. Better than others but still has a range of accuracy.

brewingmeister said:

Sorry to say the thermapen isn't always accurate either. Better than others but still has a range of accuracy.

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What are you basing that on?

pabloj13 said:

What are you basing that on?

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On the fact that I've had one read under 27° in water with no ice in it.

Not sure I snapped a pic of the lowest reading but there's a pic of under freezing temps in non icy water.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f11/how-can-thermometer-read-below-freezing-water-324673/

TacoGuthrie said:

would that work? Using just 1,2 lbs of malt to 'kickstart' the conversion process? Would there be enough in the partially fermented wort to essentially re-do the mashing process?

I'm only poking for more opinions because i had not heard of that.

Click to expand...

No, that wouldn't work. Once the enzymes are denatured, they are denatured.

You could try adding amylase to the fermenter to see if it can break down some of the long chained sugars into fermentable sugars.

I'd double check the hydrometer first, just to make absolutely sure it's really at 1.040 first! One guy recently insisted his SG was 1.040, but he later confessed it was a refractometer reading. The SG reading with the hydrometer was more like 1.017! So double check your hydrometer and taste the wort to make sure it's really too sweet and sitting at 1.040 before doing anything!

Oh, and my Thermapen is still dead on accurate, after about 2 years and 100 or more brews. But it is good to check!

brewingmeister said:

On the fact that I've had one read under 27° in water with no ice in it.

Not sure I snapped a pic of the lowest reading but there's a pic of under freezing temps in non icy water.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f11/how-can-thermometer-read-below-freezing-water-324673/

Click to expand...

That's a broken thermometer. Your statement "better than others but a range of accuracy..." doesn't really apply to that. Thermapens are dead accurate when not broken.

Yooper said:

No, that wouldn't work. Once the enzymes are denatured, they are denatured.

You could try adding amylase to the fermenter to see if it can break down some of the long chained sugars into fermentable sugars.

I'd double check the hydrometer first, just to make absolutely sure it's really at 1.040 first! One guy recently insisted his SG was 1.040, but he later confessed it was a refractometer reading. The SG reading with the hydrometer was more like 1.017! So double check your hydrometer and taste the wort to make sure it's really too sweet and sitting at 1.040 before doing anything!

Click to expand...

this post perked me up for a second but then lo and behold the SG is 1.040 with another hydrometer and the wort tastes like sweet sweet candy.

I don't have an LHBS within 750 km of me so i'm not going to get amylase anytime soon. I could look online but i'm not sure it's worth it.

This could be my first dumped batch in 4 years.

Yooper, I beg to disagree. What I had in mind was utilizing the enzymes in the additional malt to complete the conversion. Yes, the enzymes in the wort/beer are denatured from the boil, but the enzymes from the new malt added are not... until the next boil. This could work quite well, but the unknown is the time required to complete conversion.

AE baby! Add the Amylase and QUICK!!! and once ferment gets under way (2-3 days)hit it with a Champagne yeast! Let the beer yeast take hold of the ferment and add the character you want but the Champagne yeast will take it to places the beer yeast can't. May not finish exactly where you wanted it to, but this is what I would do to "TRY" and save the batch.

A recipe may help as well....

Cheers
Jay

One question. If I can't get AE, can i use Beano?

Here is the recipe.


Recipe Specifications
--------------------------
Boil Size: 7.28 gal
Post Boil Volume: 5.98 gal
Batch Size (fermenter): 5.50 gal
Bottling Volume: 5.50 gal
Estimated OG: 1.060 SG
Estimated Color: 11.1 SRM
Estimated IBU: 67.6 IBUs
Brewhouse Efficiency: 67.00 %
Est Mash Efficiency: 70.0 %
Boil Time: 60 Minutes

Ingredients:
------------
Amt Name Type # %/IBU
8 lbs 8.0 oz Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM) Grain 1 60.2 %
2 lbs 8.0 oz Rye Malt (4.7 SRM) Grain 2 17.7 %
1 lbs Munich Malt (9.0 SRM) Grain 3 7.1 %
1 lbs Rye, Flaked (2.0 SRM) Grain 4 7.1 %
8.0 oz Cara-Pils/Dextrine (2.0 SRM) Grain 5 3.5 %
8.0 oz White Wheat Malt (2.4 SRM) Grain 6 3.5 %
2.1 oz Black (Patent) Malt (500.0 SRM) Grain 7 0.9 %


1.00 oz Zeus [14.00 %] - Boil 60.0 min Hop 8 42.9 IBUs
0.50 oz Centennial [8.00 %] - Boil 30.0 min Hop 9 9.4 IBUs
0.50 oz Simcoe [13.00 %] - Boil 20.0 min Hop 10 12.1 IBUs
1.00 tsp Irish Moss (Boil 10.0 mins) Fining 11 -
1.75 oz Zeus [14.00 %] - Boil 1.0 min Hop 12 3.2 IBUs


1.0 pkg Denny's Fav 50 (Wyeast Labs #1450) [2000 Yeast 13 -


1.00 oz Centennial [8.00 %] - Dry Hop 14.0 Days Hop 14 0.0 IBUs
0.75 oz Amarillo Gold [8.50 %] - Dry Hop 14.0 Da Hop 15 0.0 IBUs


Mash Schedule: Single Infusion, Medium Body, Batch Sparge
Total Grain Weight: 14 lbs 2.1 oz

I'm disappointed that the Brewingmeister's Thermopen was so out of calibration. I had heard that they were pretty good and they certainly are expensive enough that any owner should demand it. I have to say that any electromechanical device has the potential to go out of calibration. That is why I recommend having a NIST-calibrated mercury thermometer on hand to serve as my calibration standard for all my 'brewing' thermometers. Calibrating at 0 and 100 C is not too accurate when the range you're really interested in is around 60 to 70 C. There are a lot of thermometers that are not linear in their response. I don't care if my brewing thermometers are off at 0 or 100 C, but I want them spot-on in the mashing range.

How many times do we hear it around here.... patience....

I ended up just leaving this in the carboy. A little bit out of stubborness and not wanting to throw out the batch but mostly out of lazyness.

Lo and behold two and half weeks after being stuck at 1040 and 5 weeks after brew day the beer now sits at 1.016. I really didn't do much, either. I gave it a few shakes but mostly let it sit. A few days ago I checked it again and it was 1.022 so i moved it to a higher temp to give it one final push to FG. I'll give it another day or two and then keg it.

I don't get it. I've never had a beer take this long to ferment out before and I've made this particular recipe 3x.

I never stop learning.

Oh and my thermapen came and I love that thing. Both for brewing and for cooking.

My first four batches were about 10 degrees off. I thought I was mashing at 154 and was really at 144. The beer finished at a really low FG - tasted a little thin. Got a glass scientific thermometer and re-calibrated my strike water thermometer. All is good now. A great $10 investment.