Need advice quick

In the middle of my first AG batch. Calculated temps using beer smith and added 165F water to my 74F grain bed. It's been sitting for about 30 min now and I just took another temp and it's at 166!!! My target was 154F, which I hit perfectly after adding the water and stirring well for a few minutes, however it seems to have gotten hotter. The coolers sitting out on my deck and it's about 80F out today, is this normal for it to get hotter like this as it sits?

Should I open the lid and let it cool to 154, close the lid, and then start the 60 min timer again, or should I just leave it and see what happens?

Note that I am batch sparging in the rectangle cooler with the braided steel hose.

open the lid, put some ice and stir till it comes down to desired temp. If you get more runoff into the kettle, boil longer, or leave some behind. We all have done this once or 10 times!

ok, so once I get the temp down, do I restart the timer at 60 min? or do I get it down and start vorlaf in 20 minutes?

Before you do anything, calibrate your thermometers. Something is not right!

I have done the same thing. I was heating the water up, and I got it to what I thought was 170, (really 178), and then mixed it in the MT and was waaay higher than anticipated.

my concern is that as soon as I hit my water temp I dumped it in. Is it possiblee the water was still heating up several degrees after I turnded the burner off and dumped it in.

I've been using this digital thermometer for quite a while and have yet to see anything to lead me to belive it's not accurate, but I guess it could be too. I just shoved a turkey thermometer in to see what it says, but I have way less confidence in the turkey therm than my digital probe.

so assuming it's not a thermometer issue, should I continue for an addiional 60 min after I drop to the right temp, or start draining it either way?

+1 on the calibrating your thermometers, I have 2 reliable cheapy dial ones that get checked on every other batch, and I have not had to make any adjustments yet, I have one for the hot side that was calibrated in boiling distilled water, this gets used for strike and sparge water as well as verifying mash temps, I have another one used for chilling, it was calibrated in ice water, I have 2 beacuse I found that if calibrated in ice water it was off in boiling water, and if I calibrated it in boiling water it was off in ice water. I do have a few digital thermos as well, but I have found them to be off as well, I really need to get a trusted digital one that I can calibrate. hopefully it will be accurate across the board.

I find that the stovetop heated water is usually a little hotter than my reading and I almost always overshoot my mash temp, usually only by 3-4 degrees. In order to fix my mash temp I make sure my brita pitcher in the fridge is full in case I need to cool the temp and I save extra brewing water that I can put into one of those electric tea kettles to get a quick couple of pints of boiling water.



This way I can always correct my mash temp within 5 minutes.

I think giving it a few extra minutes wouldnt cause any harm, I had a 60 min mash go for 90 min because of an unexpected pet issue. the beer turned out great.

I have mashed in the sun here when it was 118° outside, by the end of the 60 min it only went up 1-2° so it could be your cooler, or a thermo accuracy problem. I had a dial thermo that I used for grilling, it would stick at 145° I did not know this til I got pissed that dinner never seemed to finish I flicked the dial in frustration while yelling at the roast to "COOK!" the dial immidiately climbed up to 185°.

This is a good reason to go with grain to water. After adding the water to your MLT you have the chance to check the temperature before adding the grain. You can adjust it before adding the grain. Also gives you time to let your MLT stabilize before you move on.

AnOldUR said:

This is a good reason to go with grain to water. After adding the water to your MLT you have the chance to check the temperature before adding the grain. You can adjust it before adding the grain. Also gives you time to let your MLT stabilize before you move on.

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Good advice! Although I never thought of it like that, I always preheat the tun and add the grain to the water, I find I get less doughballs that way, but yes it is a good time to verify the temp is correct before adding the grain.

crap...its the thermometer. Apparently leaving it out in the sun is a bad idea.

It just said my cold tap water was 101 degrees which is way off. Note to self, no more leaving the thermometer out in the sun First time this has ever happened

also might be time to invest in a good old fashined thermometer to compare to too.

Trying to check gravity but it's still too hot, my hydrometer thermometer only goes to 120 and I don't trust my digital right now either. But if at first running gravity would be 1.073. If it's 155 gravity would be 1.83. Will have to letthis cool a bit and recheck, but I think I'm on targe for my 1.054 OG to start the boil depending on the 2nd runnings

Edit: just pulled out of fridge, its down to 119, which after temp correction puts the first runnings at 1.075.

dummkauf said:

also might be time to invest in a good old fashined thermometer to compare to too.

Trying to check gravity but it's still too hot, my hydrometer thermometer only goes to 120 and I don't trust my digital right now either. But if at first running gravity would be 1.073. If it's 155 gravity would be 1.83. Will have to letthis cool a bit and recheck, but I think I'm on targe for my 1.054 OG to start the boil depending on the 2nd runnings

Edit: just pulled out of fridge, its down to 119, which after temp correction puts the first runnings at 1.075.

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There you go! That was going to be my advice- CHILL the hydrometer sample. Even with correction tables, hydrometer readings over about 100 degrees are notoriously inaccurate. Chill the sample to 100 or less, THEN take the reading. You can use the correction tables, of course. That will give you a more accurate reading.

2nd runnings look like they're about 1.030, which I am hoping means I will hit my OG of 1.054, but we'll see.

I've got my fingers crossed that it was just leaving the digital thermometer out in he sun that was my issue. Everything seemed spot on for the first few readings, it wasnt til it sat in the sun for 30 min that everything got screwy.

So, now it's all in the BK and I'm waiting for it to boil. Anyone have any suggestions for a reasonably priced, accurate, digital thermometer that won't mind sitting out on hot summer days or cold winter nights

I've been using my craftsman multimeter which has a temperature probe attachment, that up until today was very accurate. The only thing I can think that threw it off was sitting out in the sun as it got verrrryyyyy warm.

Any suggestions?

Thanks for all the input. Brewing is over, and now it's time to clean up.

I hit an OG of 1.058, recipe called for 1.054, so that's close enough for my first AG brew It's tucked away in the closet for now, so we'll see how this one turns out.