Am i going to be ok?

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dpalme

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Recipe called for strike water of 168 with a mash temp of 153 as it turns out after adding the grain I dropped all the way down to 145 I have added some additional water in hopes of bringing the temp up but I have moved it only two degrees and I'm almost 30 minutes into the 30 min mash

What's my potential loss here?
 
You won't get complete conversion at that low of a temp so you won't hit your Target OG.
 
Well I got it up to 151 but I'm a little high on the water but I figured I could just boil that off in the brew kettle

I'm brewing a 5 gallon batch
 
Lower mash temps will give you a more fermentable wort. You will probably end up with a lower FG and less body than what you are expecting. What kind of beer is it? And what's the recipe? You could pitch a less attenuative yeast to try to counteract it or just leave it be and it will probably end up fine.
 
Recipe called for strike water at 168 mash @153 for 60 min and then sparse 5 gallons @170 and boil 60 min
 
Yeah Kolsch's are supposed to be pretty light bodied so that is actually a pretty good mash schedule. I think Jamil suggests mashing at 149, so I think you'll be just fine. I would just mash for 60 minutes. 153 seems a little high for a Kolsch, but then again I've never made one so...
 
Lower mash temps will break down the starches more slowly and into smaller chains of sugar which are more fermentable. An extended mash time will help it be converted. You're likely not going to get a big mouthfill to this beer but you can make a good beer still.

I wouldn't sweat it to much. My first all grain was a highly acclaimed Sierra Nevada Pale Ale clone from a respected home brew store. I missed mash temp by 7-8 degrees. It was a basic two row with a 60 and 5 minute additions of hops. Turned out very nice but nothing like SNPA.

I went to a microbrewery over Christmas and had a glass of beer. I asked my wife to give it a try. She told me, "I've tasted this before, you made it!"

Of course I didn't make the beer we were tasting, it came from an award winning brewery in Las Vegas. Still, even my wife could recognize the same beer.

All I'm saying is, just because you didn't do it according to the recipe, it doesn't mean this beer will not turn out fantastic!

Edit: Oh by the way, never been able to duplicate the beer. I took no notes, was totally lost in most of the process. Have been trying to match it since with little luck.
 
It's in the brew kettle waiting for it to start boiling of course it's colder than a well diggers ass right now lol

This is when I wish I had a garage
 
Hahah

Basically means a good person, male

A man of integrity someone who will help without having to ask

It's yoddish
 
Well just at an hour on the boil and it didn't boil down as far as I think it should have but we'll see getting ready to fire up the wort chiller

Bet it this temp five minutes lol
 
Don't be surprised if it takes longer than you would expect to cool. I live in mt (spent some time in north county though, go cards) and my last ten gallon batch took forever to cool off, and it was ten degrees.
 
I don't worry so much about getting it chilled to perfect pitching temps. But I do place the cooled wort in a chest freezer and then when it's cooled enough pitch a hearty portion of yeast. If I didn't have a chest freezer to cool it after the initial cool down period but lived someplace where it got pretty chilly at night.. would just sit it outside overnight and pitch yeast in the morning.
 
You probably already figured this out, but most recipes assume room temperature for your mash tun and grains when calculating the strike water temp. Use an online calculator or brewing software and will calculate the correct strike water temp based on mash tun volume, grist thickness, grain temp, and mash tun temp.

This time of year chances are unless you keep your mash tun and grains in the house they are significantly colder than the recipe accounts for.
 
I had the grain in the kitchen same place the mash tun has been for the last three weeks.....so they were at about 70 degrees.

I checked and double checked that temp......oh well its in the bucket, we'll see how it turns out. Didn't boil down as far as I expected and as it normally does but I think trying to get the mash up to temp we ran a bit high on the water.
 
Well this morning no activity in the air lock, I would have expected to have seen the typical bubbling but didn't
 
Well this morning no activity in the air lock, I would have expected to have seen the typical bubbling but didn't
 
Took two days but it finally kicked off

I'm going to be low on the alcohol but I think all in all I should be ok
 
Recipe called for strike water of 168 with a mash temp of 153 as it turns out after adding the grain I dropped all the way down to 145 I have added some additional water in hopes of bringing the temp up but I have moved it only two degrees and I'm almost 30 minutes into the 30 min mash

What's my potential loss here?

OK, twelve days. With my primitive fermentors, I'd be bottling.

You need to post picture for us arm-chair brewers.

How does it smell/taste?
 

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