Unsteady Mash Temps

Howdy folks!!

Quick question-I recently brewed my first AG, and in mashing, my intial water was a bit too hot- I added cool water to bring it back down to 155, closed the lid, and checked again in roughly 10 mins. It had shot up to 165-170. I added cool water again-back down to 152-154. Closed the lid-10 min-checked again-back to 165. I cooled it again and then it stayed put. Will this have an adverse affect on my brew? It was a Belgian Saison with 7# of pils and 2# of pale.

fishmonkeystew said:

Howdy folks!!

Quick question-I recently brewed my first AG, and in mashing, my intial water was a bit too hot- I added cool water to bring it back down to 155, closed the lid, and checked again in roughly 10 mins. It had shot up to 165-170. I added cool water again-back down to 152-154. Closed the lid-10 min-checked again-back to 165. I cooled it again and then it stayed put. Will this have an adverse affect on my brew? It was a Belgian Saison with 7# of pils and 2# of pale.

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If it really was mashing at high temps, you might have more unfermentable sugars in there. More body and less alcohol in the final product.

As for the fluxuations in temp, my guess is that you probably did not have things mixed up well when you took your readings that showed things in the low 150's. Your mash should not be spontaneously rising in temp by 10-15 degrees.

yeah, i should have been more thorough with the stirring. I gotta get me a mash paddle. and a larger thermometer would prolly help. As for unfermentable sugars, within 12 hours of pitching my yeast (wyeast 3787), it was fermenting like mad. Actually, by the following morning, I had to clean out my airlock, cuz it was all funked up with yeasty foamy goo. It's been 5 days and it has slowed to a good burst of bubbles every 15-20 seconds or so. There was a strong yeasty smell the morning that it gooed up the airlock, but that subsided pretty quickly.

What were your OG and target FG?

I agree with walker. I was having temp fluctuations in my mash until I started stirring it for a full 5 minutes after doughing in. Now, it's nice and stable.