KSR
Member
Long-time lurker, first-time poster here.
I started brewing PM batches a few months back after brewing extract for over a year, the first two batches were kits from AHS and they came out great. Once I felt that I had the technique pretty much down I started playing around with formulating my own recipes and riffing on others using BeerSmith. All of those came out right on target as well. However, I picked up two more AHS kits for my most recent brews and I've run into issues with the O.G. coming in around .008-.010 lower than expected in both batches.
While mulling it over in the shower this morning, I realized that I'd followed AHS's instructions to the letter in both of those batches EXCEPT for the mash temperature: I'd gotten used to heating X qts. of water to 168 as per BeerSmith's mash calculations for my custom recipes. AHS's PM recipes call for heating 2.5 gal. to 160F and holding the mash at 155. So what did I do? I heated 2.5 gallons to 168 out of habit and mashed 3lb. 2 oz. of grain in it for 60 minutes. Because I'd gotten overconfident I neglected to take a mash temperature reading, but I ran the numbers through BeerSmith and according to it, that resulted in a mash temp of 161. I did do a starch conversion test with both batches and the results told me that everything had converted, i.e. the iodine didn't turn purple or black.
I didn't worry about any of this with the first batch batch that was off, but now it looks like something's up.
I'm certain that this isn't just an issue of the extract not mixing with the top-off water. I'm a big guy and have no problems thoroughly shaking the fermenter for 5+ minutes, and I've never had any problems with mixing in my previous 30-some batches.
The expected O.G. for the last batch was 1.052, reading came in at 1.044. The grain bill is 10oz. c-20l, 2lb 2-row pale malt, and 5lb extra pale liquid extract.
Sorry about the long exposition, my question is this: could mashing at a higher temperature account for a nearly .010 difference in my O.G. even though the iodine test told me that conversion was complete? At this point I feel like it's either that or my hydrometer is wrong. Thanks.
I started brewing PM batches a few months back after brewing extract for over a year, the first two batches were kits from AHS and they came out great. Once I felt that I had the technique pretty much down I started playing around with formulating my own recipes and riffing on others using BeerSmith. All of those came out right on target as well. However, I picked up two more AHS kits for my most recent brews and I've run into issues with the O.G. coming in around .008-.010 lower than expected in both batches.
While mulling it over in the shower this morning, I realized that I'd followed AHS's instructions to the letter in both of those batches EXCEPT for the mash temperature: I'd gotten used to heating X qts. of water to 168 as per BeerSmith's mash calculations for my custom recipes. AHS's PM recipes call for heating 2.5 gal. to 160F and holding the mash at 155. So what did I do? I heated 2.5 gallons to 168 out of habit and mashed 3lb. 2 oz. of grain in it for 60 minutes. Because I'd gotten overconfident I neglected to take a mash temperature reading, but I ran the numbers through BeerSmith and according to it, that resulted in a mash temp of 161. I did do a starch conversion test with both batches and the results told me that everything had converted, i.e. the iodine didn't turn purple or black.
I didn't worry about any of this with the first batch batch that was off, but now it looks like something's up.
I'm certain that this isn't just an issue of the extract not mixing with the top-off water. I'm a big guy and have no problems thoroughly shaking the fermenter for 5+ minutes, and I've never had any problems with mixing in my previous 30-some batches.
The expected O.G. for the last batch was 1.052, reading came in at 1.044. The grain bill is 10oz. c-20l, 2lb 2-row pale malt, and 5lb extra pale liquid extract.
Sorry about the long exposition, my question is this: could mashing at a higher temperature account for a nearly .010 difference in my O.G. even though the iodine test told me that conversion was complete? At this point I feel like it's either that or my hydrometer is wrong. Thanks.