I just brewed my second AG last night. It was an IPA that called for mashing at 154. I picked up a new thermometer since I wasn't sure I trusted the one I used on the first batch.
Using the new thermometer, I heated my strike water to 166. In hindsight, I think I failed to stir the strike water before reading the temperature so I'm sure it read higher than what it really was. That was my first mistake. Anyway, my mash was 148 based on the new thermometer and 165 based on the floating thermometer I used for my first batch. Both thermometers read at 32 in crushed ice water. Now I really didn't know which one to trust. I had a dial thermometer that I used to use for extract brewing (the low end is 60, so I could not test in ice water). That one read 153. Now I have three thermometers with three wildly different readings.
Once I brought the wort to a boil, I did a check with the thermometers to see if I could figure out which one is correct. The new one I bought read 212 dead on. Crap! It looks like I mashed at 148 instead of 154. This would also explain why my first batch mashed too hot (or so I thought) and ended up fermenting very dry.
My question is, is there anything I can do at this point to prevent too dry of a fermentation?
Using the new thermometer, I heated my strike water to 166. In hindsight, I think I failed to stir the strike water before reading the temperature so I'm sure it read higher than what it really was. That was my first mistake. Anyway, my mash was 148 based on the new thermometer and 165 based on the floating thermometer I used for my first batch. Both thermometers read at 32 in crushed ice water. Now I really didn't know which one to trust. I had a dial thermometer that I used to use for extract brewing (the low end is 60, so I could not test in ice water). That one read 153. Now I have three thermometers with three wildly different readings.
Once I brought the wort to a boil, I did a check with the thermometers to see if I could figure out which one is correct. The new one I bought read 212 dead on. Crap! It looks like I mashed at 148 instead of 154. This would also explain why my first batch mashed too hot (or so I thought) and ended up fermenting very dry.
My question is, is there anything I can do at this point to prevent too dry of a fermentation?