How much is this going to hurt? (currently mashing)

So I'm currently mashing my 2nd AG a fullers ESB clone. I'm mashing at 155. At the start of the mash my temp was to high 160 so I added some cold water...got it about a degree or so and closed the top and walked away.

Just went out and checked it and its back at 160....damn!!!! So I re added some more cold water got it back down to temp.

So my first 15 minutes of the mash were at like 160.....so what should I do?

Mash an extra 15 min to compensate?

Just let it go and sparge at 60min?


Cheers and thanks,

actually its more like the first 30 minutes of my mash were at 160.........

Bet you get a rather full bodied beer, but I doubt you did too much real harm. If you have some iodine or iodophor, you could try a starch conversion test to see if mashing longer will do any good.

I would say at 160 at 30 min your conversion is done. You will most likely have a beer with more residual sweetness than is wanted with a bitter, but it should still be a good drinkable product.

Maybe you could up the bitterness a couple of BU to offset it.

Amylase isn't very happy in the 160 range, but that is also not high enough to kill it. I would guess that a longer mash would help some, but in the end, you are looking at a lot of unfermentable sugars and you most likely will not reach the FG you are hoping for.

cubbies said:

Amylase isn't very happy in the 160 range, but that is also not high enough to kill it. I would guess that a longer mash would help some, but in the end, you are looking at a lot of unfermentable sugars and you most likely will not reach the FG you are hoping for.

Click to expand...

Beta isn't but alpha is and you are right about a lot of unfermentable sugars being left in the mash.

well thanks for the tips guys!

Update---things went fine for the rest of the beer. I wasn't to worried about conversion as I was using Marris for my base malt and that stuff converts like crazy. I went ahead and mashed for an additional 15 minutes. I was only off on my target OG by a couple points....no sweat.

Was fun for my 2nd AG. was surprised my strike temp was so off from my last session. Guess it will just take some time for me to dial my system in.

Thanks for the replies gents!

Cheers,

i read the title and thought you'd hurt yourself! i did today on my sparge transfering hot water to my hlt i drooped the pot and scalded me face(left side from my forehead to my cheekbone including my eyelid) fortunatly i got my eye closed first and my head turned somewhat!