Overflowed the Mash Tun

What will the result of my Belgian Strong Dark Ale be if my mash temp went too low (143ish)? I put together a huge grain bill and filled my mash tun to the very top and ended up losing some temperature. I was shooting for 148 but it dropped to 145 and then slowly to 143 or 142 at the end of the 90 minutes.

This was somewhat of an experiment to see how big of a grain bill I could put together with the system I'm brewing on and sort of overshot my landing and the result was lost temp. The gravity reading when cooled and went into the fermenters was 1.093 which was my target but I may end up with more fermentable sugar than expected.

Fermentation begain within 3 hrs and was shooting foam through the blow off by 5 hrs. This was by far the fastest and most violent fermentation I've had.

It's currently on day 4 of fermentation and now just calmly bubbling away at 74 deg in the fermentation chamber.

Any thoughts on the outcome of this?

Not quite sure how it will turn out but this may help you in the future.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f11/how-big-your-mash-tun-needs-123585/

I'm brewing a double batch of a nut brown in the next few weeks. I have a 10 gal. round rubbermaid and the recipe calls for 23.5 lbs. of grain. According to BoddyM's chart I can fit 24lbs of grain @ 1.25qt per lb. I'll be cutting it pretty close.

Thanks for the chart link BigTerp! That would have come in handy on Friday! Damn I've been reading a little bit about too low of mash temps and the general consesus seems to be a dryer beer and high alcohol content.

ArrowheadAles said:

Thanks for the chart link BigTerp! That would have come in handy on Friday! Damn I've been reading a little bit about too low of mash temps and the general consesus seems to be a dryer beer and high alcohol content.

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Yes, lower mash temps give dryer beer. But that is usually in the 148-150 range. Not sure what temps below that would cause. I'm sure someone with more experience with me will chime in.

The other thing you can do with BobbyM's chart is mash a little thicker. His chart is based off of 1.25qts per lb. of grain. Since I'm cutting it close with my next batch I'll probably mash a bit thicker to be sure I don't run out of room in the MLT.

I've always been willing to cheat. If the grain bill gets too big, I just substitute a little extract. Although with a 48 qt mash tun, that hasn't been necessary for a long time.

david_42 said:

I've always been willing to cheat. If the grain bill gets too big, I just substitute a little extract. Although with a 48 qt mash tun, that hasn't been necessary for a long time.

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+1 on the extract cheat. Isn't that what extract is for? That and starters.