Attenuation headaches solved

Been fighting seemingly poor attenuation for awhile, which had been irritating the heck out of me, since I prefer most beers to finish pretty dry-- especially my IPA

Long story short-- it was the dumb thermometer reading 4* low. So I was always mashing that much higher.

Last two batches right on the money. For as
Much as I brew it was really irritating to have so many batches sub par.

I'm just happy and felt like sharing!

That right there is a reminder to check mine on a regular basis. It's been a few weeks since I last checked.

Yeah, for sure! It's not like I hadn't done it before, but at some point I guess it wandered.

Been scratching my head over water, etc and it was really simple!

KIAKillerXJ said:

4*

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Alt0176
4°

You should feel lucky. I just discovered a few days ago my thermometer has been off by 13°. I believe I brewed around three 10 gallon batches with it. I usually mash between 150° and 152°, so in reality I was mashing around 140°. My efficiency has been terrible, around 55%, down from 75%. I was getting ready to tear my mashtun apart until someone on here mentioned that my thermometer was adjustable. I guess you learn something new everyday.

Damn it another thing ill be obsessed over now.

iaefebs said:

Alt0176
4°

Click to expand...

Use that one a lot as a machinist. It's right up there with alt0177 +/-

been having extremely poor efficiency on my last two batches. Gonna test my thermometer when I get home today. Didnt EVER think about this.....oh well. Its all about the learning process.

Always a good idea. My digital bit the dust two brewdays ago which was a great reminder to calibrate the new digital AND the old alcohol thermometer.

I'm pretty good about using 2 or more during my brew day. I have a lab calibration liquid thermometer that I use for my mash. I leave it in the cooler and its extremely accurate. Never I have a thermapen on its way. Hope in that'll be just as accurate but faster.

It's always worth checking them once in a while though. Same with your hydrometers!

I always use an analog and a digital thermometer for mashing. Better safe than sucky beer.

During today's brew day I checked my thermometers and my brew kettle was off by 4 degrees and my digital by 2 luckily I can calibrate both.