UnCalibrated Thermometer

Crap Crap Crap!!!!!!! Found out my thermometer was off by about 30 degrees after mashing and adding yeast.

Is beer ruined? Should I cut my losses and re-do it, or wait it out and hope for the best?

HELLLPPPPPP!!!!!!

Did you measure any of your pre-pitch gravities?

The OG before adding the yeast was 1.038 and the recipe called for around 1.050.

Milkdud76 said:

The OG before adding the yeast was 1.038 and the recipe called for around 1.050.

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A little hard to believe that your thermometer would have been off by 30F. I'm no expert on mash chemistry, but that would put you at like 120F or 180F, neither of which I would think would get you much sugar. Did you have other non-mashed fermentables going into the wort (was this a partial mash)? Even so, the off temps would probably alter your wort fermentability significantly. How did you find that your thermometer was off by 30 degrees?

I'm not sure what you could do at this point other than to add more fermentables. Even if you choose to do that, I'd let it go anyway to see how it turns out. It might still make good beer.

ARE YOU CALLING ME A LIAR???? Just kidding. The little nut you use to calibrate the thermometer was kind of loose. From what I think happened is that as I turned the thermometer to read it, I seen the thermometer raise to 150ishF and I stopped turning it and turned the heat off. The temp stayed there for the remaining time so I thought it was good. When I was cooling wort I used a floating thermometer, added yeast and looked at the other thermometer and it still read 150F.

Like I said I'm not a mash chemistry expert I'd trust your SG reading. I guess if you had a gravity of 1.038 it will still make beer. So it sounds like it was reading 30F too high? I guess that would be better because I think that would make a more fermentable wort. Sucks that your thermometer did that to you. I'm always afraid of that happening to mine when I torque it a little bit. Sometimes I get paranoid and test in ice water before and after mash. I'm not sure why I do it after the mash since it's not like I could do much about it then. You're making me think about getting a digital thermometer.

Speaking of buying new stuff. I'm trying to get the wife to let me buy a new 15 gal home brew system. Do you know of any good systems?

Get yourself a digital thermometer.... I use one with a wire probe an it works awesome for mash tun cooler... I stick the probe in the grist, and never have to open the cooler at all durn the duration of the mash.

If you were fermenting higher than expected you will have a less fermentable wort. The final gravity will likely be higher than anticipated.

I use a digital thermometer that I developed a calibration circuit for:
http://woodlandbrew.blogspot.com/2012/10/mash-temperature-and-thermometers.html

And the circuit:
http://woodlandbrew.blogspot.com/2012/10/circuit-diagram.html

I have two thermometers. I use the good old mechanical one most the time and check with the digital. I've got three of them so double checking is cheap insurance.

As for your beer, you now just need to see what happens. You can't do much so you might as well see if it turns out or not.

Thanks for the info woodlandbrew. I'll get a digital thermometer this weekend PLUS another "old fashioned" one. Whats that old saying, "cut twice and measure once"?