BeerSmith 2 Mobile Equipment help

Hey guys, I think I may be having some issues in beersmith calculating my strike water temperature. A few of my beers have finished at 1.000 and I think this is why. I haven't really edited by equipment profile much at all. I use a 10 gallon orange igloo cooler with a bazooka tube, and a 10 gallon pot to boil.

For a 10.5# grain bill, it tells me to add 13.3 qts of water at 163.7 F to get a mash temperature of 152. Does this sound right?

Current setup
Mash tun volume: 10 gallons (i just put that in there knowing the cooler is 10 gal)
Mash tun mass: 4 #
Specific heat: 0.30 Cal/g-C
Lauter deadspace: 0.25 gal
Adj volume for deadspace: no

Any help is greatly appreciated. I noticed when I take my temp reading, there is always a difference on a few degrees. One spot will be 152 and the next will be 148, etc. My thermoworks thermometer is calibrated. Thanks guys!

Are you milling your own grains?

I noticed when I moved from buying precrushed grains to milling my own I needed to add a few degrees for loss.

With precrushed I usually shot for 9 degrees over and now I typically shoot for 12.

However, are you preheating your cooler? This definitely helps to stop heat loss.

I usually put my hot sparge water into the mash tun for 10-15 minutes before mashing in it. This allows the cooler to heat up a bit.

tfbrews said:

Are you milling your own grains?

I noticed when I moved from buying precrushed grains to milling my own I needed to add a few degrees for loss.

With precrushed I usually shot for 9 degrees over and now I typically shoot for 12.

However, are you preheating your cooler? This definitely helps to stop heat loss.

I usually put my hot sparge water into the mash tun for 10-15 minutes before mashing in it. This allows the cooler to heat up a bit.

Click to expand...

My LHBS crushes it for me.

I am SORT OF pre heating? I have only been letting it heat up for a couple minutes, 5 at most. Next batch I'l heat it up longer and see if that helps get a consistent temperature.

treacheroustexan said:

My LHBS crushes it for me.

I am SORT OF pre heating? I have only been letting it heat up for a couple minutes, 5 at most. Next batch I'l heat it up longer and see if that helps get a consistent temperature.

Click to expand...

Next time, put 180 degree water into the cooler and let it cool to the strike temperature Beersmith gives you. That will really help keep temperatures throughout the entire mash. Once it cools to the temperature Beersmith calculated, stir in the grains. Stir the grains again, thoroughly. In fact, stir like it owes you money- then check the temperature in a few places. If different, stir some more. Once it's equalized throughout (about 5 full minutes), you can cover and walk away for an hour.

If you're finishing at 1.000 it's not the mash temp that's the problem. I often mash in the 146-148 range to produce crisp session ales (I add some oatmeal to thicken it up a bit). This usually puts me around 1.008 if I'm starting around 1.045. The lowest FG I hit was 1.006 with a Saison where I used a good bit of simple sugars and I mashed at 144-148 for 1.5 - 2 hours.

If the beer is attenuating 100% the you're using a *ton* of simple sugars (like 90% of your fermentables) or maybe you have an infection. I've heard that pediococcus can attenuate 100%. You didn't mention anything off in the beer though, so I'm guessing this is unlikely.

My advice is to re-measure everything

What was the starting gravity?
What did beersmith think you should be finishing at?

Get a thermometer and measure your mash temperature. That'll make you feel comfortable with how your mash is affecting fermentability.

Try measuring the gravity with a different hydrometer. Maybe something is off there.


Mash temp doesn't affect fermentability to the degree you're assuming (which sounds like ~10 points).