low mash temp after 1 hour? implications?

Ok so I brewed my 4th ag batch today. I use a 5g round igloo cooler. I didn't preheat my tun but added 170 f water to the grain and after about 2-3 minutes of stirring it normalized to 152. After 60 minutes, I checked the temp and it was at 146. The recipe called for 152. It is ed worts haus pale ale.

So, after seeing the mash temp was low I decided to leave as is and mash for another 30 minutes for a total of 90-100 minutes.

Now, my beer is still cooling and I havent taken a reading yet. Assuming my OG is close, what will the lower temp do to my brew...ferment drier?

Now the cuplrit.... I am leaning towards the mash losing heat due to the cooler not being preheated. Thoughts? If I continue to not preheat, how long should I give the setup to normalize? Maybe I should just preheat the damn cooler....

thanks in advance.

Just pre-heat the cooler. All I used to do with mine was add a few quarts of heated water about 10 minutes before I added everything. I'd close the lid and let it sit.

What I'm guessing is happening is your mixing your water and grains, but it's not getting fully mixed. You're getting hot spots in the mash because of this. It's hard to tell though without knowing your equipment and process better.

As for your beer... it'll turn out a little more dry, but not enough to worry.

I had this happen with this exact recipe. The beer fermented out to about 1.01, which is drier than the recipe. I at bottling, I bulked it up with some maltodextrine, and it was fine.

It's still green, but I expect it will still be good.

guess what I just found out. I used 3 pounds of vienna instead of 2.(I had a foggy memory of the readout on the scale saying 3 instead of 2 at my lhbs) My og is up almost 1 whole point!!! I wonder what this will do to the balance/taste/timeframe?

I think my subconscious insists on strong beers....and I owe my lhbs some cash...

If it's too malty for your likings just dry hop the daylights out of it.

thanks folks

pre-heat the cooler then save that water for some of your cleanup, so its not wasted.

I've always been hit and miss with my temps and I think I finally figured out how to nail it on last friday's brew. In the past I always tried to preheat the tun, then add my water and then my grain and it was always off. This time, I just heated my strike water a bit warmer than the temp I was shooting for and added it to the cooler and threw the lid on it. 10 minutes later I took the lid off and started checking the temp of the water. When it was at the right temp, I added the grain, stirred and checked and it was EXACTLY on. First time I haven't had to use any extra hot or cold water to adjust my mash temp.

I just fiddled with the mash tun thermal mass settings in Beer Alchemy until I got a setting that was giving me consistent numbers. Of course, I had a improperly calibrated thermometer for my first few AG batches. So, everything was actually 4-5 degrees cooler, but I have since resolved that. The beer turned out a little dryer than anticipated, but overall still very good.

malkore said:

pre-heat the cooler then save that water for some of your cleanup, so its not wasted.

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How are you pre-heating your tun? I would usually just heat the total amount of strike water I needed, and I let it go a few degrees above what I wanted. I'd take 2-3 quarts of water out and dump them in my cooler 5-10 minutes before I needed it. By the time the strike water was down to the right temp, my cooler was fine.

I no longer use my cooler anymore, but that's how I used to do it and it worked everytime for hitting my temps within a degree.