Help! In the middle of my first mash!

I'm brewing a 1 gal SMaSH right now with 2lbs of Marris Otter malt- I calculated that I was going to get a gravity of 1.050 from the malt, but I just sparged and checked the gravity, and it is only at 1.025.

My thermometer is a piece of **** so the mash was all over the place (I can barely read the damn thing)

I sparged into colonder & muslin bag so the grains are still in the bag. I'm currently thinking I should switch to a brew in the bag on the fly, til I get closer to my intended gavity. Is this plausable? I really don't know what to do, this is my first time doing all grain.

As wort reduces during the boil your gravity will increase.

Oh, and relax.

>.< thanks, Kahler- totally forgot about that factor.

No problem.

If you sampled the wort hot, that will also give you a false low gravity reading...a one gallon batch, what is that a starter?

Get yourself a good thermometer. When you extract brew the temperature isn't really critical but for mashing you need good temperature control. The difference between mashing at 152 and 148 is a big difference. That mistake caused me to get a very dry red ale as it finished at 1.002 instead of 1.015 like I intended.

RM-MN said:

Get yourself a good thermometer. When you extract brew the temperature isn't really critical but for mashing you need good temperature control. The difference between mashing at 152 and 148 is a big difference. That mistake caused me to get a very dry red ale as it finished at 1.002 instead of 1.015 like I intended.

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Which thermometer do you use?

I actually use 3 thermometers, a Taylor digital (stem is too short, I have to hold it in the mash), a long stem dial thermometer that I can clip to the side of the pot or insert through a hole in the lid (favorite as I can see the temperature rise as I mill my grain) and a glass lab grade that I use to verify the accuracy of the dial as I approach strike temp. I don't like using the glass thermometer but it is the best trade-off for accuracy and reach.

Thanks for the help, folks! Gravity ended up a bit short (.006 short) but I think it was a water miscalculation. Holy hell, I hate that thermometer! Grabbin a new one before the next batch for sure!

I use this cheap digital thermometer. I like how it has a timer and an alarm for the strike temp.

link


The only thing I don't like about it, is the probe is a bit short. I wished a longer probe was offered. Still, for $20 one great little digital thermometer.

That thing looks awesome! I get the feeling a digital thermometer is the way to go, this one would be way easier to work with.