Missing my Mash temp by 6 degrees

Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum

Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

jacksonbrown

Well-Known Member
Joined
Mar 10, 2008
Messages
1,180
Reaction score
8
Location
Madison, WI
I'm currently brewing a nut brown, and I somehow managed to miss my mash temp. I got y grain temp, MLT temp and hit my water temp, and still my mash is at 148 instead of 154! I assume this is just something I need to take in to account next time. But for right now, is adding 1/2 gallon of hot water going to be ok to raise the temp? Do I simply subtract that amount from my sparge?
Thanks!
 
Preheating you MLT really helps with hitting your temps. Don't know if you did it or not, but ever since I started doing it 6 months ago, I haven't missed a temp by more than .5-1 degree.
 
A+ for the preheating the MLT the only way to go. I go in 15 degrees hotter than my strike and wait for the cooler to come down to dough in temp.
 
I did preheat the MLT, it was at 100 when I doughed in. I put that in to BS and got what my water temp should be and still missed. When I'm all done today I'm going to check my thermometer, see if it's off at all.
 
What I do is bring my strike water to about 5-8 degrees more than the recipe calls for, and then add most of it to my MLT, cover it and swirl it around, and let it cool to the correct strike temp. Then I add about 1/3 of the grain, stirring, more strike water, more grain, etc, and I hit my temps every time.

If you doughed in while your mashtun was only 100 degrees, that sucked out the heat from your strike water. (I assume it was a cooler setup).
 
jacksonbrown said:
I did preheat the MLT, it was at 100 when I doughed in. I put that in to BS and got what my water temp should be and still missed. When I'm all done today I'm going to check my thermometer, see if it's off at all.

Did you click the little box that says Adjust temp for equipment? Try doing that and see what happens to your strike temp.
 
How many LBS of Malt is going into your all-grain mash?

Depending on the volume of malt, you may need add more water to the mash to hit your temps

i.e. on a Stout I recently had 9# of Malt and started with 3.5 gallons at 130degF. I then added 1.25 gallon of water at 200 degF. I hit 150 degF.

as always....relax and dont worry and have a home brew


Regards,
JC
PS...how did the brown ale turn out?

http://home.tx.rr.com/jeffcretella/friscobrew.htm

jacksonbrown said:
I'm currently brewing a nut brown, and I somehow managed to miss my mash temp. I got y grain temp, MLT temp and hit my water temp, and still my mash is at 148 instead of 154! I assume this is just something I need to take in to account next time. But for right now, is adding 1/2 gallon of hot water going to be ok to raise the temp? Do I simply subtract that amount from my sparge?
Thanks!
 
I just overshoot my calculations by 15 degrees every time and it always works itself out... It's easy to cool off too-warm water. Difficult to heat the water in your MLT if it's a cooler.
 
Yeah, I think I let the heating water out of my MLT (a cooler) a little too early, letting it drop to 100 deg. I did use the temp calculator in Beersmith, even adjusting for 100 deg MLT. Oh well, I'll just be going hotter next time. At least I hit my OG dead on, it'll just have a lighter mouth feel. I can handle that on a brown.
 
I use to miss my strike temp all the time untill I figured out my thermometer was off by 7 degrees. What a hair puller that was.

Try putting your thermometer in ice water and see what it reads. It should be 32.
 
Back
Top