High Temp Mash Help

Hey guys,

I accidentally set my RIMS tube in such a way that the thermocouple wasn't contacting wort. My mash temp was 180 when I read the base thermometer after pouring my grains. It took it 20 mins to come back down to 152. Do I need to start again? I'm leaning towards yes but running out of time for today.

Side note, need to make a permanent stand for my RIMS tube.

Update:

I tasted the wort. It seems OK, so not too many tannins extracted. Now I'm just wondering how fermentable this will be. It was at 180 when I started, immediately turned element off and recirculated to get it down to 152 in 20 mins, maybe a little less.

You probably denatured all of the amylase right away at that temp, so you would have very little conversion. This batch is probably a loss.

Brew on

doug293cz said:

You probably denatured all of the amylase right away at that temp, so you would have very little conversion. This batch is probably a loss.

Brew on

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What about pitching brett or lacto? Genuinely curious if those little guys will ferment that type of mash.

Drop some iodine in the wort to check for conversion.

How long did it take to get to 180? Was the full volume of the mash at 180?

I'm not sure if the iodine test will give me the definite answer. I think I'll just dump this and try again next week. Festival beer so I might be doing the rock method on carbonation now...

tezcatlipoca said:

I'm not sure if the iodine test will give me the definite answer. I think I'll just dump this and try again next week. Festival beer so I might be doing the rock method on carbonation now...

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I'm just curious if you converted?

You could probably add some 6-row or something with high diastatic power and re-mash it if you really want to save it. Is that worth it to you?

So, I'll be buying more grains next weekend. I already made my yeast starter though. Can I Just decant it and save it to pitch?

Any suggestions on building a mount for the RIMS? I'm using a keggle mash tun with my RIMS tube.

How long were you mashing at a normal temp? If you were in the 15-20 min range your probably OK. Conversion can happen fast dependent on the grains you used. You did denature the enzymes for sure but the big question would be did you convert before that happened.

Cheers
Jay

Well, it started at the 180 and over 20 mins, I came down to 152, so I think it was a wasted batch. I'll be checking multiple thermometers before dumping grains in mash in the future.

I also want to build a stand for the RIMS tube, something more permanent than a uclamp on the handle of my mash tun keggle. I have the element at the beginning of the tube and the thermocouple at the end. I have the wort coming off the side, so if it is at the wrong angle, the thermocouple just gets air and no wort. I guess I'll look into a stand and maybe swap the thermocouple with the wort output. I didn't want to do that as it might not get the most accurate temp.

Anyways, I guess I'll decant the starter and store it in the fridge?

tezcatlipoca said:

I'm not sure if the iodine test will give me the definite answer. I think I'll just dump this and try again next week. Festival beer so I might be doing the rock method on carbonation now...

Click to expand...

This was probably a mistake. If your strike water was 180 when you mashed in, the temp should've dropped below 170 rather quickly.

No, I didn't read the temp of my strike water from the correct thermometer. I read if from my RIMS as 164, but then after pouring grains read the keggle thermometer as 180, so striker water was even higher. Like I said, I'll be building a stand for my RIMS.