Brewed today in this Ohio heatwave...

[jrodder]

In NE Ohio, still working on my 3rd BIAB session after moving from extract. It's such a game trying to hit mash temps... my sheet said to strike at 163, to get a mash temp of around 154ish... I must have really underestimated the temp of the grain or something, or maybe I shouldn't have insulated the keggle. Mashed in at 163, after an hour thermometer said 161... ouch. Thats gonna be one sweet beer I guess.

Should I add some sugar to dry that out? Or just leave it alone?

19.5 lbs of grain.

 

[BlackGoat]

Did you stir the mash like crazy before measuring, especially with such a large quantity of grain (and obviously a good amount of water) you probably had lots of temp variation without stirring. Of course you could have just added some cool water (or ice) to bring the mash down to the temp you wanted to hit.

 

[jrodder]

Well I didn't want to mess with it too much, last time I did and was overcompensating with heat, etc. I just measured the gravity, I am looking at 1.03 at 164 degrees. (I started flame to boil before I decided to measure it) I couldn't stir like crazy, but I am sure there was no doughballs and all grains were wet.

Is there a way to save it? can I lower temp and leave grains in or am I screwed?

Well, it's 103 at 164, with a 8.5 preboil volume. I'll have to do the calc to see how far off my final number would be. I am just wondering if some cane sugar would help boost the abv a bit and dry it out, of if that's like the lady who put salt in her coffee...

 

[BlackGoat]

Personally, I wouldn't add sugar or anything and just leave it alone and see how the brew ends up. If you weren't stirring while measuring your mash temps, its very possible that the mash was at the proper temp on average, though the portion you were measuring was hotter than the average temp of the mash. It is very possible that there was a +/- 10 degree variation in the mash before you stir it up. Doesn't seem right to me that the entire mash volume would have been only a couple degrees below the strike temp, so I'm suspecting you're getting an inaccurate reading.

 

[jrodder]

I have a converted keggle, thermometer is using the T on the side, with sight glass and threaded blichman thermometer. Maybe then you're saying that the temps in the middle of the pot were lower than that temp reading leads me to believe?

I'll post back with an OG reading after boil is done, and see if I am anywhere near what I am supposed to be, heh.

 

[jrodder]

Well, OG of 1.068, was shooting for a more fermentable 1.086ish. I'll chalk it up to experience, and drink a sweet beer. Brewing in the heat blows.

 

[Hawaiibboy]

Well, OG of 1.068, was shooting for a more fermentable 1.086ish. I'll chalk it up to experience, and drink a sweet beer. Brewing in the heat blows.

Do you know your ambient air temps?

I live in Hawaii and have to deal with 70-80F temps typically. The way I make sure I am getting my mash temp is I let my grains sit on my porch for about a half-hour to hour as I set up my equipment. This will typically bring my grain temps to air temp. I then use the ambient air temp as my grain temp. From there just figure out what temp you need for your strike water and mash in!

Typically I am shooting for a 153F mash in temp with about 7-10lbs of grain. To do this I am using 8gals of water normally only 4-8F higher than my mash temp.

Also I always take three temp readings after a thorough stir. One from the edge of the pot, one from the middle of the pot and one half way between those. I haven't installed a brewmometer yet so I'm not sure of my grain bed temps for sure but the stirring helps to get an accurate temp reading.