Eratic Mash Temps........

[Yambor44]

I have been fighting this MT for a while now. Not sure if there is an answer, but thought I would throw it out there and see.

We will use today as an example. Ambient temps are 68 degrees currently. I am about 45 minutes thru my 60 minute mash.

When I dough in I hit my target temp of 152 dead on. I have a digital probe in the top (calibrated in ice water and boiling water) and my new analog Blichmann that resides in the kettle, also calibrated to boiling water and with the aforementioned digital.

After I dough in I wait and watch the temps. The digital, buried about 4" in the top back of the mash starts to drop quickly. I let it fall to 143 which takes just a couple of minutes. The analog, which is in the default area of my 10 gallon kettle, is reading 150-151. I go ahead and fire up the burner on low (10 tip cut back to 2 tip jet burner) and let it rise to 150 before killing the heat. Usually it will ramp up 2-3 degrees at the most (on summer days here in Florida) on the first fire of the burner. This time it shoots to 160 after a few (3) minutes. Check the analog and now they concur.

Sometimes it does exactly like this, sometimes it doesn't. I wouldn't mind if it wanted to swing as long as it would be consistent I could allow for that.

I usually recirculate the whole time and wonder if my ambient temp is affecting the temps as it travels thru the pump and hoses. I just shut the pump off at the start of this writing and it is holding at 149 on the digitsal and 150 on the analog.

Maybe I just answered my own question, but could I get some feedback on how you control your mash temps?

Here's my setup:

 

[cheezydemon3]

Digitals are twitchy in the presence of moisture.

 

[brewnickbrew]

I have the same problem and was wondering the same thing about the heat loss in the hoses. In Lonnie's Brutus Ten 1 video I noticed that he isn't recirculating during the mash at all. At least during the clips he is not.
My next brew day, I'm going to switch off my pumps during the mash to see if I can manipulate the mash temps a little better.

I'm hitting my mash temps at Dough in and for at least the first 20 minutes or so it will hold the temps fine, but I seem to fight it the rest of the way until mashout.
My Beer is turning out fine.

I'd like to keep this thread going with further findings. I plan on brewing again soon so I will report back what seems to work for me.

 

[Sawdustguy]

Maybe it is time to start thinking about a RIMS or HERMS to control your Mash temperatures. I use a RIMS heat exchanger to control my mash temperature and I hit and maintain it every time.

 

[BrewSpook]

Maybe it is time to start thinking about a RIMS or HERMS to control your Mash temperatures. I use a RIMS heat exchanger to control my mash temperature and I hit and maintain it every time.

I also use a RIMs and have had very little trouble... although lately a few times I have left for a few minutes and come back and the recirc temp was way above what I had set. Haven't figured it out yet, may have to check my PID and make sure its working ok.