stratslinger
Well-Known Member
I've been dealing, for a while now, with a problem with overattenuation, and I've been unable to get to the bottom of it. My beers seem to fairly consistently finish about 6 or 7 points lower than BeerSmith projects (EG, Beersmith projected 1.018 on a recent SMASH brew, and it seems to have finished up at 1.011).
I just reviewed all my processes, and went back and checked my thermometer again (I could swear I've checked it before, but apparently not?). It seems that the thermometer reads about 2.5 degrees high, so I've actually been mashing about 2.5 degrees lower than I thought I was. I typically mash around 152, and lose 1, maybe 2 degrees in an hour. So that tells me that by the end of my mash rest, I'm sometimes actually just under 148, not just under 150. As a comparison, the previous brew I somewhat intentionally overshot my mash temperatures by two or three degrees, and wound up hitting BeerSmith's projected FG right on the nose. I'm guessing that's not coincidence.
I could see the 2.5 degrees cooler mash temps leading to some level of overattenuation - but would it lead to this much of it, or is there still something else I need to track down in my process?
I just reviewed all my processes, and went back and checked my thermometer again (I could swear I've checked it before, but apparently not?). It seems that the thermometer reads about 2.5 degrees high, so I've actually been mashing about 2.5 degrees lower than I thought I was. I typically mash around 152, and lose 1, maybe 2 degrees in an hour. So that tells me that by the end of my mash rest, I'm sometimes actually just under 148, not just under 150. As a comparison, the previous brew I somewhat intentionally overshot my mash temperatures by two or three degrees, and wound up hitting BeerSmith's projected FG right on the nose. I'm guessing that's not coincidence.
I could see the 2.5 degrees cooler mash temps leading to some level of overattenuation - but would it lead to this much of it, or is there still something else I need to track down in my process?