I messed up my first batch of all grain

[Jerome Sidley]

I am making a recipe that called for 10 lbs of grain I was to add 13 quarts of 164* water and that would bring the temp to 152 and mash for 60 mins
I could not get up to 127* I have added a lot of water that was at 200* but I am only at 140* I can't fit any more water into the tunn. Do I just dump it? put it in my kettle and act like its boil in the bag without the bag? if I do will the grain burn on the internal element?

What did I do wrong?

 

[GnenieGone]

10lbs@13qrts@164 to equal 152 sounds about right. What are you mashing in? How much extra water have you added? What is the TOTAL water required in the recipe?

If you haven't gone too much over the TOTAL required water your fine. Might be dry but suggest moving foward. The real issues with beer would be yeast fermentation temperture and sanitation.

I would ensure your thermometer by checking with ice water then again with boiling water.

 

[dawn_kiebawls]

It sounds like a thermometer is out of whack somewhere. I checked my notes from my last batch with a similar size grain bill and my strike temp was 164F and it got me to 152F..Instead of dumping, if it isn't a thermometer issue you could either pull a gallon or so of the wort, heat that up and add it back in to try and raise the temp. Or you could pull out several quarts of the grist (grains), heat them up and add them back in (this method is called a decoction). Hope this helps, cheers!

 

[waldoar15]

Grain temp? It's cold here, my grain is in the garage so I have to take that into account when figuring strike water temps.

 

[Jerome Sidley]

It's not a thermometer issue I just checked with another one. Right now the scale on the side of the cooler says I have about 8 gallons total (wort and Grain) I will try to pull a gallon out to bring it to a boil. Ita a 5 gallon recipe

 

[GnenieGone]

Beer Smith water temp calculations are based on grain temp at 68f I believe. Pulling some out to heat up isn't a bad idea. Really this isn't the biggest issue with beer brewing.

 

[GnenieGone]

What are you brewing?

 

[GnenieGone]

That's seems like more water then needed. You can just boil longer to get to the batch amount. Just have to recalculate when to add the first hops.

 

[Jerome Sidley]

The beer smith assumed the grain was 72 and the tun was 72 mine was 68 for the grain but I preheated my tun. it seems too far off for the difference in the grain temp.

 

[Jerome Sidley]

What are you brewing?

Dry Irish Stout

 

[GnenieGone]

Perfect then! As far as how the temps got so far off..idk. Just take more temp readings next time and keep a record. Also take records of your boil off rate.

 

[Jerome Sidley]

Got it to Temperature finally.
Thank you for the help.

 

[Jerome Sidley]

Well, it all seems to have worked out I ended up with just under 6 gallons and an OG of 1.055.

 

[dawn_kiebawls]

Well done. When all else seems to fail just crack a cold one and know you're making beer either way! Glad it all worked out for you. One of the best beers I've made yet I named 'Bob Ross Brown' because the entire process was a 'happy little accident'. If only I weren't too drunk when I brewed it to remember how to make it again! Cheers! Let us know how it turns out.

 

[Jerome Sidley]

WOW, this is the first time I have used an Irish yeast, it is probably the most energetic batch I have brewed.

 

[kh54s10]

Either your grain temperature was way colder than you thought or you did have a thermometer problem. If the temperature of the grain was what you said, the tun was preheated and the water was at temperature you could not have been that far off. You will have to do some investigation to find out where the problem occurred. Or you may never know!?!?!

 

[cmybeer]

hmmm, interesting problem because it seems like it should have worked given the info? How were you taking your temp readings? Stirring up the water or mash before to avoid hot/cold spots? Just a thought.

 

[Jerome Sidley]

I just checked my Gravity I'm down to 1.012 whive would give me a 87.2% efficiency that seems to good to be true.