Mash temp issue

[Hulud]

Hey so apparently my thermometer screwed up today while in the process of brewing. I'm guessing my mash temp was 135ish as I was shooting for 148 which the thermometer said it was. Well when I start the boiling I decide to check my therm and it was saying the boiling wort was 220 and a cup of ice water was 68. My question is should I continue this boil or scrap it and start over?

Edit: somehow this ended up in general beer could a mod move this to all grain? Thanks

 

[doug293cz]

What was the predicted OG, and what was the measured OG? If you got any significant conversion in the mash, you might want to go ahead and ferment it. It might come out ok, but if you throw it out now, you'll never know.

Brew on

 

[Hulud]

Mash Gravity was projected 1.050 according to beersmith and I got a 1.044

 

[doug293cz]

Mash Gravity was projected 1.050 according to beersmith and I got a 1.044

Doesn't sound like a total loss. It won't be what you were shooting for, but will still be beer if you ferment it.

Brew on

 

[tennesseean_87]

I guess it depends on the style. I wouldn't hop the crap out of it because you'll have little-to-no malt back-bone. Maybe add some malto-dextrine to it to counteract the super low mash temp? I don't know. I'm curious how it will ferment.

 

[Hulud]

Well screw it transferring it to fermenter and I guess I'll see what happens as it was a iipa og after boil came to 1.067 and was shooting for 1.080 so I guess it's time to buy a good thermometer. Is the recommendation still thermopen?

 

[thekraken]

You can't go wrong with anything from thermoworks, thermapen being their top of the line as it's the quickest read.
There is also this CDN:
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0021AEAG2/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20

 

[Hulud]

Is that what you use?

 

[thekraken]

Is that what you use?

It is now! My thermapen crapped out on me, but when it worked a definitely preferred the thermapen.

 

[JimRausch]

Another good reason to keep a pound or two of DME around just-in-case.

 

[Hulud]

You think I could still add it today? Or nvm I would have to boil it

 

[JimRausch]

You think I could still add it today? Or nvm I would have to boil it

You would have to boil it to sanitize it and at least get a hot break. Probably more of a pain in the butt than it's worth. But since you're only 6 points low, you could add 1 lb. of sugar or honey. 1lb= about 8 points in a 5G batch.You could just boil that for a couple minutes to sanitize, or even add it straight. I've added sugar or honey plenty of times a couple days after starting fermentation. Good luck!

 

[Hulud]

You would have to boil it to sanitize it and at least get a hot break. Probably more of a pain in the butt than it's worth. But since you're only 6 points low, you could add 1 lb. of sugar or honey. 1lb= about 8 points in a 5G batch.You could just boil that for a couple minutes to sanitize, or even add it straight. I've added sugar or honey plenty of times a couple days after starting fermentation. Good luck!

I would do that but I already have sugar in the recipe and don't want to dry it out anymore haha. Thanks though. I'll just ride this out and see what the results are. Just a little frustrating since it's my first brew with my fermentation chamber. Guess I'll rebrew next week

 

[Wynne-R]

Your readings may not be that far off. Ice water could be any temperature between freezing and room temperature. A proper ice bath is reliably 32.0 F but ice water isn’t.

Boiling point is a good approximation but I wouldn’t use it to calibrate anything. People tend to miss that the boiling point of water is affected by external pressure and anything in the water.

The pot will be hotter than the water. Also water can be superheated within a boil. You really need to measure the steam, but that is pretty impractical with boiling wort.

Water boils at 212F at standard pressure. That means pure water at sea level with a barometric pressure of 29.92" Hg. http://beerandwinejournal.com/boil-theory/

Boiling point of water is fairly close to 212F, but wort is always higher, by a degree or two, depending on strength. There will be hot spots, so you can get wacky readings, especially with electronic thermometers that have small sweet spots.