All grain in 2x 12L stock pots? Beginner

[EricaM]

I'm in the middle of doing this.

One of my mash pots looks good. red and fairly clear wort coming off.

The other one, that was started 20 minutes earlier, is still looking cloudy and when I test with iodine, the red wort pot is fine and the cloudy one isn't.

I had a thermometer that wasn't working right and put the grain in at too high a temp in the cloudy one, 180 at least, probably more, because the temp later was almost 180, once I checked with a good thermometer. It wasn't boiling, but very hot.

So did I wreck the first pot of grain, or should I just wait longer?

If it's wrecked, I'll just proceed with the one good pot of wort and make a smaller amount.

Edit:
2+ hours and the cloudy pot is still cloudy and iodine turns black, so I'm going to use the good pot of wort that I have, throw out the bad one, and do a second pot with LME.

This is a good learning experience. Lesson: Make sure thermometer works properly before starting.

 

[McKnuckle]

You answered your own question and took the right action. Temps matter in both the mash and fermentation, and outside of a certain range it can actually fail, not just be "not as good."

Carry on!

 

[EricaM]

Thanks.

 

[Miraculix]

Thanks.

You could have mixed the cloudy one with the other, after it cooled down a bit, I mean only the liquid. The enzymes in the clear one would still be intact and chop the starches in the cloudy one into sugars within 20 minutes or so. However, the final og would be a bit unpredictable.

 

[EricaM]

You could have mixed the cloudy one with the other, after it cooled down a bit, I mean only the liquid. The enzymes in the clear one would still be intact and chop the starches in the cloudy one into sugars within 20 minutes or so. However, the final og would be a bit unpredictable.

Interesting. I may give this a try if it happens again. I was worried about ruining the whole batch.
I just checked, and the airlock is moving, so I should be able to see how it turns out in 2-3 weeks.

I watered it down too much and was getting 1.040, so I also added some corn sugar to get to 0.047. priming should get it to around 5%, I hope. And the bucket is full, so whatever this turns out to be, I'll have lots of it.

 

[Miraculix]

Interesting. I may give this a try if it happens again. I was worried about ruining the whole batch.
I just checked, and the airlock is moving, so I should be able to see how it turns out in 2-3 weeks.

I watered it down too much and was getting 1.040, so I also added some corn sugar to get to 0.047. priming should get it to around 5%, I hope. And the bucket is full, so whatever this turns out to be, I'll have lots of it.

It'll be fine. More on the light side, not so much body, but will be good.

What you did with the cloudy pot was destroying all the enzymes that should chop down the starches into sugar, by heating it too much. By adding it to the other pots liquid, you would have brought these enzymes back into the game.

 

[EricaM]

It'll be fine. More on the light side, but so much body, but will be good.

What you did with the cloudy pot was destroying all the enzymes that should chop down the starches into sugar, by heating it too much. By adding it to the other pots liquid, you would have brought these enzymes back into the game.

That's very good information. Thank you for telling me about enzymes. I like to know how things work.

I'm not trying to match a style, just want a beer that my friends and I will like, so I'm sure it will be fine.

 

[McKnuckle]

I'm a little dubious of Miraculix's suggestion, if only because it would be unpredictable. At least you know you got half the intended volume of viable wort. If you mixed it together it would be a "who knows?" situation. You might get a lot of unconverted starches, which would cause permanent haze and potentially be a bit gross.

Anyway, it's off to the races now. Keep your fermentation temps in check.

 

[Miraculix]

I'm a little dubious of Miraculix's suggestion, if only because it would be unpredictable. At least you know you got half the intended volume of viable wort. If you mixed it together it would be a "who knows?" situation. You might get a lot of unconverted starches, which would cause permanent haze and potentially be a bit gross.

Anyway, it's off to the races now. Keep your fermentation temps in check.

The unpredictable part would be only the resulting gravity. After a normal mash there is still plenty of enzymes left in the wort, unless the mash got heated too high, so a mashout step would obviously be problematic but otherwise, it would work as desired. Better than print it down the drain.

 

[McKnuckle]

Since we have a dodgy thermometer at play and two worts mashed at uncertain temps, I figure it would be a bit of a crapshoot to rely on viable enzymes in the "good" batch. I'm not arguing with the basic science you proposed. It's just a bit experimental. But a good thing to explain nonetheless.

 

[Wolffie]

You could have mixed the cloudy one with the other, after it cooled down a bit, I mean only the liquid. The enzymes in the clear one would still be intact and chop the starches in the cloudy one into sugars within 20 minutes or so. However, the final og would be a bit unpredictable.

would that affect the taste?

 

[EricaM]

Since we have a dodgy thermometer at play and two worts mashed at uncertain temps, I figure it would be a bit of a crapshoot to rely on viable enzymes in the "good" batch. I'm not arguing with the basic science you proposed. It's just a bit experimental. But a good thing to explain nonetheless.

Thanks for all the advice. Checked on this today and it's 0.006 so around 5%. It's a bit plain for my taste, but I think my friend will like it. I may try throwing a couple oz of citra in there to liven it up.

I'm in the middle of another grain mash right now. Trying for neipa. struggling to keep the mash temp high enough, but a lot more confident and less messy this time around.