Brewing Thermometer inaccurate

[callisbeers]

I have been using this thermometer for 12-18 batches, thinking that is was only having difficulty reading high temps ( during the boil). It would begin to boil around 225. Tonight I realized it is inaccurate all the time, during chilling, reaching mass temp etc. My batches have turned out fine, some pretty well. How is this possible? I would have thought that it would have really changed the beer because of the temps being of during mash, much higher than what it should have been.

 

[doug293cz]

I have been using this thermometer for 12-18 batches, thinking that is was only having difficulty reading high temps ( during the boil). It would begin to boil around 225. Tonight I realized it is inaccurate all the time, during chilling, reaching mass temp etc. My batches have turned out fine, some pretty well. How is this possible? I would have thought that it would have really changed the beer because of the temps being of during mash, much higher than what it should have been.

The mashing process is more forgiving than a lot of the discussion around here would lead you to believe. The higher temp will make conversion happen faster, but the amylase enzymes will also denature sooner. As long as you have the amylase around long enough to get most of your potential conversion done, then you should get acceptable beer. The wort may be less fermentable than intended by the recipe, and the mash efficiency is likely to be low, but it's not a complete disaster.

Brew on

 

[RM-MN]

There are some anecdotal reports that modern, fully modified malts don't respond very well to different temperatures during the mash. That is, you get about the same results mashing at 150 as you do at 158 and the range might be even bigger than that.