Currently mid mash, have i ****ed it all?

[Chrispy92]

Ok,

So ive just had a seriously rookie mess up. Currently mid mash on a red APA mashing at 68C (154F). About 15 minutes in I had a pot of water fall over, and so I did a clean up with a towel around the stove top. Inadvertently I managed to turn on the stove top.... FML. I had no idea it was on until I went to stir around the 35min mark. Temp of the mash was at 85C!! AH. I quickly dumped in a bowl of cool tap water and pulled the grain bag out. It dropped down to 75C But I was still not game to drop the grain bag back in. I did a hydrometer test and it is at 1.024 pre boil gravity, with the extra water I added. It doesnt taste bad at all. My beersmith OG was predicted at 1.054

As I understand I have probably pulled a whole heap of unfermentables out of the grain, and potentially a lot of astringency.

So what do I do!? Its currently rolling to hit a boil.... I dont want to waste a whole heap of good hops on something that is flawed from the mash.

Should I just throw in some fuggles (I have a bunch) and some white sugar (to dry it out) and make a porter / stout?

Or do you think I could go ahead with the hop schedule as planned and it will be ok?

 

[C-Rider]

Since you added more water perhaps you can boil it longer to reduce volume and get close to OG that you wanted.

 

[BufferNuggets]

Your pOG and aOG are way off...Unless you are doing a smaller volume I am not sure how you are going to get closer to your pOG post boil. Also, did you end up putting the grain back into the mash after it cooled?

 

[Sadu]

I have done this before, mash got a bit cold so I start heating then the neighbour pops over for a chat and all of a sudden I'm at 85c and the enzymes are all dead. FML.

1.024 isn't ideal, so I would personally try to make the most of a bad situation and forget about trying to make the beer you were trying to make.

A 90 or 120 min vigorous boil will increase the gravity. Add in 15% sugar to dry it out a bit and increase the gravity a bit more. Cut back on the hops since your gravity is lower and you want some insurance against a bad batch, think English bitter rather than APA as you suggest. You should still get beer at the end of all this.

 

[Chrispy92]

Well I have gone with it..... Stuck more with the english style and have tried to hit a balance between gravity and IBU. As I did add more water I have boiled for an extended period of time.

Threw in 10% sugar as suggested cheers Sadu.

I hit my numbers pretty much spot on once I corrected for my final total volume of wort, ended up keeping more as I couldnt wait for hours to boil off all I had added. I know conversion can happen pretty quickly after mash in, is there any way the majority of sugars were extracted at my initial temps over 15-20mins? Or do you think its more likely that my gravity points are from the higher temp unfermentables?

0G was 1.043 with predicted 40IBU. Maybe, just maybe I'll get myself a decent english bitter out of this?

My malt profile was quite complex (but balanced I think) so maybe this coupled with some hop experimenting it will be ok?

wishful thinking.... hmmm

 

[Chrispy92]

Your pOG and aOG are way off...Unless you are doing a smaller volume I am not sure how you are going to get closer to your pOG post boil. Also, did you end up putting the grain back into the mash after it cooled?

Yeah way off as I added a considerable bit of water.

Didnt put the grain back in the water, maybe I was wrong in thinking it could potentially allow for some of the tannins extracted at the higher temps to go into the wort.

 

[BufferNuggets]

Once the wort cooled back down I am not sure many tannins would be extracted off the grain but realistically you probably were not going to get a lot more fermentables off them either. With you addition of the sugar and your complex malt you may have a decent beer if the hops are not overpowering. 40IBU should be spot on IMO for the 'style' you are now going for. Heck even if you have a lot of complex non-fermentable sugar it may just be a bit sweet at the end but with the ABV of the sugar you should be fine.

Let us know how it ends up.

 

[MaryB]

Summer and mowing coming up so it might be an okay lawnmower beer! I never dump until I am sure it is bad!

 

[Chrispy92]

Well it smelled great going into the fermenter, pitched s04. We shall see what happens.

Cheers all for giving me somewhere to throw down my thoughts and get some feedback

 

[oceanic_brew]

Yeah way off as I added a considerable bit of water.



Didnt put the grain back in the water, maybe I was wrong in thinking it could potentially allow for some of the tannins extracted at the higher temps to go into the wort.

Look into decoction mashing.

If your PH was in range then you are safe. I make several beers where I decoct and boil a third of the mash several times.

Tannin extraction as far as I understand it happens as a result of the presence of a few factors; water chemistry, excessive sparging, high PH, high temps, I believe just one of those errors isn't enough. I could be wrong.

 

[Shepbrew]

Won't be the beer you were planning but will still be beer

 

[Chrispy92]

Well 3 days and s04 has risen and fallen, taken the sg down to 1.016! Not bad considering I was thinking all those unfermentables were going to put me in the 1.020 or higher. Beer has an awesome caramel toffee smell and as far as the hydro sample goes no discernible off flavours! Just a little tart which might be green/ yeast.

Woohoo! Might have something decent after all of this. Will post back once it's drinkable with a taste review

 

[Chrispy92]

Well, this must just be a cursed batch...

It finished at 1.012, not bad and actually tastes really good! However it's now been in the bottle over a week and refuses to show any sign of carbonation. It's sat side by side with a pale ale bottled at the same time that is carbed and delicious. Never had a batch show absolutely no pssshh when popping a lid after a 12 days.

Pretty sure this batch is doomed to fail...

 

[jrcrilly]

If it ever happens again you could throw in some alpha amylase to replace the enzymes you denatured with the high temps and put the grains back in to complete the conversion at normal mash temps.

 

[Jtk78]

Well, this must just be a cursed batch...

It finished at 1.012, not bad and actually tastes really good! However it's now been in the bottle over a week and refuses to show any sign of carbonation. It's sat side by side with a pale ale bottled at the same time that is carbed and delicious. Never had a batch show absolutely no pssshh when popping a lid after a 12 days.

Pretty sure this batch is doomed to fail...

What temperature are you storing these? How much volume did you bottle? What kind and how much priming sugar did you use? I've had beers bottled the same day as another batch, stored at the exact same place, and the batch with LESS priming sugar carbed more and faster. The other batch eventually carbed up to a decent level.

Don't give up on the batch.

 

[Chrispy92]

Alright thought I'd update.... It's actually quite a successful beer! For 3.8%abv it is super refreshing and has an awesome malt profile, nice bitterness and surprisingly not an off flavour in sight!

this experience has really solidified the whole "RDWHAHB" notion for me...

 

[kh54s10]

Looking back at the worry about no carbonation at one week. That is not unusual. It can take 3 weeks at 70 degrees. Longer if the temperature is lower. I have never opened one in less than 2 weeks. Some were well carbonated, others less so. ALL of them tasted better at 3 weeks or longer.

 

[dttk0009]

Alright thought I'd update.... It's actually quite a successful beer! For 3.8%abv it is super refreshing and has an awesome malt profile, nice bitterness and surprisingly not an off flavour in site!

this experience has really solidified the whole "RDWHAHB" notion for me...

What a great looking beer, gorgeous color.

RDWHAHB is always the way to go. Back when I mashed with with my old set-up I also accidentally mashed too high (in and aournd the 80C) due to absentmindedness. Beer still came out alright.

 

[MaryB]

I have forgot water additions, blew mash temps by 8 degrees... it still makes beer!

 

[Jtk78]

Great looking beer. Glad it worked out for you. In the end we usually get get exactly what we wanted. Beer. It may not be the exact beer we wanted, but most times it's pretty good, and taught us something along the way.