high mash temp? oh nO!!

[misteradam]

will having a mash temperature of 170-180 at the start affect the beer? im cooling it down with ice cubes back below 160 right now.

 

[ChefMichael01]

Was that the temp of the water before adding your grain? If so, you should be fine as the grain will lower the temp significantly (based on how many gallons of water/lbs of grain).

If this was the temp post-grain addition, then that is at the high range and you may extract some tannins from your grain bill.

 

[misteradam]

what will that do? it is now 30 mins in and i have managed to get it to 158, now i will attempt to maintain

 

[ArcaneXor]

If your mash temp was above 170, you'll get minimal efficiency because the enzymes get denatured at those temperatures fairly quickly. Also, if you didn't buffer your mash pH, you may have extracted tannins at those temperatures.

I forgot to pre-heat my mashtun when I brewed yesterday and overcompensated the strike water temperature, so I was quite high (in the mid-160s) to begin with. Although I managed to get down to my target of 152 within 10 minutes and extended the mash by 15 minutes, I still ended up missing my target gravity slightly. I also forgot to add 5.2 at the beginning of the mash, but thankfully I remembered and added it after a few minutes.

 

[misteradam]

it ended up being in the low 60's for an hour. should i add some corn sugar to compensate?

its for a sweet stout. i planned on adding a 1lb of honey in there in addition to 1lb of lactose in the boil at 30 mins.

 

[Yooper]

What's the preboil OG?

 

[misteradam]

1.052 or 1.058 i think

 

[Edcculus]

If you are going for a sweet stout, dont add hoeny or sugar. That will just dry it out.

 

[misteradam]

thats estimated. i haven't taken a reading yet. i tasted it when i put it in for the 170 sparge, and it didnt taste very sweet. had a more bitter twangy taste. the last batch i made tasted much more sugary at this point, and came out pretty good.

how much corn sugar and honey should I add to get this in the range I want? I haven't taken a hydrometer of it yet, but i will in a little bit.

 

[misteradam]

my hydrometer broke while i was taking a reading. maybe it's a bad omen

 

[ArcaneXor]

You can always compensate for poor efficiency with malt extract. It may not be an award winner, but it'll be a good, drinkable beer.

 

[misteradam]

all i have available is corn sugar and honey. maybe ill throw in 2 lb of corn sugar, and 1lb of honey

 

[Edcculus]

If you don't have DME, dont add anything. 3lbs of sugar is definitely not a good thing. Your sweet stout will become painfully bone dry. If you are worried, get it fermenting, then add a pound of DME within 2-3 days. Boiled in a little water of course.

RDWHAHB!

 

[ArcaneXor]

all i have available is corn sugar and honey. maybe ill throw in 2 lb of corn sugar, and 1lb of honey

You can add DME later on in the primary - the yeast don't care. Corn sugar and honey are 99%+ fermentable, so adding them will just dry out your beer - not usually what you are looking for in a sweet stout.

 

[misteradam]

thanks guys. i ended up adding 1lb of honey and 1lb of corn sugar to the boil..

hydrometer reading says 1.075, its about to go into the fermenter.

 

[GunnerMan]

1.075, I wouldn't have added the sugars. Like said it will dry it out, if you want a sweet stout just hope your mashed a bit high. If it does come out dry you can add some Lactose at bottle time.