Lost a lot of temp while mashing

[nyrmc23]

Was supposed to mash at 152 for an hour. Needless to say my 2 month old distracted me a bit and I did not check. When time ended, it was at 138. Is my wheat beer ruined?

 

[Maxkling]

No, the time it spent between 152 and 138 probably allowed for most conversion to complete before it got out of range. Did you do a starch test? Might be a little dry or the opposite either way I guarantee something will ferment and make beer.

I feel your pain.

 

[Holden Caulfield]

How long was it mashing?

Assuming you mashed longer than your plan. At 152 and no adjuncts you should get conversion very quickly. Also, wheat malt has very high diastatic power. Finally, at 152 the beta amylase is denatured fairly quickly, so your wort fermentability may not be much different than what you expected.

So you probably made good beer. Only time will tell just how good.

 

[nyrmc23]

I was supposed to mash for 60 minutes at 152. I still mashed for 60 but when I took the lid off the kettle, i was at 138. So still 60 minutes, just lost heat.

My OG was 1.032, and it was supposed to be at around 1.051. No idea if that's on me or if it was the loss of heat?

 

[Holden Caulfield]

I was supposed to mash for 60 minutes at 152. I still mashed for 60 but when I took the lid off the kettle, i was at 138. So still 60 minutes, just lost heat.

My OG was 1.032, and it was supposed to be at around 1.051. No idea if that's on me or if it was the loss of heat?

Assuming the temperature drop was linear then you would have hit 148.5 at 15 mins, 145.0 at 30 mins, and 141.5 after 45 and 138 at 60. Many "Brulosophy" short and shoddy brew days often mash only 30 mins at 150+ temperatures with good success according to the author. However, you were only above 150 for 8.5 minutes and quickly fell into low alpha amylase activity temperatures. See image below. In fact, you were at the tail of the brewer's temperature window after only 30 minutes. Mashing at these low temperature will convert your mash, but due to the slow enzyme activity the time needs to be extended for full conversion. Brewers often go 90 minutes when mashing around 145 when they want a highly fermentable wort.

In your first post I assumed that you mashed for a longer time due to your distraction. BTW, mazel tov. Given that your mash was only 60 minutes, and with that mash temp profile, you may have not achieved full conversion, which may be the reason for your low OG, although there may be other reasons as well but more data on grain bill, pounds, preboil and postboil volumes and gravities are needed to assess.

As far as your beer goes - it will probably taste great in the end. It will definitely be sessionable, and may be a little hazy from unconverted starch, but hazy is ok for a hefeweizen

 

[Maxkling]

I assumed the same with the mash went longer, the lower the mash temperature the longer conversion takes. It’s obvious that conversion wasn’t completed with your low SG, but might as well let it bubble out. Call it a mild wheat. So you direct fire your tun to maintain mash temperature?

 

[Jim R]

What are you using for a mash tun? Did you preheat it with hot water? I usually preheat my Igloo cooler mash tun with about 170 degree water for 15-20 min and then start mixing with 170 degree water. After mashing in the grains I am around 152-153 degrees which holds pretty steady for at least the first half hour. If I drop much more than 5 degrees or so I add a little hot water.

 

[RM-MN]

I was supposed to mash for 60 minutes at 152. I still mashed for 60 but when I took the lid off the kettle, i was at 138. So still 60 minutes, just lost heat.

My OG was 1.032, and it was supposed to be at around 1.051. No idea if that's on me or if it was the loss of heat?

I'd guess that a combination of too coarse of a crush on the grain coupled with the heat loss are to blame for the low OG. The coarser the crush the longer it will take to gelatinize the starch. Conversion takes little time but won't start until the starch is gelatinized. If the temperature fell too quickly you may not have gelatinezed all the starch.

 

[TheBrewingDutchman]

Did you sparge after the mash? The low OG could easily be explained by not sparging. Lots of sugars then remain in the drained mash..

Or, if you did a BIAB and the recipe was for All Grain, did you boil off the excess water? You're OG after mash will not match the recipe's predicted OG if there's a mismatch in the method used.

Congrats on the baby, by the way!
But... don't go brewing when you also need to take care of him/her. You're bound to make mistakes then. Even when you've put them to bed and they always sleep for three hours straight they tend to wake up at very inconvenient times. Been there myself... 4 times..
Anyway, the best advice I can give is: Enjoy the baby now and give it all your attention; they grow up so fast it'll be over before you know it and these times will never return. And brew beer when someone is taking care of the baby. You can always brew beer, even when your kids have grown up and left to live on their own (actually, then you'll need the hobby more than ever )

 

[nyrmc23]

Thanks for all the congrats!!

So im about 20 hours into fermentation and this is what I’m seeing. I’ve never seen a foam layer like this. Any thoughts?

 

[Holden Caulfield]

Looks like you are making beer. Hefeweizen yeast can build very significant krausens.

 

[balrog]

and the one gallon size speaks to quicker heat loss also -- 5 gallons has a higher thermal mass to hold temps longer.

What I used to do when I mashed lower volumes was turn oven on to "warm", dough in, turn oven off and put mash pot into warm oven.

 

[TheBrewingDutchman]

What I used to do when I mashed lower volumes was turn oven on to "warm", dough in, turn oven off and put mash pot into warm oven.

You could even contemplate putting one or more pizza stones in the oven; they're great for holding temperature in ovens. Especially if you have any make sure you put 'em in!