Mash In emergency

[Ktaco]

Hello everybody,

I am doing my first all grain today with my dad. My recipe calls to mash in at 152 degrees. I preheated my 5 gal.gallon cooler with water @ 130.

When I poured in my mash, it has not risen above 141.9. uh-oh. should I take part of my sparge water to raise mask temp and subtract from final sparge quantiy?

HELP? I've got 35 min to go on the mash. I'm doing a 3 gal. brew.

Thanks,

Kevin

 

[timdillon36]

That should work just fine. Heat about a gallon to a boil and add a little at a time and keep stirring and adding till u get to mash temp.

 

[grrickar]

Add some boiling water to up the temp.

 

[LBussy]

Add boiling water, heat part of the water, heat part of the mash ... doesn't matter a whole lot these days. Technically you should remove some of the thickest part (the grains), heat that and put it back. That's the nature of a decoction mash. That's because the enzymes are in the liquid. There's so much enzymes these days and the malt so well-converted you can hardly go wrong whatever you do.

 

[Ktaco]

Thanks. Should I extend the mash any once I get it up to temp? Turn it into a 90 instead of a 30?

 

[LBussy]

You can for piece of mind if you like. If you are in a rush you can get by with the 30 mins more then likely. Either way I think you will be fine.

 

[Ktaco]

Thanks, everyone.

I have made a note to myself. Be sure your long thermometer that you put into you HLT is calibrated! Guess what I didn't do! Didn't realize it until I was monitoring the chill process. Thought I would get out the Thermopen, just for poops and giggles. Holy s%^t! That explained a lot.

 

[LBussy]

It's all good. You make your target gravity?

 

[Homercidal]

Best beer you will ever make! LOL!

 

[Ktaco]

I was right on the mark with an OG of 1.054. I plugged the ingredients into Beersmith and converted it into a 3 gal. batch. The recipe came from Homebrewers Association Winners recipes. I wanted to a California Common and found a recipe named Gatekeeper. 2015 winner.

This while learning a new set up to boot. 5 gallon cooler mash tun. Locked up the mash tighter than a drum. Nothing came out the valve. Not a drop. I've got a feeling that once you add the grains to the water and stir a bit, your supposed to leave it alone. I kept going in and stirring it up, thinking to keep the grains suspended. I think what I actually did was force the fine powders and grains though the false bottom and clogged it up.

After unloading it into a large mesh bag and rinsing out the tun, I reloaded it with the grains and added the sparge water. This step went just like it was supposed to.

Thanks for all the advise.

Kev

 

[Homercidal]

Nothing wrong with stirring up until the lauter. There is probably just a problem with the lauter system you have. Maybe you need a false bottom with less fine openings?

I never had a problem with my copper manifold until about 2 years ago and now it seems I constantly have stuck sparges. About 2 years ago I replaced the 3/8" hose connecting the manifold to the spigot so it was all 1/2". Ever since I tend to get stuck sparges.

What happens is that after the sparge, the heavy particulates drop quickly, and the finer stuff settles afterward. The very fine stuff ends up in a layer on top. If I pull too quickly, the grain bed compacts too much and the wort can't draw through the grain bed fast enough and gets left on top of the blanket of fine gunk. Apparently the 3/8" hose prevented that for the most part by not allowing the lauter to draw too quickly.

I found Rice Hulls fixes the problem, and I can also poke a few holes in the gunk with my brew spoon and it drains good again.