Mashed at 165

[d40dave]

Something happened to my temperature probe and my controller started heating my mash. By the time I realized there was a problem the mash was at 165 - 168 degrees. Should I just start form scratch? Thanks.

 

[myndflyte]

How long into the mash were you before it got that high?

 

[d40dave]

It was about 5 minutes.

 

[myndflyte]

Yeah I don't know then. You might up something overly sweet. What was your starting gravity?

I'd be inclined to let it ferment out and see what gravity you end up at and how it tastes before doing anything.

 

[Dland]

Agree that a gravity reading will tell you a lot. If the enzymes were denatured and starch was not converted to fermentables, it is just cereal mash. On the other hand, if you have a decent gravity reading, or even a sweet taste, there is something to ferment, and you might as well see how it comes out.

 

[d40dave]

The OG is reading 1.036, It's usually 1.038 to 1.040 so maybe it will turn out OK. I guess I will continue with my brew day. I see other similar posts and it seems like I will end up with a sweeter beer.

 

[eric19312]

The OG is reading 1.036, It's usually 1.038 to 1.040 so maybe it will turn out OK. I guess I will continue with my brew day. I see other similar posts and it seems like I will end up with a sweeter beer.

There are some interesting experiments out there indicating you might end up with higher FG beer but not necessarily sweeter. I've never really understood how this works but have found that I tend to get similar of malt sweetness out of beer that I ferment all the way down to 0.992 (using enzymes) vs same recipe that I ferment without enzymes to 1.010. I believe this works best when tasters don't know the beer was fermented to a higher FG than normal.

 

[JohnDBrewer]

If you only spiked up for 5 minutes you'll be fine. Think about the strike temp when you mash in, sometimes it can be in the mid 170's and that does not effect the outcome.

Definitely let us know how it comes out though.

 

[d40dave]

So I continued with my mash and boil. My OG and FG where about 2 points below what I normally get so I thought I was in good shape. I pitched my harvested yeast like I have done hundreds of times before and this morning it was bubbling away but I didn't look closely. I just looked at it now and fermentation has basically stopped. There is a little bit of krausen around the top of the carboy but it looks more like mold. I have done well over a 100 all grain batches and a few dozen extract batches in recent years. Back in the late 1980's I did a bunch of extract batches too. I have never had an infection. I think this may be my first one

 

[d40dave]

Yesterday I decided to just cut my losses and tossed the batch. Originally it seemed like it was fermenting normally at the start, but less than 24 hours later all fermentation stopped. After looking at the carboy in better light what I thought might be mold seemed more like normal krausen but just not much of it compared to normal fermation. I took apart my temperature probe connector to inspect it and did not find anything unusual and put it but together. It now seems to be behaving itself. So I brewed another batch at it's doing fine.

 

[dwhite60]

What temp were you fermenting at? Right yeast, 70F plus temp, 1.036 starting gravity could have been close to done in 24 hours.

If it had finished high you could have added some amylase enzyme to it to dry it out.

Next time.

 

[day_trippr]

There are some interesting experiments out there indicating you might end up with higher FG beer but not necessarily sweeter. I've never really understood how this works[...]

Pretty simple, actually: mashing high induces a "dextrin shift", and dextrins tend not to register as "sweet"...

Cheers!

 

[d40dave]

I forgot to add that the beer smelled fine, nothing unusual. I'm not sure if fermentation could have been done or it things where normal because there wasn't really any krausen compared to normal.