Mashed in Above 170

[troglodytes]

I'm afraid I already know the answer to the question, I need to verify fast so maybe I can salvage my yeast.

I had a thermometer issue where I thought I mashed into 165 water but it turns out it was 185. After storing for about a minute or two I checked to see if I was at 155 as expected but instead I was at 174. I very quickly stopped it cold water to get the mash down to 155. All in all it was above 170 for about 2 to 3 minutes.

Did I produce a full bach of unfermentable sugars. The yeast is showing little activity after 48 hours.

 

[mashpaddled]

Those temperatures are warm enough to denature enzymes but I'm not sure two or three minutes is fast enough for that to happen assuming you really got the temperature low that quickly. The only way to know for sure would have been to test starch conversion before sparging. You can't go back in time and do that so the next best thing is to test what you have right now. Does the wort taste sweet or it is starchy and kind of a flour taste? Is the gravity dropping at all from your post-boil reading? Are you sure you pitched an appropriate amount of healthy yeast?

 

[troglodytes]

I'm going to to measure the gravity to see where it stands, and do a taste test.

Problem is I can't go back in time to do measurements, so I don't know where my starting point was. My process was good after the initial mash in, and I definitely did a yeast pitch of about 350B cells for expected OG of 1.062.

I'm disappointed because I've been looking to use is yeast (it's a sacch, Brett, lacto blend), so if they're really is no activity id rather just draw off a sample and salvage the yeast and redo the batch before it gets contaminated.

 

[RPh_Guy]

expected OG of 1.062.

You don't measure your OG??

 

[troglodytes]

Usually I do.

Usually I measure preboil, post boil, gravity, pH everything. This time I had a whole group of people at the house, distractions galore and I was doing a brew I've done many times before. I'm sure of my process and in this particular instant made the decision to not focus on the technicalities, especially since I've been hitting my numbers dead on in my recent batches over the past couple years.

I don't regret the decision, because there's nothing a can do to change what happened with the mash temp. But it is a kind of helpless feeling not knowing the numbers.

 

[bracconiere]

competition's site....

https://www.homebrewersassociation.org/forum/index.php?topic=13720.0

had this in it....repost it here:

And never forget gluco!

 

[troglodytes]

Ok time will tell, but I'm going to let this ride.

I just home and did a gravity reading of 1.035, which could be a normal gravity after 50 to 60 hours assuming my starting gravity is where I expected at 1.062.

The yeast character is strong and delicious already, but the sample was super sweet, obviously at that gravity. I'll test again in a week to see what happens. Hopefully, the Brett and lacto can work their magic and dry it out over time.

What seems odd is the lack of apparent activity in the carboy. No airlock activity (I know that doesn't mean anything), no krausen, no nothing. I've never seen a yeast this still if it is indeed working.