Missed mash temp

[Fuzzy-Q]

Missed my mash temp.....tun was not as warm as I thought. currently at 143F. Was a little on the thick side to be safe anyway. Is the 143 ok to mash with??? or should I add more hot water. Doing a Tripel with 11# of Pilsner malts target was 152f.

 

[RugenBrau]

I would add some more to bring it up

 

[heckels]

I'm sure it's too late by now, but there is a formula to figure out how much boiling water you need to bring some volume at a cetain temp to your desired temp. Don't have it offhand. I'm sure you can find it with a search.

 

[diS]

Here ya go:
http://www.rackers.org/calcs.shtml

I make table on my checklist what amount of water is needed to bring temperature up (depending on current temperature).

 

[Paulgs3]

Me too, OP.

I ended up just feeding the birds and squirrels and I'm pissed, I just wasted $30 worth of grain. I have three....I repeat three thermometers and all of them decided to act up.

I heated up my water, pre-warmed the cooler, got the strike water to 170 which was a tad hotter than I needed, added 3 gal of water... added grains...mixed took temp.... 163. Added cold water (half a gal)temp dropped to 148, added more hot water and and it just continued on from there.

I dumped it on the grass I was sitting at 144 with almost 7 gals in my mash for a 5 gal batch. I would have nothing for sparge if I continued. The thermometers, one read 144, on read 136 and the other read 140. I kinda trust the 144. And I mixed the living hell outta my mash.


My first complete failed brew.

 

[Yooper]

Me too, OP.

I ended up just feeding the birds and squirrels and I'm pissed, I just wasted $30 worth of grain. I have three....I repeat three thermometers and all of them decided to act up.

I heated up my water, pre-warmed the cooler, got the strike water to 170 which was a tad hotter than I needed, added 3 gal of water... added grains...mixed took temp.... 163. Added cold water (half a gal)temp dropped to 148, added more hot water and and it just continued on from there.

I dumped it on the grass I was sitting at 144 with almost 7 gals in my mash for a 5 gal batch. I would have nothing for sparge if I continued. The thermometers, one read 144, on read 136 and the other read 140. I kinda trust the 144. And I mixed the living hell outta my mash.


My first complete failed brew.

It doesn't sound that bad to me actually. Sometimes if you're too hot, you just have to stir really hard with the lid off and it'll drop within 3-4 minutes. As you've found, it takes a few minutes for the temperatures to equalize, and then you're stuck with adding hot/adding cold/adding hot to try to compensate. Next time, add your strike water about 11 degrees warmer than your desired mash temp, after preheating your MLT. Then stir like it's your job! Stir, stir, stir, check the temperature in three places, stir some more, check again. If the temperature is the same throughout, you're done stirring. But if not, stir some more. THEN check the temperature once more to see if you're too warm or two cold. That whole process takes a few minutes but by then the MLT will stop absorbing heat and the temperature will be equalized throughout.

Oh, yeah- get ONE good thermometer. I have about 5, but only one that I trust!

 

[RugenBrau]

I think I might get them in some ice water to calibrate or check them and find out which one is right

 

[Paulgs3]

Thanks Yooper, great advice as usual!

I thought I mixed it well enough but I didn't. Compound that with anxiety (rookie) I over compensated and messed up.

RugenBrau, I do check the 0 temp, I'm a firm believer that multiple points need to be checked to confirm though. All of mine read 1 degree C in ice water but I'm going to have to check the 212/100. I do need a more reliable thermometer(s), its going to be my next purchase. To add insult to injury, I grilled some steaks for dinner and my weber thermometer was acting up also.

Day is over, start fresh next weekend.

 

[EROK]

I always shoot a bit high for strike temps and then drop in a few ice cubes to bring down to temp. If you are only off a few degrees high, not a lot of ice cubes are needed. I chose to do it this way because then I don't need boiling water handy. About 5 batches in I had it dialed in. Pre heating the tun is crucial in my opinion. Then if you preheat the tun take off the checkmark in beersmith to account for your equipment. This has helped me immensely in getting within a degree of the right temp everytime.

 

[Fuzzy-Q]

I added some boiling water to bring the temp up, but was not enough. Let mash for 90mins. Not sure if it helped or not as pre-boil gravity was 1.035 for 6.75 gallons. Decided, screw it and boiled until I had 5 gallons...the 2#s of candi sugar helped. og of 1.072 for my tripel.....hoping I get some good attenuation and get near the 8%. First AG, so lessons learned...

As a side note, the WLP530 (rinsed 2nd gen) took off like crazy. Glad I decided on a blow off tube. My bucket lid was bulging. Have not made an umdrinkable brew yet and not planning to with this one.

 

[cjham9985]

if your mashtun is a rubbermaid, how do you preheat?

 

[RugenBrau]

CJ- I throw a gallon of boiling water in and put the top on it and let is sit for a hour

 

[Mysticmead]

I added some boiling water to bring the temp up, but was not enough. Let mash for 90mins. Not sure if it helped or not as pre-boil gravity was 1.035 for 6.75 gallons. Decided, screw it and boiled until I had 5 gallons...the 2#s of candi sugar helped. og of 1.072 for my tripel.....hoping I get some good attenuation and get near the 8%. First AG, so lessons learned...

As a side note, the WLP530 (rinsed 2nd gen) took off like crazy. Glad I decided on a blow off tube. My bucket lid was bulging. Have not made an umdrinkable brew yet and not planning to with this one.

good choice in letting it ride... this will probably end up being a pretty good beer even with all the slip ups. That 2# of candi sugar will help dry it out nicely. The dubbel I made had a very active ferment as well.. blow off tubes are a good thing to use for each batch.

Me too, OP.

I ended up just feeding the birds and squirrels and I'm pissed, I just wasted $30 worth of grain. I have three....I repeat three thermometers and all of them decided to act up.

I heated up my water, pre-warmed the cooler, got the strike water to 170 which was a tad hotter than I needed, added 3 gal of water... added grains...mixed took temp.... 163. Added cold water (half a gal)temp dropped to 148, added more hot water and and it just continued on from there.

I dumped it on the grass I was sitting at 144 with almost 7 gals in my mash for a 5 gal batch. I would have nothing for sparge if I continued. The thermometers, one read 144, on read 136 and the other read 140. I kinda trust the 144. And I mixed the living hell outta my mash.


My first complete failed brew.

in my opinion, the only complete failure was dumping the mash. you had almost 7 gallons of water that was in the process of becoming wort. There are some brewers that intentionally add enough water to the mash at the beginning and skip the sparge. In fact when I brew I follow the no sparge BIAB method adding ALL water to the mash tun (water to make the entire batch including boil off and trub loss). Next time if you run into a situation like this (and I really hope you don't), relax, don't worry, and MAKE a homebrew.

It really isn't rocket science, you're only making beer. People have been making beer for longer than we've had thermometers and they liked it enough to keep making it..

 

[Fuzzy-Q]

Well, after two weeks and two days of primary, I hit 1.006 and the sample tasted pretty good....not sure if it was what I was going for. I will have to wait for it to bottle condition. My dubbel was 10x better after three months in a bottle, so I am anxious to see how it turns out.

 

[tgmartin000]

Missing your mash temps by a few degrees won't ruin anything. as they say, RDWHAHB.

My last was a Belgian golden strong. Mashed in at 120, ramped up to 135, then 145, then 150. Each for a half hour.

If you're a few degrees low, let it ride for a half hour, then add boiling water to bring it up to your desired temp for an hour.

 

[C-Rider]

Thanks Yooper, great advice as usual!

I thought I mixed it well enough but I didn't. Compound that with anxiety (rookie) I over compensated and messed up.

RugenBrau, I do check the 0 temp, I'm a firm believer that multiple points need to be checked to confirm though. All of mine read 1 degree C in ice water but I'm going to have to check the 212/100. I do need a more reliable thermometer(s), its going to be my next purchase. To add insult to injury, I grilled some steaks for dinner and my weber thermometer was acting up also.

Day is over, start fresh next weekend.

Shoots I just throw my steaks on the charcoal and flip every 3 min. until the center looks like I want it to look. I have no idea what the temp is, but it takes about 15 minutes on the charcoal.

 

[C-Rider]

CJ- I throw a gallon of boiling water in and put the top on it and let is sit for a hour

I gotta try that. I filled it w/140* tap water for about 1/2 hour, then drained it put in the bag and the 160* water (1.9 g) added the grain (4.25 lb) and an hour later it was at 148*. It's sitting in the fermenter and after the boil all the numbers looked good. Had a BHE of 74%.

 

[Paulgs3]

Shoots I just throw my steaks on the charcoal and flip every 3 min. until the center looks like I want it to look. I have no idea what the temp is, but it takes about 15 minutes on the charcoal.

I know man, these gadgets, sometime we need to know too much when all we need to just relax and go with the flow instead. I keep reminding myself that back when beer was first brewed, they didn't have thermometers, pH paper, starsan, gypsum.... they just made beer. Ah the good oh days!

Fuzzy-Q, I really wish I would have kept mine. Cheers its working out! I made bad choices all around that day.