Ouch! That's Hot!!

[nobadays]

Well... Brew day started at 4:30AM this morning to beat the heat. I brew on a 16 gallon, recirculating eBIAB rig with a 5500W element that is PID controlled. As usual I brought 5 gallons to a boil and then ran it through the various lines then pumped it through the CFC to sanitize it. All is well.

I recently moved my temperature probe from a tee in the lid - on the recirculation line - to a cross that I put on prior to the ball valve on the out put from the kettle. The idea was that hot wort would always be in contact with the probe so no worries about over heating the strike water when I take the lid off to dough in....wrong!

In the past I learned to shut the element off when doughing in so with the flow off to the recirculation line the PID wouldn't call for heat. My last brew - with the new temp probe placement - instinctive I killed the element before doughing in. I noticed that brew day that unless liquid was flowing through the out put, the temp probe and the analogue gauge would not agree...the temp probe cooled off drastically.

Well blame it on not enough coffee or stupidity, this morning I took the lid off when my kettle reached strike temp and started doughing in. 7# in I glanced at the analogue temp gauge and it read 168*!! (mash temp is to be 152 - I dough in at mash temp as my kettle will bring it up to temp in a couple of minutes tops.) So I immediately turned on the pump to the whirlpool and started stirring like crazy to try to dissipate some of the heat. The temp dropped pretty quickly down to about 165*. Since my grain bill is 16* and was at 62* I decided to dump it in fast (mistake? Did I cook my grain?). After stirring in the rest of the grain I was down to about 161*. I kept stirring and then switched the pump to recirculate as that hose is longer - more surface area to cool. The temp kept dropping but took 25 minutes to reach 152....

I hope this brew turns out OK... I'm thinking my conversion will be way less than my normal 85/90% and so long to the drier beer I was shooting for.

For those interested here is the recipe:

Juicy IPA

14# Two row - 81%
2# Munich - 12%
12oz 40L - 4%%
8oz White Wheat - 3%

90 minutes at 152

Magnum - .4oz - 60 minutes
Simcoe - .5oz - 60 minutes

Simcoe - .75oz - 15 minutes
Amarillo - .75oz - 15 minutes
Mosaic - .5oz - 15 minutes

Whirpool 10 minutes - then cool to 170 for 1 hour hop stand keeping whirlpool running (but not through CFC)

Simcoe - 1.5oz
Amarillo - .75oz
Mosaic - 1.5oz

Dry hops - usually 4 days - hops in separate bags:

Simcoe - 2oz
Amarillo - .5oz
Mosaic - 1.5oz

Yeast US-05

This beer is cloudy with an "in your face" citrus favor...strangley not "cat pissy" at all from all that Simcoe!

Well hoping this is almost as good as the last couple of batches!!

Cheers! Don

 

[Trail]

I, too, have made some exceptionally bad calls on brew day. It's especially baffling when it's before dough in and the only consequence of fixing the problem is losing a little time...

Hope your beer is delicious anyway.

 

[str1p3s]

brulosophy did an interesting experiment on mash temps and found that, at least in their results, that the only difference in 165 mash temp and 148 mash temp was final gravity and therefore abv. no difference in taste.

 

[applescrap]

brulosophy did an interesting experiment on mash temps and found that, at least in their results, that the only difference in 165 mash temp and 148 mash temp was final gravity and therefore abv. no difference in taste.

This,

i think it will be fine, but your personal perception could take over. I've heard Marshall from brulosophy give people all the same beer and it's funny to listen to people talk about the same beer. Over and over I hear about Mash temp. There are probably people on hbt that think one degree of difference, they can taste. Even if your beer does taste different it doesn't mean it's bad it'll just be different. I would highly doubt there would be any difference at all, but I am in the VAST minority here. Especially with all those hops, I would guess it will be awesome as usual, just mo.

 

[nobadays]

Trail.... I could have waited until it cooled down more but, I already had nearly half the grain in....

str1p3s... Interesting! I was envisioning a sweeter, more malty brew. This beer has a 1.071OG and a finish of 1.018 so an ABV of around 7.4%. When my efficiency has been high I have seen this one start at 1.074 and finish at 1.011 so 8.2% ! I wouldn't mind a drop in ABV actually!

Boiling away now and the wort is quite sticky and sweet so I got some conversion anyway! Hydrometer is in the kegerator cooling dow...we'll see what the pre-boil SG is. Should be around 1.051

Cheers! Don

 

[Trail]

This,

i think it will be fine, but your personal perception could take over. I've heard Marshall from brulosophy give people all the same beer and it's funny to listen to people talk about the same beer. Over and over I hear about Mash temp. There are probably people on hbt that think one degree of difference, they can taste. Even if your beer does taste different it doesn't mean it's bad it'll just be different. I would highly doubt there would be any difference at all, but I am in the VAST minority here. Especially with all those hops, I would guess it will be awesome as usual, just mo.

I'd absolutely believe this in increments of 5 deg or so. I've used many, many brew thermometers that are absolute garbage... and if one degree was going to substantially alter the beer, I am convinced nobody would brew the beer they meant to.

Unrelated note: stay the heck away from the FF Folding Brew Thermometer. Trash tier thermo broke halfway through its first brewday.

 

[nobadays]

Applescrap/Trail... I'm with you there, I'm doubting there will be a discernible difference... especially after taking a SG reading on the wort. Priceless BIAB Calc estimated a 1.051, I just read a 1.054! So I guess my efficiency wasn't hurt!

Cheers! Don

 

[nobadays]

Well... pretty well hit my numbers, calculated OG of 1.071...I hit 1.070 I'm good with that.

But....!! Just not my day to brew. When I started to whirlpool, there on the rig lay the Irish Moss. I guess this beer will be cloudier than usual! It is almost a NE style (though I didn't know what that when I developed this recipe...) so probably doesn't need clarifying anyway. The beer definitely tastes best fresh and cloudy. The beer really changes profile as it clears in the keg.

Another brew day tomorrow... hope it goes better! (Out of town too often and the pipeline is way low!)

Cheers! Don

 

[nobadays]

Thought I should up date this.... the beer turned out great! The beer should have been - OG 1.071, was 1.070..FG was to be 1.018, finished at 1.018... perfect!

Forgetting the Irish moss was the best thing I could have done for this brew. It is a cloudy, kind of, sort of a NE style IPA but in the past I have used Irish moss thinking I just should. As the beer clears - slowly over several weeks, it completely changes and doesn't taste as good as it does in its cloudy state.

Here it is over 3 months since brewing this beer, it is still cloudy and the flavor has changed very, very little! Some accidents have great outcomes!

Cheers! Don

 

[Smellyglove]

brulosophy did an interesting experiment on mash temps and found that, at least in their results, that the only difference in 165 mash temp and 148 mash temp was final gravity and therefore abv. no difference in taste.

Let me guess, a hoppy beer with a fair amount of crystal malts?

 

[Griffin495]

Glad your beer turned out ok. I did something similar on one of my last two batches. I got to my strike temperature, doughed in, checked the temp and it was up in the high 160's somewhere (don't remember where, I'm at work without notes) and realized I had never turned off my element. Turned off the element and stirred like crazy and even added some ice till I got down to my mash temperature. Hope it turns out good, I'm sure it will, gonna bottle it this weekend.