So I am doing my first all grain, I added the strike water 10 degrees hotter than I wanted to mash at. problem is it is now 3 degrees lower than mash temp 15 min in. My question is do I add some hott water to bring it up?? Please help! Also should I still mash for 90 min if I am losing this much temp? Thanks
Urgent!!losing to much temp!! Help!
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helibrewer
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What are you mashing in? You could do a decoction to get the temp up
Did you do something to cool it off and then overshoot by cooling too much? Or are you just losing a ton of heat from your mash tun? I mash in aluminum, outside, and uninsulated and don't lose more than 1F over the course of an hour mash.
EDIT: Just re-read your post- sounds like you just miscalculated your strike temp. If that case, the "rest calculator" at http://www.rackers.org/calcs.shtml will tell you exactly how much boiling water you should add to get your mash temp up. Your mash will be a little thinner, but not enough to make a difference. Next time try using that same calculator page for getting your strike water temperature. It's never failed me.
EDIT: Just re-read your post- sounds like you just miscalculated your strike temp. If that case, the "rest calculator" at http://www.rackers.org/calcs.shtml will tell you exactly how much boiling water you should add to get your mash temp up. Your mash will be a little thinner, but not enough to make a difference. Next time try using that same calculator page for getting your strike water temperature. It's never failed me.
I just put the wort on the burner. When i closed the lid of my cooler i was at 153, after an hour I was at 148. Is this an acceptable drop? I did start the mash in my garage and its kind of a cold night in Nebraska. Could my mash tun be too cold when i put the water on the grains? Before I started the brew day i got some water almost to boiling and put it in the Mash tun. But I took the water out about 15 min. before. I was just a little surprised that it lost that much temp in just an hour!
That's a big drop, but not totally insane. Some people pre-heat their mash tun (since I use aluminum, I don't because it wouldn't make any difference) and you could wrap it in towels/blankets/sleeping bag like I have done sometimes. You may finish out a little drier than expected, but 148 is a fine mash temp to end at.
You should be OK.
That said- your stike temp should account for the temperature of the grains in the future. My house stays very warm (whether I want it to or not) around 70F regardless of what I do, so my grain is always that temperature. IF you use the rackers calculator I provided earlier, it takes the temperature of the grain into account, so you will be better off. Your loss of temp and low mash is probably a combination of losing more heat than expected and having colder grain than you guessed.
I may have missed it but always heat the strike water to 10 degrees or more HOTTER than you want it. That way the cooler will absorb the heat and stabilize. Stir it until you reach the desired temp then add your grains and stir the crap out of it and cover it . I usually wrap mine in a sleeping bag at least. GREENBAYRACKERS has a nice temp calculator that will tell you what to heat the strike water to so when you add the grains you hit the right temp.
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Green Bay Rackers--Mash Calculators
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Preheating will probably help a lot. If you don't do that, then the mash tun will continue to soak up your mash heat for a while after you get it all mixed in. You'll get a much more stable temp by preheating if you can. Otherwise, strike a bit hotter and see if that helps. It's always easier to cool a mash than to heat it up!
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