Mash Out Temp too High

I brewed my second all grain BIAB batch this weekend and everything went great except for one issue. After a 60-min mash, which my temps stayed right around 153, I started turning up the heat on my electric stovetop to get it up to 170 for a 10 min mash out. It was taking a long time for it to heat up, and when my thermometer was showing 163, I thought I had time to take a quick leak (damn homebrew).

I get back like 30 seconds later and my temp soared up to 194! So I quickly turned off the stove, took it off the burner and started stirring it. At that time I started counting down 10 minutes, and the temp got about as low aw 184.

So basically my mash out temp was way too high. What kind of problems could this cause?

Since the hulls were in contact with the hot water, you might have extracted a few extra tannin goblins. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tannin)

Not necessarily a problem, but might have changed the flavor profile of the final product. Be sure to jot this down in your notes so you can duplicate it or avoid it in the future based upon what the finished beer tastes like.

You might see a little astringency, you might not. Next time, just pull the bag out and begin your boil.

If your pH was is the proper range (under 6.0) you will be fine. People do decoctions all the time where they boil a portion of the mash. Tannins will only be extracted if the pH is over 7.0

Thanks for the replies everybody. Guess we'll find out in a month or so!

happypanties said:

Thanks for the replies everybody. Guess we'll find out in a month or so!

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How'd it turn out?

I just had a mash-out overshoot up to 180F... it's was an imperial stout so if I did extract any tannins hopefully they'll be well hidden.

Next time I'll see about taking a pH reading and see.

pjj2ba said:

If your pH was is the proper range (under 6.0) you will be fine. People do decoctions all the time where they boil a portion of the mash. Tannins will only be extracted if the pH is over 7.0

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I though that 6 is magic number. Am I wrong?

Very curious on how this turned out as well. The EXACT same thing happened to me. I do All Grain BIAB as well. The mash went perfectly. It was my first time using new insulation material for the pot and I only lost about 1.5 degrees over the hour.

Then I put it back on the burner to raise to 170 for mash out. I dropped the analog thermometer in the pot and waited..... a while. It seemed to be stuck on 160 longer than I thought possible so I grabbed my digital probe and checked - 190 and climbing. Pulled it off the burner and started stirring :-(

In hindsight I probably should pull the grain basket out of the wort before raising temp to mash out then drop grains back in.

It's been in primary for about 10 days. This weekend I'm going to move it into secondary with 2oz. of Citra leaf hops.

I'm hoping I didn't botch the brew - it was a fairly expensive batch to put together.

Tell me that yours turned out fine so I can sleep better at night LOL.

Mine turned out just fine after some aging. The first month or so there was this roasty, smoking note in the taste and aroma, after another 4 weeks of secondary; it wasn't present at all.

tjharlow said:

Very curious on how this turned out as well. The EXACT same thing happened to me. I do All Grain BIAB as well. The mash went perfectly. It was my first time using new insulation material for the pot and I only lost about 1.5 degrees over the hour.

Then I put it back on the burner to raise to 170 for mash out. I dropped the analog thermometer in the pot and waited..... a while. It seemed to be stuck on 160 longer than I thought possible so I grabbed my digital probe and checked - 190 and climbing. Pulled it off the burner and started stirring :-(

In hindsight I probably should pull the grain basket out of the wort before raising temp to mash out then drop grains back in.

It's been in primary for about 10 days. This weekend I'm going to move it into secondary with 2oz. of Citra leaf hops.

I'm hoping I didn't botch the brew - it was a fairly expensive batch to put together.

Tell me that yours turned out fine so I can sleep better at night LOL.

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There isn't any point in dropping the grains back in. Instead, start heating the wort as you drain and squeeze more of it out of the bag of grain. Add this wort to the pot and as it it heating you get.....mashout. It's a natural thing that just happens, you don't need to do it as an extra step.:rockin:

Oh? I thought with BIAB your supposed to add the mashout step to gain efficiency?

tjharlow said:

Oh? I thought with BIAB your supposed to add the mashout step to gain efficiency?

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If you're gaining efficiency with a mash out, it means you didn't have full conversion in the first place.

You could either mash longer (if needed), or just skip the mashout (since you're heating the wort right away, which is in effect a "mash out" since it denatures the enzymes) if your efficiency isn't too low.

You can gain a little efficiency by pouring water into the bag of grain and squeezing it out again. No matter how hard you squeezed it the first time, you left a bit of sugars in there.

Putting the bag of grains back into the wort that is already saturated with sugars won't get much more sugars out of the grains.

Ok, so next brew I won't put quite full volume in for my BIAB. I'll keep a gallon or two out and use for a sparge on the grains in the bag to get boil volume?

That seems like a good plan. I usually only use half that much for a sparge and still get the extra efficiency.

That mash out temp is too damn high!

Haha.

On a side note. I just transferred this batch into secondary for dry hopping and I tasted the hydrometer sample. It's a Black IPA:

12 lbs. American 2-row
1 lbs. Crystal 20L
1 lbs. Midnight Wheat
.5 lbs. Belgian Debittered Black
.5 lbs. Special Roast

1oz. Amarillo @60min
1oz. Cascade @30min
1oz. Cascade @15min
1oz. Cascade @5min
1oz. Amarillo @Flameout

Currently sitting on 2oz. of Citra leaf hops.

I'm new to all grain so I don't know what kind of indication the taste of the hydrometer is on the finished product.... but it was delicious. My only There was a very slight roastyness quality with mild residual sweetness. My OG was 1.070 and the SG for transfer to secondary was 1.022 (a little higher than my estimated final gravity but still puts it currently at 6.17% abv).

My questions - can i expect to lose a few more points of gravity while it's in the secondary for 10 days or is 1.022 pretty much it?
Secondly - I didn't get much hop notes, will the bottle conditioning bring that out more? I was really hoping on more hop character but my sample from the hydrometer was more malty.