Accidental Decoction

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kornbread

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I bought a grain mill a couple of weeks ago and I've been dying to use it. So, when my feet hit the floor yesterday morning I had brewing on my mind. Ive been planning to brew a Classic American Pilsner for a few weeks and I've listened to Jamil's pod cast several times.

I decided to try a cereal mash using grits. The cereal mash went fine. The plan was to heat up the strike water for the main mash while the cereal mas was boiling. Then I was going to dough in the main mash at 122 F. with about ten mins to go in the cereal mash. The Idea was to use the boiling cereal mash to raise the temp of the main mash from a quick protein rest up to sach. temps. So far so good.

I always heat my strike water a good bit hotter than I need in order to preheat the cooler. I added my water and checked the temp: too hot. I stirred and checked: too hot. I added some cool water and checked: too hot. I added some more cool water and checked: too hot. I added some Ice and checked: you guessed it... too hot.

The temperature had fallen some with all of these additions and I didn't want to keep diluting my mash by adding more water so I went ahead and dumped my grain in so that the grain would pull the temp down. It did but the temp was still way too hot.

It was about this time that I began to suspect that my digital thermometer might be misreading the temp. I stuck my finger in the water and it was barely warm. :mad: I stuck the temp probe into the still boiling cereal mash and It quickly read 230 and climbing. I think some water had gotten inside the probe. I hope it'll dry out. Either way, I'm going to be getting a spare.

I quickly dumped the cereal mash into the main mash to raise the temp and then I grabbed an old candy thermometer. It read about 125F. At least I had hit something close to a protein rest.

I got out my calculator and, using the formula from "how to brew", I calculated how much boiling water it would take to bring the mash from 125 to 148. Then I pulled that much mash from the tun and brought it up to a boil and then added it back to the cooler. Guess what? 149 degrees!!! How cool is that?

After that, things went pretty much according to plan. My efficiency was better than I expected (high 80s) so I hope I don't have a problem with astringency but the hydro sample tasted ok. It's in the fridge now cooling that last few degrees that my chiller cant reach and I'm going to pitch this morning and I'll know in a few weeks.

Just thought I'd share.
 

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