mash temp too low for this?

[archer75]

I'm about to make this Belgian Wit based upon a recipe I got from a local brewer. In his email he told me they mash at 138 degrees which seems quite low. But I haven't made a lot of beers so what do I know.

Now i'm wondering if it was a typo? Do you think 138 degrees is accurate?

My grain bill consists of white wheat malt, 2 row pale, flaked barley and flaked wheat.

I'm betting he meant 148 as when I plug that temp into brewsmith the ABV number comes into line with what the actual beer has.

 

[BigB]

Yes, 138 sounds way too low. 148 or even 158 would be more reasonable... With 158 you might end up with too much unfermentables though.

 

[Andrewtherooster]

148 sounds more likely. What kind of beer is it?

 

[archer75]

Yes, 138 sounds way too low. 148 or even 158 would be more reasonable... With 158 you might end up with too much unfermentables though.

I put 158 into beersmith and the ABV dropped. It seemed to like 148 best so that's what I did and let it go for 90 minutes. I have it boiling now but the gravity I got pre boil was just way too low. I was shooting for 1.046 and got 1.02

The last batch I did, a scottish, I got higher gravity with a larger volume of wort than I was shooting for. I used the same equipment, the same process.
So to compensate i'm going to boil off more wort and see if I can get the gravity up.

I guess next time i'll just have to use more grains for this one.

 

[archer75]

well I boiled off about 3 gallons and hit my OG. There was a ton of sediment in this batch so I lost quite a bit due to that. And I boiled off too much. And i'll lose more to trub so when it's all said and done i'm betting i'll have 4 gallons of beer. I'll have to scale it higher next time.

 

[eastoak]

well I boiled off about 3 gallons and hit my OG. There was a ton of sediment in this batch so I lost quite a bit due to that. And I boiled off too much. And i'll lose more to trub so when it's all said and done i'm betting i'll have 4 gallons of beer. I'll have to scale it higher next time.

next time dump the whole thing into the fermentor and it will all settle out, in the end you only lose a bit at the end. it won't make your beer cloudy or make hair grow on your palms.

 

[archer75]

next time dump the whole thing into the fermentor and it will all settle out, in the end you only lose a bit at the end. it won't make your beer cloudy or make hair grow on your palms.

Alot of it was loose hops. I have a bazooka screen in the kettle so I just threw whole hops in without using a muslin bag. I was worried about getting those loose hops in the fermenter.