What happened?

[Avocet]

OK made a brown ale -consisted of
9lb Maris
1lb Munich 10
1lb Chystral 60
.5lb Choc Malt

Mashed at 164 for an hour--but all that grain showed OG of only 1.036.

Yes I checked twice.

Fed an extra half lb of corn sugar to my wort --final gravity landed at 1.012 after 10 days primary-8 in secondary.

Wound up with a not terrible-but certainly not great-final product. Getting a taste--maybe a tinny taste?

Any thoughts?

Thanks y-all!!

 

[Braufessor]

you mashed 10 degrees too high . . . . . 154.

 

[day_trippr]

164°F?

I'd be happy whatever you ended up with was drinkable without pouring it over ice...

Cheers!

 

[BigEd]

And you mashed at 164F because? At that temperature the enzymes responsible for starch conversion are being de-natured. What brewing book recommended 164F?

 

[SleepyCreekBrews]

Ouch, that's gotta sting .

Why such a high mash temp? ...anything over 160 will start denaturing the enzymes in the malt in short order.

 

[xdalisx]

You missed you mash temp by about 10*f you want to mash at 152 or 154

 

[alane1]

164 is not a typical temp to mash at, and I'm guessing that you checked the gravity of the wort at 60 deg f.?If you didn't allow for temp correction this could throw-off gravity readings.

 

[Avocet]

sorry--154 not 164..mashed at 155.2 and it fell to 154.1 over the hour in the mash tun. Water was at 168 as I pre-heated tun. I kept a pretty good eye on temp and didn't have any dry spots in mash-worked water and grain in pretty evenly--no "hot spots" in tun. I was wondering if grain could have been over/under crushed. I know Maris tends to cake up on me--but it didn't this time.

alane-that reading was at 69-70 degrees so it wasn't way off base--like at 90 or 40 degrees.

 

[day_trippr]

Mid 50s efficiency? Bad crush, poor sparge, or both. Kinda inescapable...

Cheers!

 

[BigEd]

sorry--154 not 164..mashed at 155.2 and it fell to 154.1 over the hour in the mash tun. Water was at 168 as I pre-heated tun. I kept a pretty good eye on temp and didn't have any dry spots in mash-worked water and grain in pretty evenly--no "hot spots" in tun. I was wondering if grain could have been over/under crushed. I know Maris tends to cake up on me--but it didn't this time.

alane-that reading was at 69-70 degrees so it wasn't way off base--like at 90 or 40 degrees.

Yes, make sure the grain is properly milled. Under-crushed malt will not mash efficiently. Also check your thermometer(s) for accuracy. Is 154F really 154F? Checking your water chemistry is a good idea too, if you haven't already.