Help!!! missed mash temp due to broken thermometer

[jmcquesten]

So I was shooting for 151° mash, but when the mash temp settled it was high (160) so I added a little cool water to bring it down. The thermometer read 151 for over a full hour, so I assumed I was good. Sparged to preboil volume and took gravity sample and let cool. Measured preboil gravity and it's only 1.024 which put my efficiency at around 46%. No way that's right because I just ground grain on brand new monster mill set at 0.038, and the grind was pretty fine. So, before the sample cooled, I started heating to boil and that's where I noticed the problem. Dial thermometer was reading 220, but wort wasn't boiling. Grabbed a small kitchen thermometer to double check and that one read 190ish next to the one reading 220...wtf? So, I'm wondering how far off my mash temp was (low) and how bad it hurt my conversion. Preboil gravity should have been closer to 1.040. Is anything in the 1.024 wort even going to be fermentable if I really mashed around 130°? Did a late iodine test and it confirmed my fears. Will 3 lbs DME in the boil help (11 gallon batch)? That's what I'm about to do, so I hope so. This is bad...really bad.

 

[Axegod]

Not the end of the world. I do not have software infront of me but the dme will help..but by how much, im not sure. Hopefully u or some one can checkthe gravity from the dme using software. U may also want to consider doiling a longer boil to reduce your total volume but will increase your OG to your original target. Dont forget to adjust hop IBU for smaller volume.

Hope this helps. You should still have a pretty decent beer.

 

[jmcquesten]

Not the end of the world. I do not have software infront of me but the dme will help..but by how much, im not sure. Hopefully u or some one can checkthe gravity from the dme using software. U may also want to consider doiling a longer boil to reduce your total volume but will increase your OG to your original target. Dont forget to adjust hop IBU for smaller volume.

Hope this helps. You should still have a pretty decent beer.

Thanks man. I'm not gonna chance it now though. I abandoned that batch before any more money/time is wasted. The thermometer was way off...like reading 60 in ice water. I didn't use the dme. So another round of grain will be needed, but I still have yeast and hops so that's a few dollars not wasted. If this wasn't a double batch for someone else's party, i might have let it ride...

 

[Axegod]

Sorry about your loss...i had a similar thing happen with a dropped dial thermomter that randomly sticks...i now have three with me on brew day just to make sure.

Cheers

 

[TANSTAAFB]

Did you already clean out your MLT? I'd heat the first runnings back up to strike temp and mash again with the weak wort.

 

[jmcquesten]

Did you already clean out your MLT? I'd heat the first runnings back up to strike temp and mash again with the weak wort.

Yeah, I dumped the mlt right away. I don't know what I was thinking.