Help! Mash temperature way off.

[TheDarkChemist]

I did everything by the books, but for some reason my thermometer was saying my mash was 174 degrees.... My thermometer on my HLT said 174 so I figured Id end up close to 152.

Making a porter.

So I assumed the analog was wrong, and started adding water to cool it down.... then I eventually realized the digital was wrong... so now my mash is sitting at 130 degrees...

So I turned around and added boiling water back intoget it to 152 using a candy thermometer...

Edit: I think Im up to about 6-7 gallons of water now in the mash tun... 12.5lb grain bill, I was planning on starting with 4 gallons... though I read up to 2qt per pound is ok. which would put me at 6.25 gallons max... really might be at 7gal though Not sure what affect this will have onmy fermentables and whether icanbatch sparge ornot


So the whole process took about 30 minutes, is this porter doomed, or can I continue on? Need to order another probe thermometer and atherma pen iguess...

thanks

 

[Omahawk]

If I'm understanding there's two concerns you have:

1) You mashed low at 130 F for about 30 minutes.
2) You mashed at approximately 2 quarts per pound.

Sounds like you essentially did an extended protein rest. This could reduce your finishing gravity buy a few points. Was it at 130 the whole 30 min, or moving towards 150 during part of that period? On the second point mashing thin can actually increase your efficiency. With a porter you probably have plenty of crystals and roasted malts that likely won't over attenuate. Unless I'm misunderstanding, I'm assuming you'll turn out just fine.

 

[johnp]

It's not doomed. Just measure the volume of your first runnings, and sparge with whatever is needed to bring you to your anticipated preboil volume.

 

[stpug]

You definitely need to get a trustworthy thermometer. Aside from that, your beer should turn out fine. I wouldn't worry about the water:grist ratio and you were in the mash temp range never really exceeding it (i.e. denaturing the enzymes) so you should get converted wort out the other end.

Drain all of your 1st runnings, add enough additional sparge water to your MLT and drain 2nd runnings to reach your preboil (~1 gallon), and away you go. No harm. no foul.

 

[TheDarkChemist]

Sorry for not being clear.

Added water and grains, water was 174, grains were room temp.

Most likely I was at 150-154 at this point, but my thermometer read 174+, so I started adding some cooler water.

When it became obvious the thermometer was not reading accurately, I used a different analog thermo and found it was at 130, then in the next 15-20 minutes i heated some water up to near boiling and added it to bring it up to 148-152 range, cant tell for sure, not a super detailed analog thermometer).

Oddly it turned out I had to do two batch sparges anyway, preboil gravity was 1.052 at 6.75 gallons, boiled off 1 gallon leaving me with 5.75 gallons, havnt taken a ready of OG yet.

Can you approximate that 1.052*6.75 = 5.75*X , solving for x to find approximate real starting gravity?

Anyway, beer is in fermenter, but bad siphon and going too fast left me at 81 degrees, I cranked up the AC in my cold room and will hopefully be pitching before I have to crash.

 

[stpug]

You were much better dropping to 130 and having to come back up, rather than going too hot for too long. If you take any kind of hit it might be on body and head/foam retention, otherwise it should be normal.

Very close on the approximation equation (just use decimal digits of gravity):
52 * 6.75 = 5.75 * X
X = 61 (i.e. 1.061)

Do you have a tote/bucket/anything that you can put your fermenter in so you can pour cold water around it to help bring the temp down?

 

[TheDarkChemist]

I do not unfortunately, that will be on my list of things to add.

I pitched at midnight before I went to bed, temps were 78 or so, woke up 6 hours later to fermentation kicking off fast. Hopefully I didnt mess up starting it higher but instructions indicated I could use a 80 degree starter ;P