Strike Water Temperature / mash temp... temp keeps rising

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Permalink Reply by Hillman on August 20, 2012 at 9:49pm

Did you take a separate reading? This happened to me last time I brewed -- added the grain and the temp didn't drop at all. I used a couple of spare thermometers and they measured the right temp nearer to the surface of the mash. It attenuated very well so it must have hit about the right temp. It didn't seem possible to me that I could add that much mass to the water and not have the temperature drop, so I figure it was a bit of uneven heat around the gauge probe.

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Permalink Reply by Kelly Milligan on August 21, 2012 at 9:32am

Sounds interesting,

There is an exothermic reaction from the enzymes at work which can cause an increase in temp, although usually not on such a small scale brew!

Are these temp measurements from the top of the mash? have you stirred the mash before each reading?

Luckily on our scale we can adjust the mash temp pretty painlessly with a few hundred ml's of cold water, but I'd question whether it's an accurate reading or not first. Ultimately though, if once you've mashed in and been able to stabalize at the correct target mash temp you're pretty sweet anyway. The majority of conversion happens in the first 5minutes, and you would have activated the right proportion of Alpha:Beta when you hit your target mash temp at the start :)

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Permalink Reply by Karl Hayes on August 21, 2012 at 11:41am

Hi. I have come across this problem and it was related to a heavy base on my kettle - not so mysterious if you do the math. I solved it by having a litre or two of cold water handy.

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