Ideal Time To Record Mash Temperature

[randyrob]

Hey Guys,

If you could only record one temperature of your mash (e.g. 10 min mark) or the most ideal timeframe (e.g. average of 5-15minute mark)

what would it be?

I'm guessing around the 10 Minute mark myself, after the mash temp has settled out and been mixed evenly.

Does anyone know the most crucial zone?

Cheers Rob!

 

[hughman666]

Hey Guys,

If you could only record one temperature of your mash (e.g. 10 min mark) or the most ideal timeframe (e.g. average of 5-15minute mark)

what would it be?

I'm guessing around the 10 Minute mark myself, after the mash temp has settled out and been mixed evenly.

Does anyone know the most crucial zone?

Cheers Rob!

i do one at 10 minutes and another one at 40 minutes (10 minutes after a mid-way stir at 30 minutes)

 

[Bribie G]

With BIAB and a vigorous rolling stir with the big paint stirrer (sort of like a giant potato masher) the temp is as good as it's going to get, so I measure it then with an electronic stick thermometer and then passively lag the pot.
I usually get about a three degree drop over 90 min mash. If I'm doing a style that calls for 66 then, if I can hit 67 and end up at 64 I'm happy.

 

[blackbock]

I can usually get a pretty good idea of the temperature after about 5 minutes or even less. I would imagine it would be better to take the temperature as soon as possible, because things start to convert (or denature) fairly quickly.

 

[randyrob]

Thanks Guys,

my main motorvation for this is for my automated rig, when i run it unattended i thought it would be nice if i spit out a report at the end of things i missed

i've gone with this for now, unless anyone has any other ideas

10 min in
30 min in
end of mash (usually 60 in my case)
end of mash out

 

[randyrob]

Sorted, ill give it a real life test over the weekend

Thanks again Guys.

 

[Guest Lurker]

Hey Rob. Unfortunately I have to inform you that your mash would not have converted at 22 deg. Maybe you should spend less time learning about electronics and more time learning basic brewing science.

 

[Adamt]

LOL

Rob: You need a bigger display and a temperature-time plot...

Edit: Also, on topic: Maybe run a brew through your mash tun and monitor the temperature yourself to see when things start levelling off. The ideal time will depend on your crush, mash tun, water-malt ratio and stirring technique.

 

[randyrob]

GL, unfortunately for me, i don't have a friend that has a built in PID algorithm that can just pop around on brewdays and control my temperatures much like someone i know on a certain day late last year that could easily walk away while a turkey was being cooked to perfection / accurately temperature controled.

Adam, i've got the ability to plug this back into a computer and plot graphs etc or even do it on the fly but also wanted some cheap and nasty code so at a quick glance i can see what went on while i was snoozing. i could store another 1000 odd temp/time records using the inbuilt eeprom if i saw the need.

oh and as for stirring technique.....

 

[randyrob]

Hey Guys,

Well i had a go at doing some rough data logging of my mash, here were the results:



As you can see the 0 minute temp vs 10 minute temp was almost a 5*c drop while it stabilized

from 10 minutes to 60 minutes 3.4*c drop.


I'll do it again but start recording from 5 minutes and in 5 minute intervals and see how it goes.

Rob.

 

[alowen474]

Hey Guys,

Well i had a go at doing some rough data logging of my mash, here were the results:

View attachment 27651

As you can see the 0 minute temp vs 10 minute temp was almost a 5*c drop while it stabilized

from 10 minutes to 60 minutes 3.4*c drop.


I'll do it again but start recording from 5 minutes and in 5 minute intervals and see how it goes.

Rob.

It would seem you should a, preheat your mashtun and b, insulate it better. You shouldn't be losing that sort of heat.

 

[randyrob]

That was after i bombed the whole mashtun with 25mm thick aeroflex top to bottom!

what is an acceptable level of heat loss during a mash? given this was 3.4*C over 60 Minutes

I have never check my temps at the end of a mash, just usually hit my target temp and forget.

The only problem i can see with my setup is there is a fair bit of headspace in the mashtun, this was a single batch ~6kg of grain in a 70L mashtun

i'm looking at getting a floating sparge manifold made this should help to keep the heat in the mashtun.

Rob.

 

[Kai]

Lots of headspace will definitely result in that sort of drop over the mash time, in my experience. But I don't think it really matters so long as your beers are attenuating to where you want them to.

 

[justsomeguy]

Maybe lay a piece of camping mat on top of the mash.

Should help hold the temp stable over the mash period.


garyd

 

[randyrob]

Hey Guys,

Kai > Some good advice there, thanks for that! Yes my beers do attenuate to a desired level. The aim of this for me is repeatability every now and then i jag a beer i'd really like to be able to knock out again!

Gary > This is what i would usually do, but given it's got a mechanical stirrer & sparge manifold on it, would make it a bit hard to do, once i get my floating sparge manifold sorted it should do simular

I will persist trying to minamise my temp in mash loss and report back

Rob.

 

[Thirsty Boy]

I refuse to be constrained - I (like you it seems) record my temp every 5 minutes and make a graph

mine is in pencil though....

 

[randyrob]

Just a follow up on this thread,

I now take readings every minute and log them, and can produce a live graph of the entire process



no where near as 'cool' as TB using a pencil but it gives me a bit of a better idea how the batch is going.

Rob.

 

[Georgedgerton]

Must say it all looks very professional, however it's still a long way between a sexy graph and a good bottle of beer.

 

[chappo1970]

Just a follow up on this thread,

I now take readings every minute and log them, and can produce a live graph of the entire process

View attachment 29852

no where near as 'cool' as TB using a pencil but it gives me a bit of a better idea how the batch is going.

Rob.

Rob that's awesome stuff and well worth the effort IMO. I like how shows the HLT ramping up to mash in and then bumping up and down while it holds temp, I can't figure out the drop but I am guessing you dropped temp for mash out? Interesting stuff I would interested seeing the graph with the brew day card if you have it?

Cheers

Chappo

What kit/gear did you use to be able to do that data capture? Also a photo of the rest of the rig would be nice.

 

[randyrob]

Interesting stuff I would interested seeing the graph with the brew day card if you have it?

Thanks for the interest. I'm sorry i don't really understand your question, if u could rephrase it for me i'd be happy to answer?

What kit/gear did you use to be able to do that data capture? Also a photo of the rest of the rig would be nice.

Hey Mate,

its pretty basic stuff really, i've got 2 temperature sensors conected to a microcontroller that feeds back information back to the pc

I've opensourced the entire project and will do a write up here on the arduino thread when i get a few things tidied up

for now you can check most of the stuff out here www.halfluck.com


Rob.