HELP! Scorched Mash!

So my heat stick scorched my mash a little. I had to stop at 125F. I'm boiling water to try to bring the temp up. What should I do?!

Thanks!

 

I like where you're going. I'm assuming it's time to decoct?

 

I think my thermometer's broken...after two decoctions it was still readying 120. So in a fit of desperation I pulled some wort right off the top (~2 gallons worth) and brought it to a boil. While it was bubbling, my thermometer never made it past 180F. I then remembered that I have a candy thermometer. BINGO.

So I added the runnings back to the mash, which is now at 156. So who knows what the fuck I've done to this beer?

 

It is/was/will be(?) a rye IPA. I was hoping to mash at 150 after doing a beta glucanase rest at 110. When I started heating it with my heat stick, it scorched. I really don't have any idea what it actually got to with the first couple decoctions after realizing that my thermometer did me wrong. At this point, I'm just hoping it's not ridden with tannins.

It's been quite a long mash by now (2+ hours) so maybe it will still be fairly fermentable? Sigh...

 

Well, at this point I'm calling it 'Rye Bother?' Who knows if it will, in fact, be beer. It's been a comedy of errors. My efficiency was way down, my collected volume was down, I missed a hop addition...I have absolutely no idea what temperature(s) my mash went through. All I know is there is currently an unsettling amount of protein in it. I've got a SMaSH planned for Thursday and I'm anxious for something more familiar and straightforward.

Also, if anyone is a heat stick/electric brewer, can you chime in on how to avoid scorching the mash?

 

I was attempting to add heat to the mash without decocting or thinning the mash. Maybe it's not a possibility. There was recently a thread questioning how to do a multi-step mash in a plastic cooler. I could be misremembering (or misinterpreting), but I thought using a heat stick was suggested as a viable option. Maybe not. Apparently not...c'est le vie.

 

I've got nothing ready for the other fermenter, so I'll let it ride. There was no hint of smokiness in the wort. I'm not optimistic, but what the hell. I already put in the time brewing it. Might as well let it sit for a couple weeks and see what happens.

My OG was a hilariously unexpected 1.089 (all calculators put it around 1.062). So I'm guessing there's a lot of unfermentables in the wort. But I'm curious as to what will happen.

 

I was stirring pretty vigorously with the heat stick, trying to disperse the heat evenly. Then I smelled smoke...and yeah...brew day ruined. We do this to learn though, right? At least that's part of it.

 

I've been looking into across the interwebs. More 'neigh' than 'yay' when it comes to heating the mash directly with a heat stick.

But it's got me thinking...I've already got an immersion chiller...a pump and some silicone tubing and I've got enough equipment for a mighty basic HERMS system...I was hoping to get a mill soon, but I'll be brewing inside for at least the next two years, so it might make a lot of sense.

What I really should do is stop fucking around with 'improvements' and just accept the fact that it takes a while to heat water on my stove, but it gets there, and doing single infusion batch sparges has yielded good enough results so far.

 

Yeah it'll have its place. But heat stick is for strike/sparge water only for now.