Am I good to go? (1st AG)

[delta9]

Yes, I was shocked it dropped that much, the tun was insulated (with laminate floor underlay) with a arctic sleeping bag fit for mount everest

Will try and improve it for next time, with a roll of that insulating foil stuff. And no I didn't preheat it, will do that next time.

Do you think this is why the OG was a bit low? Thanks mate

[coatesg]

Pre-heating makes a lot of difference - you could try whacking the mash liquor in the tun at a higher temperature and let it warm the tun (and cool down towards strike temp). You may need to do a bit of transferring out and putting some hotter water in if it drops too much. If it's too high once stable, then splashing it around (eg pouring it around the walls of the tun) will help drop the temp a bit quicker.

[quiff]

It could be a big reason as to why the OG was low. Only the sugars that convert at low mash temps will have been gathered effectively leaving lots behind in the grain. You will probably find that the FG will be quite low as few unfernentable sugars will have been converted. This will probably be quite a dry beer because of that but hey, it's still beer!!
If you continue to struggle to hold mash temp after trying the various suggestions, you could mash in with a few less jugs of liquor at the beginning and top up with hot water every half hour or so to bring it back up to temp.

[Graham]

jethrogump
Rob Moline

Wow! There's a blast from the past!

How are you doing Rob?

Graham Wheeler