I did a Rye IPA recipe the other day. I’m still a newbie (Just under a year brewing) and this was my first try at grain bill with Rye. The Rye was about 21% of the bill. I use a Brewer’s Edge Mash & Boil electric system. The issue was, at about 15 minutes left in the boil the unit shut off with an E4 error. A safety error to keep the element from overheating. I couldn’t clear it. I probably should have just tossed in the rest of the hops and called it a day but I transferred to my stainless pot and used a propane burner to finish the boil.
Both the M&B and the stainless pot were scorched. I’d never had that happen before and have several brews under my belt with the M&B. My thought is it had something to do with the Rye. Am I correct in my thinking? If so what are some things I can do to prevent this? I’ve heard the suggestion of a step mash. Is that reasonable?
I could see a situation where the wort was recirculating in the mash and there was a gummed up “stuck mash” that had the effect of running the machine dry under the false bottom and resulting in the scorching, but if it happened when boiling without re-circulating and happened in the electric kettle and the propane fired kettle, it really sounds unusual.
So I’m still thinking out loud for answers. In the electric kettle it happened within a couple of minutes of dropping in the immersion chiller. If the copper rested right over the element I wonder if it could have concentrated heat there and scorched? In the propane fired kettle my hop basket is too tall to hang in the pot so it rests on the bottom. The scorch pattern looks suspiciously like it follows where I moved the hop basket around. Again, I wonder if the heat concentrated there? I’ve never used that hop basket or the chiller in the propane kettle before.
