January 12, 2024 - 1:09am
Brod and Taylor proofer not maintaining set temperature
Hi, this is my first time posting here.
- I was trying to make Rus brot’s thermophilic starter which required temps of about 50-52C. Since I knew it might be a tad warmer from reviews, I set it at proofer mode to 49C. I was giving it a stir at the 12hr point and guess what, my mash was at 63C and was saccharifying! Why is it like this and at what temperature should I set it to reach 50C? I kept the proofer under a blanket to provide insulation, but that didn’t seem to help.
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These proofers are arranged to compensate their temperature so that it will be correct in the bowl of dough, even though the heat source is at the bottom. By covering it with insulation you have probably thrown off this compensation.
I don't know if the same compensation is applied for those high temperatures, but I would expect that insulating the proofer would likewise raise the temperature. If you want to keep using the insulation you will just have to experiment with lower temperature settings.
Insulating the box may be counterproductive. I assume you have your container on the rack and not on the bottom plate?
I've had a B&T for about a month and am impressed with its temp control thus far. I've notived that its temps seem to swing more when fermenting smaller, low-mass loads. Sounds like that may be a factor here.
by placing the starter in a water bath inside the proofer. Easily done floating the starter/ mash Inside a container of water. That might help buffer the temperature swings for small samples.
Did you ever manage to get your proofer to work with rusbrot's recipes? I tried to make clas starter, set temp to 102f in the night and in the morning the starter was at 132f. Not sure how to proceed from here.