Conversion Failure...or not?

[SoCal Surfer]

Alright kids. I brewed a 5 gallon batch of IPA today. This was a batch of firsts.

1. I used 1.66 lbs of wheat malt. I never use wheat malt unless it's a hef.
2. I crushed just a tad bit finer than usual.
3. My mash was thicker than I usually mash at 1 quart per lb.

So this is what happened. I preheated my cooler mash tun. I doughed in with 175 degree water and hit my target temp of 152. I went to home depot to buy guy stuff. I came home about 2 hours later and did an starch test. Black....fail. temp now 146. I added some 180 degree water and brought the temp back up to 152 for another 30 minutes. My buddy tells me to take my wort from the top and not from the spigot as I was doing before. full conversion at the top. It didn't taste too sweet. I mashed out and all that and am waiting for fermentation.

What the hell is with the starch test giving me a positive for starch? Did it convert or am I f'd? Has anybody had this problem or anything like this. I have never had a conversion problem in over 10 years of brewing. Actually, I rarely even do a starch test. Any insight would be appreciated because I am p'd the f off!
SoCal

[Ozwald]

My only thought is with that thick of a mash you could've had problems getting the whole grain bed converted. Pre-RIMS/HERMS, I would periodically stir thicker mashes just to make sure everything was going even & smooth. With a recirculating system, it's getting done for you.

[SoCal Surfer]

yah. The recipe I was following called for a thick mash. I'll not try that again....or go recirculate.

[Ozwald]

Regardless of what a recipe calls for, you can use any mash thickness you desire. I find it's more dependent on the system than the recipe. If your system works best at 1.4:1, adjust the recipe to fit your system.

Recirculating systems are the way to go. I loved my HERMS & if it weren't for some massive upgrades, I'd still be using it. I had to go RIMS to get the new equipment to work, but honestly when I have everything switched out from the old system, I'm pretty sure I'm going back to HERMS.