I opted not to brew today on my new Setup - Instead I dialed in all my settings

The goal was to brew today on my new single tier.....It has been 13 months in the making and I was finally done last week. Brewsteel made the stand and I did all the kettles etc. Instead of brewing I decided to go through a brew day cycle (Glad I did I turned the wrong valve many times LOL), Clean the system, and most importantly calculate my vessel dead space Heat Capacity and Heat Transfer Coefficient in beer tools in hopes I can hit my targets going forward. Here is what I came up with

Are these common to your settings?

Mash Tun
Dead Space - 2/3 Cup
Heat Capacity - 7912.8*J/K
Heat Transfer Coefficient - 12.06*W/m2 K

Boil Kettle
Dead Space - .25 Gallon
Heat Capacity - 7912.8*J/K
Heat Transfer Coefficient - 12.06*W/m2 K

I lost 26 Degrees over 65 min - That includes pumping hot water into an ambient vessel. Should I insulate or is it ok to apply heat to the bottom and recirculate???

So, this test is a little deceptive for a couple reasons. First, you say you lost 26 degrees, but in reality you will calculate a strike temp that will be high enough to hit your mash temps. You need to consider your MLT temp and your grain temp when making that calculation. Second, you will lose heat faster with just a water test than you will with a tun full of grain and water.

I can't really comment on your Beer Tools values, since I don't use that tool. I do know that plenty of people do direct fire their MLT and stir it to bring the temp up, so you can certainly do that if you need to try to maintain mash temps. Insulation is always good, so you could try that first.

The test is based on the calcuations set up in beer tools. But I agree Mash will retain heat better....Though this test is for Heat transfer of the vessel to accurately tell you what your strike temp should be to hit your mash temp.. Here the the info

Vessels are containers such as kettles, mash tuns and picnic coolers. Vessels, as with all objects, have a property called “heat capacity”. Heat capacity, naturally, is a measurement of an object’s capacity to store heat. If hot water is poured into a cold glass, the temperature of the water drops and the temperature of the glass rises as the glass “steals” some of the water’s heat. This heat transfer occurs until the temperature of the water and the glass equalize. Objects with a greater heat capacity will absorb greater quantities heat from objects and substanc-
es that come in contact with them.
Vessels that contain hot liquids allowed to sit for extended periods
of time will lose heat to the surrounding air through a process called convection. BeerTools Pro also calculates a constant called the “Heat Transfer Coefficient” that is used to estimate heat loss from vessels during the brewing process.
To be able to calculate these vessel properties and thus more accu- rately predict temperature changes, BeerTools Pro provides a way to calibrate your vessels using a simple procedure:
• Create a new vessel in your recipe or edit an existing vessel by double-clicking the vessel in the list to open the vessel editor.
• Heat a specific volume of water (measure accurately) in a separate vessel to a temperature in the range normally used for mashing (140-160°F or 60-70°C). Make note of the vol- ume in the vessel editor.
• Pour the water into the vessel being tested.
• Check the temperature of the water in the test vessel after 5 minutes to determine vessel heat capacity. Record the tem- perature in the vessel editor.
• Check again after 65 minutes. This measurement determines the vessels heat loss over time. Record your measurement.
• Once the settings are entered in the vessel editor, click “OK”.
For the best results, use volumes and temperatures closest to those that you use in your mashing process to achieve more accurate simulation.

Ok, let me rephrase my answer. That test is fine if the question is "did I calibrate my equipment as I should per Beer Tools?"

SanMarzano said:

I lost 26 Degrees over 65 min - That includes pumping hot water into an ambient vessel. Should I insulate or is it ok to apply heat to the bottom and recirculate???

Click to expand...

Here you seem to lump the results of the test above with a question about whether or not you should insulate. Either way, the answer to "is it ok to apply heat to the bottom and recirculate" is yes.

You have the burner under the mash tun and a pump,if need be you can recirculate during mash.

Do i understand right the there is inky 2/3 cup dead space under the mash ton flawed bottom ? If so that is pretty small and you will be pretty much putting heat on the grain. You want the water temp high when you dough in so the temp comes down to your mash temp. If you do put a little heat to hold temp during mash I woukd stir the whole time to not burn you grain.

I calculated my dead space as whats left in the pot after transfer (Remaining liquid that doesn't get pumped out

I dig the epoxy floor