Accounting for Water Temp drop when adding grain

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adamjackson

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So, let's say you have 8 pounds of pale malt. Intended temperature of the mash is 154.

Well, how hot do you get your water above 154 to ensure the room temperature grains don't lower the temp too much? I hope that makes sense. Is there a calculator for pounds of grain + their temp + intended mash temp so you can be sure you don't get too low?
 
I have used a couple of calculators and ended up not hitting my target mash temps so I quit bothering with those. I think the amount of insulation and the type of container has a great effect on the temp, so for me personally, It was just doing a few batches, recording my temps, and adjusting my mash in temps from there. I also stick my mash tun in the sun while my water is heating to get it nice and warm before mashing in, unless its a hot day, then I make sure its in the shade.
 
BeerSmith makes this adjustment automatically. I just print out the recipe and follow the instructions.

Beersmith is a good investment.

Calc's the water temp for you, adjusts batch size, converts to extract if you want, stores recipe and notes.
I run it while brewing and use the timer for the mash and the boil.
Lets you know when it's time for each addition.
 
Beersmith is a good investment.

Calc's the water temp for you, adjusts batch size, converts to extract if you want, stores recipe and notes.
I run it while brewing and use the timer for the mash and the boil.
Lets you know when it's time for each addition.

This, buy it. Its on black friday sale still i think still at like 25% off.
 
BeerSmith makes this adjustment automatically. I just print out the recipe and follow the instructions.

Yeah, BeerSmith does it, but I have to take their numbers and add 2° (and then I'm usually balls-on). I'm sure there's a way I could adjust. It's always going to be somewhat dependent on your system and processes (cooler MLT versus a keggle, how quickly you stir in your grain, whether you preheat or not, etc.) But, BeerSmith will help in this regard and is a great investment for all sorts of reasons.
 
the_bird said:
Yeah, BeerSmith does it, but I have to take their numbers and add 2° (and then I'm usually balls-on). I'm sure there's a way I could adjust. It's always going to be somewhat dependent on your system and processes (cooler MLT versus a keggle, how quickly you stir in your grain, whether you preheat or not, etc.) But, BeerSmith will help in this regard and is a great investment for all sorts of reasons.

Beersmith seems like a bit of a pain to get your equipment profile dialed in on.
That seems to be the general opinion on beersmith's site also.
I think most people do like you did and just learn how to adjust what it tells you.

I'm going to add another mash tun so I'll see how it does with a five gallon tun when it is big enough.
I bet that between the lack of dead space that I have in a ten gallon tun and filling it with hot tap water ahead of time it hits pretty close.
 
I use the sparge pal app for my iPhone, it has been extremely accurate for me. Not bad for a free app.
 
I keep hearing Beersmith again and again. I use beer alchemy. It doesn't get much love on this site I guess.

I'm also a mac user.

Get a rope... :eek:

It has, also, to due with what you're using for a mash tun and where you're mashing (temperature there too). I find that my target strike water temp can be anything from 5-10F above mash temp depending on variables. I also find it's easier, for me, to tweak the temp once I've mashed in (and it's stabilized) due to what I mash in. Having a keggle mash tun, on a burner, means it's pretty easy to increase the mash temp. Stirring to get it to drop is more work, but also pretty easy.

I've found that if I enter the correct information into BeerSmith, I get either the correct strike temp, or damned close to it.
 
adamjackson said:
I keep hearing Beersmith again and again. I use beer alchemy. It doesn't get much love on this site I guess.

I'm also a mac user.

Well I use Beersmith because I kept hearing it over and over. Great program.
I've never heard of beer alchemy, but then again I don't go to those seedy places where Mac users are free to be themselves and do whatever it is that Mac users do when around other Mac users!
 
:off:
I believe there's a Mac version of BeerSmith available too.

Yep. There's a Mac version. I googled comparisons and hbt had tons of threads from Mac users saying alchemy was better.

Now, all I hear is beer smith is better. So confusing. I'll switch but need to run the demo for a few days to see if its worth it.
 
:off:

Yep. There's a Mac version. I googled comparisons and hbt had tons of threads from Mac users saying alchemy was better.

Now, all I hear is beer smith is better. So confusing. I'll switch but need to run the demo for a few days to see if its worth it.

You get 21 days to test it out before needing to purchase a license, or remove it. Should be plenty of time to run through it and decide. It was for me, back on the older (1.x) release. The current release is much better.
 
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