All Grain question

I'm doing my first all grain brew tomorrow, so I have a question about the temperature for an infusion mash process. When i heat my water to put in my mash tun, I know the temperature is supposed to sit at around 154 degrees once I add my grains, but how hot do i need to heat my water to get it to that target temperature? Is there a set number of degrees that the water will lower to per each pound of grain added?

Grab a program like beersmith or Promash. It'll calculate your strike water temperature for you. I use beersmith now but I've used promash in the past and both get pretty close to the temp you're looking for. I use a 10 gallon rubbermaid MLT and preheat it with hot tap water and usually hit my temps pretty solid. My strike water is generally 10 degrees higher than my target but there's a lot of variables.

okay great. thank you. i'm using the 10 gallon rubbermaid as well. i plan on using 15 lbs of grain on the brew

I use beersmith to do all of my calculations, but even then I still have problems with it. My general rule is that whatever my mash temp is I aim to heat my strike water to about 20 degrees higher then that. This way I have good leverage for when I add cold grains and then when I dump everything into a room temperature mash tun. For you I would aim for 170 and then add half of the water, then the grains, then the rest of the water, stir, and your temperature should be on target.

thanks a lot. like i stated before, this is the first all grain brew i'm doing. pretty excited for it, since i just bought a converted keg brewing pot

Pretty sure ya can get a free 21 day trial version of Beersmith at beersmith.com

Find out these variables if ya can, the weight (mass) of your mash tun, the volume of it, the wt of the grain... Beersmith will want to know all of this when you set it up, you have to set up your equipment and really for the few minutes it takes you can have piece of mind. So then as people suggested preheat your tun... I just put hot water from the tap in, a gallon or so, put the lid on and leave it there while I grind my grain and stuff... let it sit and heat up so the coolness of it doesn't soak up too much 'strike' water heat. Heat up your strike water and get it going, probably 2.5-3 gals, dump out the preheat water in your mash tun, put in your grain and pop a thermometer probe in the grain bed... I keep it covered during this always trying to keep it as warm as possible but it doesn't really matter, just get a stable grain bed temp, put it in beersmith. Then run the infusion tool, put in the variables discussed above and it will tell you your strike temp... My preheated mash tun had about 8.75# of grain yesterday and the temp was about 80 degrees... I put in about 3 gallons of water at 162 to hit 150 and I nailed it, put the top on my Igloo and 60 min later it was 149 in there..

When in doubt......

Keep some clean,cold water or ice in the fridge. Keep a pot of boiling water on the stove.

BrewMate and Brewtarget are free

Keep in mind its easier to cool down your mash than it is to heat it (if its in a plastic cooler).

Exactly! I can't remember how many times I've 'stirred' 5 degrees out of the mash ;-)

I used this to calculate my temperatures before I got Beersmith:

http://www.brewheads.com/batch.php

It worked very well.

come to think of it.. i use brewsmith all the time but i've never really taken the time to check the temp of my mash.. i should do that this weekend when i'm brewing.. my efficiencies (sp??) are usually pretty good, though maybe slight variations have to do with the temp.. i could be trusting the mash in temp of brewsmith higher to bring the grain/mash the right temp a little much.. does anybody who use brewsmith have to change the temperature much from its recommendation much?

Another example:

Yesterday I built a 5 gallon batch. In my 5 gallon cylindrical tun I added 3.5 gallon of water at 176F and 12 pounds of grain at room temperature. My temperature after doughing in and then waiting 10 minutes ( I always wait ten minutes to allow the masses to reach steady state) was 156F. I shoot for 155F+. I do not like 155F minus.

Then two - 2 gallon sparges at 185F each. This brings my grain bed to 168F.

I have arrived at these temps and volumes with experience and keeping notes.

As the slogan goes - "your mileage may vary" - Good Luck, Mike