Simple BIAB Calculator Question

Per this calculator:
http://www.brewheads.com/strike.php

I'm trying to find my strike water temp (which has been a big problem for me so far). I'm using this calculator and have 2 questions:

1) What is the "standard" temp for grains? I've read 72 in some places...Is this correct?

2) Under "thermal loss of vessel," I'm assuming because I'm doing BIAB and heating all of my water at once, I don't really have a thermal loss of temp due to the pot since it's being completed heated up by the water anyway...right? Would I put in a "0" in this field? The default says "3" if you don't know.

Thanks.

There is no standard grain temp. Your grain temp is going to be the ambient temperature of the air in the grain storage location...I keep my grain in my basement where it's 60 degrees.

You certainly loose heat from the pot walls by thermal wicking. When I do BIAB My water temp drops from 167-160 during my 15 minute sparge from heat loss from the vessel.

For the grain temperature you can push a thermometer into the grain and see what it is. I keep my grain in a bucket on the basement floor. The floor is colder than the air temperature this time of year so the grain is lower than ambient.

If you wrap your pot with towels during the mash you will lose less than if uncovered. If your brew and pot are small enough you can preheat your oven to mash temperature and put the pot in there and it will keep the temperature more stable.

Jayhem said:

You certainly loose heat from the pot walls by thermal wicking. When I do BIAB My water temp drops from 167-160 during my 15 minute sparge from heat loss from the vessel.

Click to expand...

Huh? Not quite sure what you mean by that. 15 minute sparge?
OP, set your mash tun thermal mass to 0 for calculating when you BIAB.

You will find that most of the brewers at which is a dedicated BIAB site,calculate only about a 2 C degree drop when using room temp grain.

Good advice Lylo.

tektonjp said:

Huh? Not quite sure what you mean by that. 15 minute sparge?
OP, set your mash tun thermal mass to 0 for calculating when you BIAB.

Click to expand...

When I do BIAB I mash for 60 minutes at 153F and then sparge for 15 min @ 165F by soaking the bag in the sparge water and then draining for 30 minutes.

Jayhem said:

When I do BIAB I mash for 60 minutes at 153F and then sparge for 15 min @ 165F by soaking the bag in the sparge water and then draining for 30 minutes.

Click to expand...

Ah, I was assuming since you said BIAB that you were doing a one pot thing. You're batch sparging with a separate vessel. Got it.

Are you doing a full volume mash? I only lose @ 2-3 degrees F when adding grain (12-15lbs) to the 9-10 gallons of water in my 15 gallon aluminum kettle. Of course there are other factors such as ambient air temp, wind, etc, if you brew outside. I brew inside where it's warm and there is no wind (I'm electric, boogie oogie oogie oogie). So, YMMV.