Preheating cooler mash tun

How important is this..?

Could I get away with slightly elevating my initial strike water temp to account for thermal mass of cooler and heat loss..?

Would using a hair dryer be enough to heat the cooler.?

I'm doing my first AG this weekend and I'm a little nervous for some reason so I'm probably over thinking the whole thing.

It is very important. When I did my first AG beer I didn't pre heat my tun and I spent my time chasing the mash temp.
What I learned is to do both. Pre-heat your tun with hot water and also over shoot your strike temperature. The whole point is to have the tun absorb enough heat that when the grains are added the mash and the tun are at equal Librium and you will hit your desired mash with minimal heat loss.
By the way- I over shoot my desired strike temp and then let it cool until it is right on before adding the grains.

By trial and error, I've discovered that my strike water needs to be 4F warmer to compensate for my non-preheated 10G Igloo cooler. Example, from tonight's brew:

Heat water to 170F, add to cooler.
After 5 min, temp stable at 166. Stir in grains.
After 5 min, tem stable at 153

Not sure why you'd want to mess around with preheating your tun AND overheating your strike water...pick one or the other, and be done with it.

FWIW, my experience above translates into a thermal mass of 0.100 for my cooler...

Bike N Brew said:

Not sure why you'd want to mess around with preheating your tun AND overheating your strike water

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Because it works?
I not only nail my mash temps, my tun holds heat much better when I do both.

Thanks for the responses guys.

That was going to be my next question, which to add first the water
or the grain but it sounds like you add the grain to the water or does it matter..

Reidman said:

Thanks for the responses guys.

That was going to be my next question, which to add first the water
or the grain but it sounds like you add the grain to the water or does it matter..

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I've always added the grain to the water. I don't think it's a good idea to add the dry into the bottom of your tun. The grain and flour could clog your false bottom or whatever you are using.

RichBrewer said:

I've always added the grain to the water. I don't think it's a good idea to add the dry into the bottom of your tun. The grain and flour could clog your false bottom or whatever you are using.

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Ok, thanks RichBrewer.

Oh one other thing. The grains I got from AHB are already cracked. I noticed in the packaging there's a sediment. Is this normal and does it get poured into the tun with the grains..? You mentioned flour, is that what this is?

RichBrewer said:

Because it works?

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No doubt. But why mess with two different variables (how much to pre-heat the tun and how much to overheat the strike) when doing a little more of either would eliminate the other? Preheating the tun and overheating your strike water are two techniques to solve the same problem ... absorption of heat by the mash tun, to get it to the mash equilibrium temp.

RichBrewer said:

I not only nail my mash temps, my tun holds heat much better when I do both.

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Your mash tun doesn't care where the heat came from...if you did more of either (preheat tun or overheat strike) and dropped the other you'd get the same results.

Get a system and use it. I like pre-heating because it removes the variable of ambient temperature; I can have the same strike-water procedures if it's 40° or 90°. But, last time I forgot to pre-heat and still hit my mash temps balls-on. I suspect some coolers will lose more heat initially than others, too.

But, figure out a system and stick with it. For me, pre-heating and then heating my strike water 2° hotter than BeerSmith tells me to works perfectly.

As to the grain question, I add a little water, then some grain, mix, some more water, some more grain, mix, and do that like three times. Works for me, it's all fully integrated.

the_bird said:

As to the grain question, I add a little water, then some grain, mix, some more water, some more grain, mix, and do that like three times. Works for me, it's all fully integrated.

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I do the same and it works well for me. I preheat with a couple gallons of 170 degree water.

I use a strike temp of about 180. The cooler quickly absorbs heat and gets me down to 170 in about 5 minutes. This is usually the calculate strike temp the software gives me for my grain bill. If I need it lower, i'll just stir with the lid open. This method keeps you from wasting hot water in the case of preheating and dumping the water.

Reidman said:

Ok, thanks RichBrewer.

Oh one other thing. The grains I got from AHB are already cracked. I noticed in the packaging there's a sediment. Is this normal and does it get poured into the tun with the grains..? You mentioned flour, is that what this is?

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Dump all of the contents into the tun. If the grains are crushed properly you should have a little bit of flour mixed in with the grains. It sounds like yours are fine.

the_bird said:

Get a system and use it.

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I agree 100%. The important thing is that it works and that you can brew consistently.

Adding the grain to the water is MUCH easier then the other way around - the voice of experience

I over shoot my strike temp add all of the mash water close the lid and wait, within 10 minutes its usually down to my desired strike temp. I dump all of the grain in at once, level the top off and let it soak for a minute or two then stir, I never have any problems with dough balls using this method. I used to dump a little grain stir dump a little more and stir and I always had dough balls, letting it rest for a couple of minutes seems to get the grain saturated and the dough balls just don't form.