Just made myself a mash tun out of a 2 gallon water cooler (used these directions almost to a T) for my partial mashes. Up to this point I've mashed in an aluminum stock pot and strained the mash through a colander (thus the new tun). I use BeerSmith to calculate my strike water and, for the most part, it has been spot on.
How should moving from an aluminum to a plastic tun affect the temperature of my strike water? Since plastic is not as good a heat conductor as aluminum (right?), I should need to heat the strike water less (right?) because less heat would be lost to the mash tun (right?). My materials science isn't what it used to be.
How should moving from an aluminum to a plastic tun affect the temperature of my strike water? Since plastic is not as good a heat conductor as aluminum (right?), I should need to heat the strike water less (right?) because less heat would be lost to the mash tun (right?). My materials science isn't what it used to be.