10G Round Cooler MLT Pre-Heat Question

Did my first all-grain this weekend and had a question regarding the round cooler MLT's. I personally have the 10G Home Depot version.

I was brewing BM's Centennial Blonde, which calls for a 60 minute mash at 150F.

1. Beersmith called for strike water to be at 165.3F.
2. I heated my strike water to 168, poured into the cooler and capped for about 5 minutes.
3. Opened cooler and stirred until temp was 165.
4. Poured in grain, stirred until thoroughly mixed, checked temp: 148F
5. Added 1/2 qt of boiling water to adjust mash (per BeerSmith calcs)
6. Had 149.8 - 150.5 temperature afterwards (range b/c it varied in different spots)
7. After my 60 minute mash, the mash temp was 148F.

Is this amount of temperature drop normal or did I not pre-heat enough?

There are many variables... there are hot and cold spots in any mash.

#1 you probably needed a few more degrees and minutes to pre-heat the MLT. The following is how I would have done your recipe.

Strike water heated to 180F

Pour into MLT, cap it... sit for 10 minutes.

Open lid, stir, check temp.

When water cools to 164F, mash in....

Stir well, cap it.

5 minutes later, open stir, check temp.

You WILL lose a couple degrees over an hour mash in most cases. My MLT can and will (depending on the MLT temp prior to the preheat) soak up 7-12F from the strike water.

Thanks! I'll definitely keep this in mind for the next round.

This was my first AG, first time using my new kettle, wort chiller, and MLT. I guess I count myself lucky if this is the largest mistake I made. Hit 75% brewhouse efficiency, though, so I guess it wasn't all bad.

We'll see in a few weeks if what actually came out of this is drinkable. I'm most interested to compare this to the PM versions of Centennial blonde I've made.

I use the same cooler form HD. I heat up a few quarts to near boiling temp (never actually measured it, just know it was hot but not quite boiling), and toss it is and close the lid. I let it sit while I heat my strike water. Then, dump it out and add my stike water. I heat my stike water to whatever beer alchemy tells me based on 75F grain temp. I dough in and let rest with lid on for 5-7 minutes, then take temp. Almost always is spot on, sometimes a little warm, so I add cool water. everyone does things different, play around with it untile you find something that works for you.

We are both basically doing the same thing... I just dont like extra steps, so I condensed the method of heating separate water to heat the tun, into just increasing my strike water temp and using that to heat the MLT. Then once it reaches strike temp, in this case I guess it was 165F... mash in. No special heating, draining etc... just heat once, dont drain, mash in.

Thats what I am thinking of doing, however I am going to put the water in my HD MLT at about 185-188 for heating of the MLT, then get the whole shebang down to strike temp.

I have 2 weeks of vacation coming, so will be doing my first AG during week 2...yea, I think I am ready.

I've read, I've listened, time to jump, airborne.