ProMash Mash Designer

I am thinking about attempting to brew this next weekend. My shoulder has pretty much healed. I can't lift heavy weights, but my wife will be able to help me with that. So the unlimited possibilites of what to brew are just flodding me But unlike my first AG this one I'm not going to put in 5 pounds of wheat this time .... (sounds like I should put a little in for better head retension)... think I'm going to do that smoke porter actually.... not completely sure yet....

My question is about the Mash Designer of ProMash. Keeping things simpler this time I am going to still do an infusion and batch. How acurate is the strike temperatures of the designer? I know several people have said that everyone seems to have a problem with strike temperatures the first time around, but I did not have ProMash last time... so in playing with it I am trying to figure out if I should shoot for the sricke tempterature that it tells me to shoot for or do I need to go a little higher?

It really depends on your grain temp and how accurate you have the thermal mass calculated. Here is a link to calculating your thermal mass.

http://www.brewboard.com/index.php?showtopic=32180

If your really worried about hitting it dead..... heat your strike water to the temp promash gives you... then add all your grain to your mash tun and add the water to it mixing and checking the temp. When you hit your desired temp... stop adding water. It should be close to the amount of water you were going to start with. If its not exactly the amount its not a huge deal. As long as your sorta close, mash thickness is not super important. Hitting your desired temp is more important then the mash thickness unless your WAY off.

What I do is set the thermal coefficient of the mashtun to 0.0 and add my strike water to the cooler before the grains (I heat it up 6-8 degrees higher than the Promash calculated strike temp)...it's usually accurate within a degree or two.