So...you're saying that after adding the grain the temp drops 10F? If so, it makes sense as the grain enters the strike water at a much cooler temperature (room) and quickly absorbs water...that happens in cooking all the time. I'm new to all grain with my GF and have brewed extracts and cooked wort forever. I wonder what the impact is on my cooking with the GF with this kind of swing variable. I've only done four recipes thus far and only half (two) have been in target gravity range. Certainly my efficiency is off and I have to measure better next time as I have the gear and metrics to do so. I'm holding off for the GF Connect - more so because I'm a gadgets guy. Nonetheless, the beer I've cooked thus far has been pretty good and I'm sure will improve. Observations, metrics and notes are always made. It's a fascinating and rewarding hobby all the way around and I'm looking forward to upping my game and the lifelong learning that's part of it all. (Some side notes and thoughts included lol)
That is correct. You can use a calculator like on Brew365 for strike temp, I used to all the time back in the cooler MLT days, works like a charm then and now too. BUT, ignore the GF controller temp display and take the temp of the grain bed after you thoroughly dough in. Take multiple places and you will see you hit mash temp. I typically heat my strike +10F higher than mash temp.
Never tried measuring the grain bed temp in the middle. When I add my grains and stir like heck, if I started out 10 degrees high at mash in, it always looked like I was overshooting by 6 or 7 degrees so I started gradually reducing the mash-in temp so as not to overshoot. My beers ended up finishing drier and at a lower FG than they were supposed to and I am now wondering if it was because I was mashing at a lower temp than what I thought I was and what was indicated (which would reduce the non-fermentable sugars). I may try starting out 10 degrees high on mash-in and mashing 2 or 3 degrees higher than what I want, or stir the mash for longer than I have been trying to achieve a more uniform grain bed temperature before starting the timer.
Yup. Measure the grain bed as I noted above, and ignore the controller readout. As the recirc goes on the readout is corrected in short time. You can also measure the recirc mash water after a few minutes, though not sure this really offers any advantage -it initially will read higher than grain bed temp as the first part of the recirc contains mostly the water held below the grain basket, which is at the strike temp, and displayed on the controller.