Hitting mash temp. with recirculating ebiab

[Powercat]

I have had trouble nailing my mash temperature and needing to add more heat or ice cubes to reach it. What would be the problem of adding my grain when the strike water was 130 F. and gradually raise the temp. to 153 F and maintain my mash temp. It would be similar to a step mash and fairly simple with a recirculating ebiab. I welcome all thoughts.

 

[TexasWine]

The only problem I've personally had doing what you describe is head retention issues. From what I've experienced, if you sit for too long at those lower temps this is effectively a protein rest, which you do not want when you have a grain bill consisting primarily of fully modified malts. To quote Palmer.

"This rest should only be used when using moderately-modified malts, or when using fully modified malts with a large proportion (>25%) of unmalted grain, e.g. flaked barley, wheat, rye, or oatmeal. Using this rest in a mash consisting mainly of fully modified malts would break up the proteins responsible for body and head retention and result in a thin, watery beer."

 

[McKnuckle]

Depending on the heat source, hitting and STOPPING at your target temp might be a challenge. But if you have control over that and don't linger too long at the really low end of sacch. temps (145-148) during the rise, I don't see any other problem with it. You might opt to mash in at a higher temp, though, just to avoid the protein rest issue that TexasWine points out.

 

[RM-MN]

Part of the answer lies in how well your grains are milled. Mine are like corn meal and I've found that conversion happens very quickly, so quickly that I don't have a lot of control over the fermentability. If your grains are milled that fine, you effectively complete conversion at the lowest conversion temp.

Heat your water to the computed strike temp, stir in your grains quickly and thoroughly and put a lid on your kettle. Your temp must be the correct computed temperature, regardless of what your thermometer says.

 

[RedlegEd]

Part of the answer lies in how well your grains are milled. Mine are like corn meal and I've found that conversion happens very quickly, so quickly that I don't have a lot of control over the fermentability. If your grains are milled that fine, you effectively complete conversion at the lowest conversion temp.

Heat your water to the computed strike temp, stir in your grains quickly and thoroughly and put a lid on your kettle. Your temp must be the correct computed temperature, regardless of what your thermometer says.

+1 ^^^ this. Almost all of the brewing tools are pretty accurate computing strike temps when given the volume of mash water, volume of grain, and temperature of the grain before dough-in. Like @RM-MN says, if you dough-in at the right strike temp, thoroughly stir your grain, then put the lid on your mash tun/BIAB pot, you should be good to go. BTW, it doesn't hurt to stir your mash every 15 minutes or so throughout the mash just to make sure. Ed

 

[Onkel_Udo]

Part of the answer lies in how well your grains are milled. Mine are like corn meal and I've found that conversion happens very quickly, so quickly that I don't have a lot of control over the fermentability. If your grains are milled that fine, you effectively complete conversion at the lowest conversion temp.

Heat your water to the computed strike temp, stir in your grains quickly and thoroughly and put a lid on your kettle. Your temp must be the correct computed temperature, regardless of what your thermometer says.

This assumes you have all variables correctly accounted for. This includes your gran temp which up here can vary as much as 25 degrees week to week (yes, that is the extreme) if you store them in the basement. If you are not doing full volume mash, this can be significant (3-5%).

To the OP. Until you get you process dialed in, shoot for 2 f under you target and have 2-4 quarts boiling water on hand. Learn how much it takes to go up or down a degree. Boil 20-30 or so minutes before your first hop addition to boil off the extra liquid.