Mashing Questions

[Homercidal]

Ok, I did my first AG brew on Sat/Sun and I'm still learning things. I used my homebuilt cool MLT and copper manifold. Here's what happened:

Pre-heated MLT.
Calculated strike water volume and temp using beersmith.
Mash-in temp was 155.5F after stirring and letting thermometer rest a couple of minutes.
After an hour, stirring every 10-15 minutes, temp was at 154F and I drained wort into kettle.

Now, my question is: Should I mash out, or not? I believe that mashing out means to add 170 degree water to the MLT and drain again. Do you let the grains steep? Do you stir?

How do you calculate efficiency?

 

[HairyDogBrewing]

Mash out is heating the grain to about 168F to stop enzyme activity and fully dissolve sugars.
Sparging is rinsing sugar from the grain.

There has been extensive (sometimes heated) discussion about both of these.

I mash with 3 gal strike water to 9 lbs of grain to get about 2 gal "first runnings".
Then add about 2.5 gal sparge water at 185 and stir, wait 5 min and drain.
Add about 2.5 gal more sparge water at 170 and stir, wait 5 min and drain.

For me this yields about 80% brewhouse efficiency, so I'm happy with my process. YMMV.

Beersmith has efficiency calculators.
I use the recipe page and adjust the average efficiency box until the projected OG matches my actual OG.

 

[Homercidal]

How do I do this in Beersmith? I'm still trying to figure out some of the tools. I spent too much time getting my equipment ready and didn't get a chance to use Beersmith until I was already heating water. But it really helped me get my temps right!

 

[jacksonbrown]

In the Mash section of BS there is a button that says CHOOSE. That'll let you pick your style of mash. I typically use Single Infusion, Mash Out because I don't like the numbers it gives me for the Batch Sparge option. But you just take the Mash Out quantity and split that in to two equal parts and you've got a batch sparge.