New mash tun

[drat12]

Hi guys. Did a search on this and didn't find an answe, so I thought I'd ask. I've brewed several all grain batches, but have never used my Rubbermaid 10 gallon mash tun.

When I pre-heat the mash tun wi hot water, do I use that water for the mash, or do I have to dump it?

 

[Flipadelphia]

Hi guys. Did a search on this and didn't find an answe, so I thought I'd ask. I've brewed several all grain batches, but have never used my Rubbermaid 10 gallon mash tun.

When I pre-heat the mash tun wi hot water, do I use that water for the mash, or do I have to dump it?

Either. Just do whatever it takes to get to your desired strike temp, and do it the same way consistently every time.

 

[DoWBrewer]

I add water to the mash hotter than needed. I let it sit for 10-mins and add a bucket heater. It takes some practice a get the differential just right.

Sent from my HTC One using Home Brew mobile app

 

[drat12]

Thought I'd share my experience from yesterday and people can add some ideas/helpful hints or maybe this might help someone new to this.

So, I started bright And early and had 1 1/2 gallons of approx 200 degree water to preheat the tun. Let that sit about 10 to 15 min while I heated the mash water. Dumped the 1 1/2 gallons, added the grist and added about 8 quarts of my starting mash water. Took temp and saw that it was going too high, so added 2 quarts of room temp RO water. Took temp again and was too low. I then kept chasing to get my temp up to 152, but was fighting a losing battle, only getting to 150.

I figured I'd keep it there for the 60 minute period. Check after 60 and it was down to 145. So, now I'm thinking, "stepped". Added what was supposed to be my mash out water and got it up to 160. I figured that was as good as I was going to get (much thinner mash than I wanted), so I went ahead and let it sit for another 15 at temp.

At that point, I just started with the traditional sparge and the rest of the day was uneventful.

Thoughts from the more experienced mashtun owners?


Future considerations -
- maybe I'll just heat the full mashtun with water hotter than the expected mash water calculations and let the tun heat up that way, doughing in and stirring to bring down if needed. Plus, it's easier to bring temp down than to bring it up, especially if trying to keep a certain thickness to your mash.
-definitely need a better thermometer, I have an instant read that I bought some time ago, but haven't used. Time to break that out on the next brew.

 

[truvr]

Took temp and saw that it was going too high, so added 2 quarts of room temp RO water. Took temp again and was too low. I then kept chasing to get my temp up to 152, but was fighting a losing battle, only getting to 150.

...

Future considerations -
- maybe I'll just heat the full mashtun with water hotter than the expected mash water calculations and let the tun heat up that way, doughing in and stirring to bring down if needed

This pretty much describes my first AG attempt as well. The one change I made to easily fix it was suggested by Yooper in another thread. It is also your first future consideration.

I now pre-preheat my MT with hot tap water while heating my strike water. I heat the strike water to about 25 degrees higher than my strike temp. Dump the pre-preheat water and add the strike water. Stir until the temp drops to strike temp. Then, finally, add the grain and stir it in. Doing this I generally hit my mash temp to within a degree. Close the cooler and cover the lid with a blanket. On the last batch I lost less than a degree over the hour.

I still only have a few AG batches under my belt but so far this method is working great. Cheers!

 

[brewkinger]

Here is my .02:

Go with future consideration #1
The wise and benevolent Yooper taught me this.
Start with all your mash water heated up to NO HOTTER than 180* (200 degree water can warp and crack the inside of a plastic cooler mash tun)
Then wait 10-15 minutes and the temp will drop down (as the tun is preheated) at which point you can dough in (usually around 168-170 for my setup)
Stir like it owes you money (as quoted from Madam Yooper) until you get to mash temps. This is one of those "tweaks" that you have to figure out for YOUR system.

 

[drat12]

This pretty much describes my first AG attempt as well. The one change I made to easily fix it was suggested by Yooper in another thread. It is also your first future consideration.

I now pre-preheat my MT with hot tap water while heating my strike water. I heat the strike water to about 25 degrees higher than my strike temp. Dump the pre-preheat water and add the strike water. Stir until the temp drops to strike temp. Then, finally, add the grain and stir it in. Doing this I generally hit my mash temp to within a degree. Close the cooler and cover the lid with a blanket. On the last batch I lost less than a degree over the hour.

I still only have a few AG batches under my belt but so far this method is working great. Cheers!

Interesting. About using hot tap water first, and then the heated strike water after dumping that hot tap water. That is a good idea also.

 

[drat12]

Here is my .02:

Go with future consideration #1
The wise and benevolent Yooper taught me this.
Start with all your mash water heated up to NO HOTTER than 180* (200 degree water can warp and crack the inside of a plastic cooler mash tun)
Then wait 10-15 minutes and the temp will drop down (as the tun is preheated) at which point you can dough in (usually around 168-170 for my setup)
Stir like it owes you money (as quoted from Madam Yooper) until you get to mash temps. This is one of those "tweaks" that you have to figure out for YOUR system.

Good to know about the physical limitations of the plastic. Definitely don't want a short-lived mash tun!

 

[DoWBrewer]

I just switched to new mashtun yesterday and had the same experience. Every equipment and process change takes some adjustments no matter how experienced the brewer.

Sent from my HTC One using Home Brew mobile app

 

[reefriot]

Ive always just struck my water at 168 and add grain , stir add more water till you get the desired thickness of your mash. Cover and it can mash for hours and always holds at 152 degrees. If i want to raise temp i use a solar pump atatched to my old imersion chiller. Chiller sits in hot strike water and i recirculate my wort and adjust HLT water till i get my desired temp. The pumps are pretty cheap and work great running off a computer power supply. I recirculate for 30-60 mins and this aids in a clearer wort.

 

[drat12]

After listening to the advice on here (and thank you everyone!) I really think where I went wrong was trying to regulate the temp before I added all the strike water. Those few quarts of room temp water really hurt me, I think.

 

[drat12]

Only other question I have is, if the temp of the mash is too high initially, can you "stir it like it owes you money" before those higher temp sugars (the less fermentable ones) are produced? I'm a bit worried about the mash being too high at the beginning...

 

[Hello]

One thing that I noticed, unless I misread, was you pre-heated your tun but then dumped that water, added grain (grist) and then added water. Most videos, instructions, and people I've spoken to have added some of their strike water (is this the right term?) then grain then the rest of their strike water.

What I am also reading is people are saying "until grain is desired consistency" but I thought you had a pre-set amount of water that you'd add to your grain. That comes out, you add your sprage water, then you vorlauf, add eventually get to your preboil volume, which is also predetermined.

So for you OP, it sounds like you know where things went wrong, especially adding so much room temp RO water. I'm not sure I will do better with my first AG attempt though.

 

[Dustinj]

My process is while I'm bringing my strike water to temp. I'll boil a gallon of water and throw it in the tun (72qt Coleman extreme). Let it sit until my strike water is ready. DUMP THE GALLON. It's still hot but I have no idea how hot. If I want to mash at 158 I bring my water to 168 with 80 deg grain. It usually will hit 160 and come down to desired temp as I'm stirring. Shoot high, it will cool off quickly and yes stir the crap out of it to lose heat. A few minutes will not hurt unless your at 180 or more. It takes a lot more water to go up in temp than down. Fill the mash tun with all of your strike water. If you put the grain in then fill with water your likely to get dough balls. Stir as you pour the grain in at a steady pace. Take your grain temp every time and notate alongside it on your brew sheet. After a few ag batches you'll figure out how much the grain temp effects your strike water temp.

Happy brewing

 

[JimRausch]

Here is my .02:

Go with future consideration #1
The wise and benevolent Yooper taught me this.
Start with all your mash water heated up to NO HOTTER than 180* (200 degree water can warp and crack the inside of a plastic cooler mash tun)
Then wait 10-15 minutes and the temp will drop down (as the tun is preheated) at which point you can dough in (usually around 168-170 for my setup)
Stir like it owes you money (as quoted from Madam Yooper) until you get to mash temps. This is one of those "tweaks" that you have to figure out for YOUR system.

Got to LOVE the Yooper quotes!

 

[BridgewaterBrewer]

Agree with others, it helps a lot to preheat with a few gallons of hot tap water while heating the strike water. I use one of these online mash calculators and it always works well for me. http://www.brewersfriend.com/mash/
http://www.rackers.org/calcs.shtml
http://www.thescrewybrewer.com/p/brewing-tools-formulas.html#rst
I might aim a degree or two high with strike water and let it cool down to target strike temp to make sure mash tun is completely preheated. Alternatively, you could skip the tap water preheat and heat your stike water say 10 or 20 degrees hotter, add to mash tun and let it cool down to strike temp, but you risk warping a cooler mash tun.
Also, the Rest calculators at these sites will tell you how much boiling water to add if your temp is low. I find it takes a lot more boiling water to raise and a lot less cold water to drop than you would think, so be careful with adding cool/cold water.

 

[drat12]

Any suggestions on the amount of hot tap water to heat a 10 gallon mashtun? Like 3 gallons, or is that more than is necessary?

 

[BridgewaterBrewer]

I would use at least 3 gal (especially if what you're adding is cooler than strike temp) but I haven't tried enough vols to know for sure.

 

[VonAle]

I would use at least 3 gal (especially if what you're adding is cooler than strike temp) but I haven't tried enough vols to know for sure.

Don't need to waste water to preheat, just heat you're mash water to about 3-4 degrees higher than your strick temp. Add it to you're mt, close the lid and let it preheat the mt. After about 3-5 minutes, open the mt lid and stir the water to cool to you're strick temp, and then dough in.

 

[BridgewaterBrewer]

Valid point but my burner takes a while to get strike water up to temp so I preheat mashtun with a few gal of hot tap water in the meantime. A little wasteful but saves time.

 

[Komocabo]

I just heat my strike water to ~180° then add it all to the mash tun and let it sit until I get to my desired strike water temp. This pre-heats the mash tun, and gives me about 10 mins to take a breath and relax (which is very important in this hobby). Once the temp is 165°, or whatever I want my temp to be, I dough in and cover it up. Works great, and I lose about 1° by the end of the hour. Me and my mashtun are best friends.

 

[BridgewaterBrewer]

If my mash tun looked that nice, it would be my best friend too.