Saturday first AG brew equipment question

[M4car223]

I have assembled a wort cooler, larger pot (aluminum and already oxidized by boiling water), and a Gatorade mash tun. Question is in regards to the 10 gallon cooler. For a first time AG brew, should I preheat or or not preheat?

My thoughts were to not preheat so I can dial in my heat loss, but then I started worrying about not having my temps high enough....so then I though preheat, but what if I end up way too hot.

What would you'll recommend?

BTW, I am brewing Lil Sparky's Nut Brown if that changes anything.

 

[schockstrap]

I'm stealing this idea from someone on this site, but what I do is put my strike water in the cooler when it's about 5 degrees warmer than needed. Put the lid on for a few minutes and then check the temp. If at the right temp, I add the grain and mash in. If it's still a bit warm, I stir the water until it's the right temp and then mash in.

This probably adds a few minutes to my brew day, but preheats the cooler and makes sure I hit my mash temp right on the screws more often than not.

 

[kh54s10]

Preheat! Especially if you are brewing outside and it is cold. If not the heating of the tun will pull a lot out of the mash temperature. I preheat all year round.

I use Beersmith and it usually suggest about 168 degrees for about 152 etc. I usually am withing a couple degrees. If too hot I stir like crazy and the temp drops pretty quickly.

 

[M4car223]

I'm stealing this idea from someone on this site, but what I do is put my strike water in the cooler when it's about 5 degrees warmer than needed. Put the lid on for a few minutes and then check the temp. If at the right temp, I add the grain and mash in. If it's still a bit warm, I stir the water until it's the right temp and then mash in.

This probably adds a few minutes to my brew day, but preheats the cooler and makes sure I hit my mash temp right on the screws more often than not.

Thanks. That seems like a great idea. I will do just that. That takes one worry away.

 

[M4car223]

Preheat! Especially if you are brewing outside and it is cold. If not the heating of the tun will pull a lot out of the mash temperature. I preheat all year round.

I use Beersmith and it usually suggest about 168 degrees for about 152 etc. I usually am withing a couple degrees. If too hot I stir like crazy and the temp drops pretty quickly.

Thanks neighbor! So with our temps tomorrow, gonna be cold tonight , is a preheat of strike water, as previously suggested, a good idea or should I go for a full preheat?

 

[kh54s10]

Thanks neighbor! So with our temps tomorrow, gonna be cold tonight , is a preheat of strike water, as previously suggested, a good idea or should I go for a full preheat?

I am not really sure what you are asking here... I preheat my mash tun by adding about a gallon of water from my HLT when it is about 140 degrees. I close it up and continue to heat my strike water, about 1.25 quarts per pound of grain. When it gets to mash temperature I dump out the preheat water and add the mash water then the grains. I am usually within a degree or two.

 

[JonA]

Do you have an electric kettle? I fill mine and turn it on about the same time I strike for the mash. When it boils, I dump it in and let it sit with the lid on until I'm ready to go. Works well for me.

 

[ndinh]

As others have said, definitely preheat. When I first started AG, I forgot to preheat and when my strike water was added, I totally missed the temp and had to heat up more water so my mash ended up super diluted. I heat my water up to strike temp and add about 1 gallon and let it sit for about 10 min. I then transfer that back into my HLT, do a quick heat to get everything back to strike temp if it's not, then go from there.

 

[lotusworker]

yeah I usually do about 10 degrees more than my beersmith calculated strike temp. I have same setup. you may want to do 12 degrees it'd cold out. worst case is you can always add a little boiling water with 10-15 minutes after mash in if our is low to hit you mash temp. don't worry everything will be fine.

 

[govner1]

I have a hot & cold water hose bib in my brewery (garage) so I add 3-4 gal of 120° water to my tun while my strike water comes up to temp. This is usually 10°-12° above my desired mash temp. I drain my run into a container w/ Sani-Cleanse for later use in cleanup.
Pumping the strike water to the tun and adding the grains brings my temp down almost always on the dot w/ my target.
Remember to keep your grains in the house overnight as well. Really cold grain will lower your temp substantially.

 

[campbellmike]

I heat a quart or two in the microwave to near boiling and put it in the cooler as I'm starting to heat strike water. I just dump it right before I add the strike water.

 

[M4car223]

Thank you everybody, I am about 2 hours from starting to clean and sanatize everything. I will post my successes and failures when I am all wrapped up.

 

[brewbama]

I jam my Thermapen probe into the grain, type that temp into Beersmith, heat the water to the temp Beersmith returns, dump it in the cooler, dough it, stir to ck for lumps, and take the temp. 9 times out of 10 it is spot on. One hr later I lose less than .5*F.


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