Underletting Mash at Dough-in

[TheMarkTM]

I'm fairly new to brewing, and learned mostly by brewing with a friend, so I never thought about underletting to dough in, but only because it's not what we did. I have done it a few times to relieve a stuck sparge, but I'm wondering if there's any downside to just mashing in from below.

Currently, I just fill it to just above the bottom, then frenetically dump a little grain, mix a little, and try not to splash burning hot water on myself from the elevated HLT. I use a pump to vorlauf and transfer to the BK, so it would be easy to use it to help move the strike water if gravity isn't enough. My MT is a 15.5 inverted keg (center drain using the original sankey outlet collar connected with a 2" tri-clover to the valve) with a flat SS false bottom.

Thoughts?

 

[philosofool]

I would not put grain onto the false bottom/braid before covering it in water. I think you might get some resistance.

For what it's worth, I heat alll my water in my mash tun, which is a converted sanke, and then I drop the grain in, about half, stir, and then add the second half and stir. This works fine at a 1.5 qt water/ pound grain ratio. constant I never have stuck mashes--well, once, nine years ago when I was working with a different mash tun and had just started brewing. Basically, I think it's really easy to overdo the mashing in process.

It is necessary to know your strike temp precisely if you do as I do, but the formulas are pretty accurate:

Wa = (T2 - T1)(.2G + Wm)/(Tw - T2)

where:
r = The ratio of water to grain in quarts per pound.
Wa = The amount of boiling water added (in quarts).
Wm = The total amount of water in the mash (in quarts).
T1 = The initial temperature (¡F) of the mash.
T2 = The target temperature (¡F) of the mash.
Tw = The actual temperature (¡F) of the infusion water.
G = The amount of grain in the mash (in pounds).

In the first equation, I use .17 rather than .2 as the constant. That's been much more accurate for me.

 

[TheMarkTM]

I'm not sure what resistance you mean, I realize that it might be a little slower than dumping it on top using gravity alone, but I have a pump that I can push it in. Coming from below the false bottom, I can only assume that head pressure would push out any blockages in the false bottom, as opposed to dumping everything in from the top and the mash paddle forcing grain into those little holes.

A search of the internets revealed a fourm from Australia where brewers seemed to think it was just fine, but they do other weird stuff like no-cool brewing, so I was wondering if anybody had any experience here.

Temperature control is not the issue, I hit my mash temps pretty consistently, and it's going to be the same volumes and the same equipment, it's just the route the water takes to meet the grist that is different. Granted, introducing the pump to the mix would add some thermal mass that would need to be accounted for, but that's easy enough...

I guess my question is are there any downsides to underletting as opposed to mixing the mash while adding all the ingredients from above? Are dry pockets or other problems more likely? It sure seems easier to add water in a controlled speed to a plumbed connection as opposed to trying to meter the flow from the HLT into the MT and manually dump the grain from a bucket and mix all at the same time...

I'll plan on brewing my next batch that way and report back, unless anyone has any strongly contradictory advice.