How do YOU hit your mash temps?

[jtmwhyte]

I've been thinking about this for a few days now. Traditionally I heated my strike water on the stove to whatever temp Beersmith gave me, pre heated my cooler with a bit of boiling water and doughed in. I usually hit very close to my temp each time. Then I switched to eBIAB for 5 gallons and with a little trial and error, managed to get consistency here too ( and the ability to heat if necessary).

Now that I'm moving to 10 Gallon batches in a cooler with a pump I find myself thinking of the losses in heat that have occurred during each step. Both times I've tried using the cooler and pump I've dropped 8 degrees below my target. I'm planning on recirculating while heating the strike water today to heat the pump and tubing before transferring to the cooler. Also I will heat the cooler before hand with boiling water.

I was wondering if anyone here heats their strike water a bit hotter than their calcs ( say 175-180) and allows it to cool before doughing in?

[amartin]

I use the mash calculator here - http://www.rackers.org/calcs.shtml" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;, and sometimes it works. Depending on what I'm making and how close I get, I may deal with it in a few ways. If it's too hot, I'll add cold water. If it's too cold, and I'm going for a dry beer anyway, I may just let it be cold and then decoct or add boiling water later to do a two step starch conversion. If I'm going for a sweeter beer, I'll usually add boiling water right away.

[mthibodeau]

I had the same issue today, gave beer smith all the relevant details, made sure to check the adjust for equipment temp box, and when I mashed It was ~142 rather than the 150 I was trying for, so a couple of boiling kettles later and I hit my temp.

Anybody have any suggestion on how to tweak my beer smith setup to account for this? I made sure to put in the right coefficient for a cooler, the sizes, etc. Or should I simply do what Trevor says, and preheat the cooler with some boiling water and then go from there?

[jtmwhyte]

Always do what Trevor says...

[chalmers]

Yes, BeerSmith can handle this. Hopefully this step-by-step by the creator of BeerSmith helps.

http://www.beersmith.com/forum/index.php?topic=134.0" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Ruby]

In the winter I usually stick a litre or two of hot water in the cooler to warm it up and dump before putting the strike water in the cooler. I don't usually bother in the summer.

As long as I've set the grain temp roughly in Beersmith I tend to be within a degree or two even for 10 gallon batches using the numbers that are calculated in the program. I usually leave the burner on low for the HLT while I fill the cooler then I have hot water to top up if its too cool or add a touch of cold if needed. I very rarely have it come in over temp.

[mthibodeau]

Yes, BeerSmith can handle this. Hopefully this step-by-step by the creator of BeerSmith helps.

http://www.beersmith.com/forum/index.php?topic=134.0" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Thats what I did, set up my mash tun profile with the 0.3 value reccomended for coolers, and entered the equipment temps, and grain temps, and check the box to account for them. Maybe the 0.3 isnt high enough value for my coleman extreme cooler mash tun?

Anybody else using one of these? If so what have you set that vale to in Beersmith?

Marc