Brewing Master

Question:

Last night when I started brewing the temperature outside was 32 F and we had a decent breeze.  My brother lent me his tower brewing system (which I had never used before).  It’s real nice.  It uses three 16 gallon kegs as liquor tank, mash tun, and brewpot, and has burners at 3 different heights.  I was trying to brew a 5 gal. IPA.  I wanted to mash in at 152-154 F, so I figured I needed to add about 10 degrees to get the right temp. for my water.  When I mashed in, my actual temp. was 146 F.  Obviously I had to do some adjusting. Question is:  how can I get a better guess so I can hit my strike temp. right the next time?  I’d like a simple method, but I’m willing to do the math if it means I’m going to hit it on the nose. Thanks in advance for your help. -David — — David Maxwell Biology Teacher Littlestown High School 200 East Myrtle Street Littlestown, PA  17340 Yahoo clubs for my classes (get homework assignments, etc.):   http://clubs.yahoo.com/clubs/biologylshs http://clubs.yahoo.com/clubs/outdoorlshs Check out my web page: http://listen.to/bioguy Mishka’s web page: http://listen.to/mishka Need something translated from or to Russian?  Ask the Clever Hedgehog for help: http://www.cleverhedgehog.com/

Response:

I was trying to brew a 5 gal. IPA.  I wanted to mash in at 152-154 F, so I figured I needed to add about 10 degrees to get the right temp. for my water.  When I mashed in, my actual temp. was 146 F.  Obviously I had to do some adjusting. Question is:  how can I get a better guess so I can hit my strike temp. right the next time?  I’d like a simple method, but I’m willing to do the math if it means I’m going to hit it on the nose.

Here is an equation that will give you a better guess. This will calculate the temperature of the strike above your mash temperature. T = (Tmash – Tgrain)*(0.2/Qlb) Tmash – the mash temp you are trying to hit, ie 152F. Tgrain – the temperature of the grain, ie 32F (yikes!). Qlb – quarts of water per pound of grain, ie 1.25. For your example, assuming the grain was 32F, which is the same as outside temp, and assuming you mash at 1.25 qts/#, then here is the result. T = (152-32)*(0.2/1.25) = 19.2F So you need your strike liquor at 152+19=171F. Make sense? Kent — Kent Townley San Jose, CA

Response:

Your first problem is getting your strike water to the right temp for the amount of grain used.  The other post covers that. The next problem is figuring out how much of that heat the mash tun will absorb before the two substances (the mash tun and the mash) balance out. If the mash tun is insulated, it will have a thermal mass that must be taken into account.  You will have to use higher temperature water to use some of it’s heat to warm the mash tun.  Or you can preheat with hot water only and then use the pre-warmed tun. If if is not insulated, it will still have a thermal mass, but it will be lower and less consequential.  But if it is cold, windy, and you have an uninsulated mash tun, you will lose heat like there is no tomorrow. -Joel – Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – Last night when I started brewing the temperature outside was 32 F and we had a decent breeze.  My brother lent me his tower brewing system (which I had never used before).  It’s real nice.  It uses three 16 gallon kegs as liquor tank, mash tun, and brewpot, and has burners at 3 different heights.  I was trying to brew a 5 gal. IPA.  I wanted to mash in at 152-154 F, so I figured I needed to add about 10 degrees to get the right temp. for my water.  When I mashed in, my actual temp. was 146 F.  Obviously I had to do some adjusting. Question is:  how can I get a better guess so I can hit my strike temp. right the next time?  I’d like a simple method, but I’m willing to do the math if it means I’m going to hit it on the nose. Thanks in advance for your help. -David — — David Maxwell Biology Teacher Littlestown High School 200 East Myrtle Street Littlestown, PA  17340 Yahoo clubs for my classes (get homework assignments, etc.): http://clubs.yahoo.com/clubs/biologylshs http://clubs.yahoo.com/clubs/outdoorlshs Check out my web page: http://listen.to/bioguy Mishka’s web page: http://listen.to/mishka Need something translated from or to Russian?  Ask the Clever Hedgehog for help: http://www.cleverhedgehog.com/

Response: