Anyone use Beersmith and find that the “Adjust Temp for Equipment” doesn’t seem to give the best results for heating strike water / hitting mash temps? Anyone have a better solution than adjusting the specific heat value in the equipment setup?
I am brewing an iipa, and beersmith said to heat the strike water to 175 for a mash target of 157. I was busy with other things, and the water was 190… impatient, I only let it cool to 180-182 before adding it to the tun, followed by grains. When I checked my temp (thermapen!), it was 157 on the nose.
I’ve futzed with the specific heat value (igloo cooler, 0.3 → 0.5) in my equipment setup, and adjusted my mash tun & grain temps downwards a bit, arriving at a beersmith-calculated strike temp of about 180. I suppose this is what needs to be done… but I’m curious how anyone else does it, or if anyone else has experienced this problem.
I don’t use Beersmint but I pump ~180°F strike water into the tun and let it sit for a bit till the temp comes down to dough in temperature. This gives the cooler a bit of time to stabilize at the new temperature.
I’va had that same issue with hitting my target mash temp. I just brewed a batch of caribou slobber today and under shot my temp big time. I don’t have very good luck when it comes to hitting my mash temps. I am considering going to a heated mash tun so i have better control over my temps.
I batch sparge so I preheat the cooler with a gal. or two of boiling water then dump it out and add my mash water. The post from Johnpictech about using hotter water and letting it sit till strike temp sounds interesting.
I have been using this mash infusion calculator with good results.
I use a 10 gallon rubbermaid cooler for my mash tun. To pre heat my mash tun I add 2-3 gallons of hot water from the kitchen sink at around 130 F, slosh it around a bit and let it sit for 10-15 mins while my water heats up. I have beersmith but dont use the temp adjust feature. I just add a couple degrees to my strike water and usually round up to the closest gallon or half gallon so the water volume is easier to calcaulate for 1st and 2nd runnings.
I usually hit my mash temps or are just 1 or 2 degrees high which then i do a little extra stirring to bring the temp down.
The BeerSmith calculations work for me. I add the strike water to the cooler first, close the lid, and wait about 5 minutes for the cooler to absorb the excess heat. Then I add my grain, stir to get rid of dough balls, and mash for 60 min. I hit my mash temp pretty consistently.
I batch sparge in a 10 gallon round Rubbermaid cooler.
Have the same problem with Beersmith. I love the program but using Beersmith to hit your mash temps. is useful only if you take what they say and add 5 degrees to your strike water.
I have had good luck with Beersmith while we were using the 10gallon cooler mashtun but then we switched setups to a converted 15 gallon keg for mashtun and beersmith told me to heat the strike water to 175* for a 154* mash and when we mixed it in the temp reading was around 160*. Don’t know what happened there.
I am going to add another burner to my stand and use my extra 30qt kettle for my mash tun so I am able to control my temps and and my volumes better. I seem to come in under temp quite a bit, but about half the times I have, the finished product seemed better when leaving the temp where it was at as opposed to adding water to bring the temp up.
The best beer I ever made was a complete and total screw up during the mash process. After I add my strike water and am happy with the mash temp, I refill my strike water kettle to heat it for the sparge. Well I forgot to close the valve and filled my mash tun to capacity with water/grain. the mash temp was 141 degrees. Rather than toss it out and start fresh, I finished it out, the Og was in the predicted range, and the finished beer was full of flavor, body, a nice thick head that looked like tan whipped cream, and was very drinkable despite the high alcohol content. I will never be able to make that beer again other than knowing the ingredients I used. It was an american amber ale kit with a few diferent added grains. I share my homebrew with anyone that will try it, but not that batch, only my closest friends got to try it and only a small amount.
Was it the low mash temp that made the brew. Was it the ingredients I chose to use. Was it that I collected all the wort from a single running with no sparge at all. I don’t know, all I know is Ive never made another brew that compares to that brew. I’ve had other brews that turned out bad, but I could always figure out where or what I messed up. The awesome mistake of a brew, too much went wrong to ever figure that one out.
Sorry for the long story, but I know the less variables I have when brewing, the better I should be able make my beer.
I never pay much attention to strike temps programs give me they always seem to be off to much.
I almost always pre heat my cooler, if I dont I usually get my water at about 10-15 degrees hotter than it says to and stir or add some ice.
Being a little hot is not bad or stirring will bring it down to temp quick.
Being under you r pitching temp sucks to bring it higher
