Ok--decided to try my first all grain. I did all the math and figured I would need a strike water temp of 163 to do a mash at 152 in a preheated cooler using the following equation:
Strike Water Temperature Tw = (.2/R)(T2 - T1) + T2
So I did that--added the grain and was WAY low--145. Ended up having to add a little more than 1/2 gallon of near boiling water to get up to 151 and quit there because I was worried there would be too much mash water. I stirred the crap out of it while adding that water so I am pretty sure that is an accurate temp.
So--I did some math and subtracted 163-145 to see how many degrees I lost to the whole system (grain and all). Then I divided that number by the lbs of grain to get 1.63 degrees of temp loss/lb of grain. Using this equation I should have had a strike temp of 170ish.
My question is--does this math make sense or is there some other way to figure the loss for the system.
Also--how much water is too much to add when raising the temp of the mash. I used about 1.3qt/lb as my initial volume and added a little more than 1/2 gallon.
Thanks for your help in advance.
Strike Water Temperature Tw = (.2/R)(T2 - T1) + T2
So I did that--added the grain and was WAY low--145. Ended up having to add a little more than 1/2 gallon of near boiling water to get up to 151 and quit there because I was worried there would be too much mash water. I stirred the crap out of it while adding that water so I am pretty sure that is an accurate temp.
So--I did some math and subtracted 163-145 to see how many degrees I lost to the whole system (grain and all). Then I divided that number by the lbs of grain to get 1.63 degrees of temp loss/lb of grain. Using this equation I should have had a strike temp of 170ish.
My question is--does this math make sense or is there some other way to figure the loss for the system.
Also--how much water is too much to add when raising the temp of the mash. I used about 1.3qt/lb as my initial volume and added a little more than 1/2 gallon.
Thanks for your help in advance.