When heating my steeping water how much can I expect its temperature to drop when I place my grains in? I plan to steep them in a separate pot using 1.5-2 quarts of water per pound of grain. Just wondering if I have to heat my water to a higher temp then my steeping temp.
Steeping water temperture
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Yes. The total heat of the water + grain will remain the same, but the temperature will be somewhere in between the two, same as if you mixed a cup of hot water and a cup of room temperature water together. There's a formula available here under "Initial Infusion Equation", or this page has a suggestion without the formula. Keep in mind that if you're mashing in a different vessel than you're heating the water in, the new vessel will absorb some of the heat, requiring a higher strike temperature. (That second page just suggests preheating the tun.) Or Beersmith or other software will tell you what temperature to have your strike water at if you tell it what kind of tun/vessel you're using.
Tip: Boil a a separate teakettle or a pot of water before doughing in so that you don't have to scramble to do it in case your temperature is too low after you dough in.
Tip: Boil a a separate teakettle or a pot of water before doughing in so that you don't have to scramble to do it in case your temperature is too low after you dough in.
Flykilbosa
Well-Known Member
That 1.5-2 quarts per pound is pretty steep. I think 1.25 is more appropriate. There are free calculators out there to help you and I've had very good results with them.
Some claim to use two quarts per pound for mashing with good results. But steeping is different & water volume isn't as critical. But I think he's doing a good thing here to get used to mashing water amounts while learning steeping.
I use 1.25-1.5 quarts of spring water per pound of grain myself. In other words,2 gallons of water for 5lbs of grains for my partial mash recipes.
I use 1.25-1.5 quarts of spring water per pound of grain myself. In other words,2 gallons of water for 5lbs of grains for my partial mash recipes.
That's fine. I often do 1.5- 2 quarts/pound and I find it really easy to stir it better when it's thinner like that.
A guestimate is that you can use water about 11 degrees hotter than your desired steeping/mashing temperature if your grains are about 70 degrees. It's not exact like a calculator would be, but it works for me each time.
