Initial Mash Temp While Adding Grain

[barhoc11]

I have been brewing for years and have always had issues hitting my target mash temp without going above what the Beersmith infusion tool tells me to do and then stirring or adding cold water to get it down to where I want.

Today, my strike water was higher than normal due to me taking longer to mill my grain, around 195F. Once I was ready, I started to drain my water into my 10 gal cooler and checked the temp before adding my grain, the temperature was around 195 so I started adding grain to see what temperature I would end up at, my target for this brew is 151F.

After stirring in all the grain, I was still way too high, around 170F so I added some cold water and gradually got the mash down to around 151F and this is the normal process that I take BUT today I started to question the side effects of doing it this way.

Can anyone please tell me what side effects I would have from adding grain to strike water that is too hot and then stirring/adding cold water to bring the overall mash temperature down to target over a period of 5 -10 minutes?

Am I causing the grain to stop producing the enzymes right away when they hit that 195F water or will they start producing those enzymes as I work out the temperature to where I want to be, over those 5 - 10 minutes?

Kind of a newbie question but this is something I never really considered and may help me improve my brews in the future. Thanks in advance!

 

[chickypad]

That would be the concern, denaturing the enzymes if you leave it hot for too long, but if you're getting the temp down realtively quickly you're probably okay. Have you been getting good conversion?

It also seems to me if you've been brewing on your system for years you should be able to dial in your strike temps a little better. I don't quite understand the logic of intentionally going way hotter than you need to and using cold water to bring it down - I mean a degree or two maybe but 20 degrees over target? I find Beersmith to be pretty accurate, but I do have all my settings dialed in, I use the "adjust temp for equipment" button, preheat the tun, and enter the correct tun and grain temps.

 

[day_trippr]

With BS it's all about the equipment setup, including the specific heat for the tun. Keeping records of strike water versus doughed-in temperatures should help tune the setup so using actual grain and ambient temperatures will generate the correct strike water temperature for the day...

Cheers!

 

[barhoc11]

I have been getting good attenuation and the reason I usually go higher than I should with the strike water is because I have gotten burned before with coming in low on my mash temps. I really don't brew as much these days so it is my way to make sure I don't mash too low but it sounds like I should just go a little over what I am supposed and not 20 degrees over, split the difference I guess.

Today I made up a big RIS and came in low with OG but I think that is mainly due to it being a 1.109 beer and the issues most people have when trying to make a big beer like that. I was able to add some extract in so my numbers were spot on but I do think I can cut out the overcompensation I am doing with mash water temp.

Thanks for the help and any other advice is appreciated.