thejuanald
Well-Known Member
I have had a problem in the last two batches I've brewed with my mash tun not holding temps very well. I have a 10 gallon cooler that I bought from Home Depot and converted to a MLT.
My normal process is to heat up strike water to temperature (the last beer was 163F to get to a final mash temp of 152 according to Beersmith), close the lid to allow the tun to adjust to the temp of the cooler, add the grain while mixing furiously, then seal it up. I hit the temps just fine at the start, but coming back after 20 minutes to check, the temp has dropped a few degrees. What I ended up doing was just adding a bit of hot water to try and bring up the temp but that doesn't seem like a practice I want to keep doing.
This is being done inside so I wouldn't think the fact that it's freezing outside would be much of a problem.
I don't understand why it's not able to hold temp very well because it held it just fine not that long ago. Any ideas or am I glaringly doing something wrong?
My normal process is to heat up strike water to temperature (the last beer was 163F to get to a final mash temp of 152 according to Beersmith), close the lid to allow the tun to adjust to the temp of the cooler, add the grain while mixing furiously, then seal it up. I hit the temps just fine at the start, but coming back after 20 minutes to check, the temp has dropped a few degrees. What I ended up doing was just adding a bit of hot water to try and bring up the temp but that doesn't seem like a practice I want to keep doing.
This is being done inside so I wouldn't think the fact that it's freezing outside would be much of a problem.
I don't understand why it's not able to hold temp very well because it held it just fine not that long ago. Any ideas or am I glaringly doing something wrong?