Hey all,

Does anyone happen to have to have a formula for figuring Strike Water temperature. Im looking for one that accounts for heat loss from the mash tun (a la beersmith and promash).

Any help will be much appreciated.

Thanks in advance!

Cheers
Dave


Tags: beer formulas, strike water temperature calculator, beer strike water calculation

I've been meaning to post a reply to your question but I have the creepy crud and to tell the truth I had problems finding the answer. I thought Designing Great Beers discussed this very topic but I was mistaken. There are quite a few discussions about determining the strike temperature but very few make any mention of correcting for the heat capacity of the mash tun. I suspect that this is likely because the effect is probably not all that significant.

Eventually, I came across, Daniel Morey's article Maximize Your Mash at http://www.babblehomebrewers.com/babblewiki/GetFile.aspx?File=Morey%20Dan%2Fmaximize_your_mash.pdf.

This is a very good article and has some useful formulas. I could describe the pertinent equations here but by the time I finished my posting would be nearly as long as the original article. I suggest getting paper, pencil and a calculator and working through his examples.

Near the end of the article he describes how to take into account the thermal mass of the mash tun. I suspect this is the sort of correction factor you have been looking for. Morey notes that in his example accounting for the mash tun only results in a change of 3% and "...mash tun loss is minor and can be ignored for these calculations."

If one were calculating these values by hand that would be one thing but for programs such as ProMash or BeerSmith such calculations may not be necessary but since the computer is doing all of the work what the heck.

Morey's article appears to be scholarly and I assume his calculations are correct. I haven't, however, made any attempt to double check his information other than look online and find a relative dearth of strike temperature formulas which account for the thermal mass of the mash tun.

I hope this helps.

Cheers,

Scott

Hey Stihler,

Thanks for the info! I've been searching around online for a few weeks now, and haven't found anything as informative as the pdf you linked to. I still have a fair amount of reading to do with it, but it's great, and I am much obliged. Thank you very much.

Cheers
Dave