Pre-heating mashing water

[Yttrium]

Last night in an inpromtu test mash, I ground up some corn&barley and poured it in some water. I then heated the mash to gelatinize the starches. As I was stirring the slowly heating mash I started to wonder if I could avoid alot of this stirring(and potential grain scorching) by heating the water up to its boiling temp before adding the grain. I couldn't think of any reasons this would be detrimental to the grain, but if anyone can think of a good reason not to I would appreciate it.

[Tater]

Ive done it didnt see any differance.

[Grayson_Stewart]

I've done that as well. The only problem would be not adding water hot enough to get a good conversion or adding water thats too hot and killing off the enzymes.

I found an equation and posted it the thread titled "Mashing Temp Equation" in this section. Use the equation to come up with the volume/temp of the water needed for a given amount of grain. Just need to let it steep in a insulated cooler to maintain the temp.

[Yttrium]

Okay, thanks for the info. I did a bit more checking and it seems many Scotch distilleries typically heat their water to around 65C before adding the grain.

[Grayson_Stewart]

Isn't that about 149 F ? Seems like that would drop several degrees once added to cooler grains. I shoot for an initial temp of 158 after the water is added to the grain and in the cooler.

[DBM]

Yttrium;
I use hot backset. I put the cracked corn in a 5 gal water cooler, fill the cooler with backset straight from the still, screw the lid on and leave it untill the next day. Most of the time when I open it the next day it's still steaming hot. I just leave the lid off and lay a piece of plywood over it untill it cools.

[ricki]

I read somewhere that the corn actually gelatanizes somewhat at cooler temperatures as well as high boiling temps so starting it at a cool temp might increase extraction efficiency but this is probably a concern for the big boys, not us.