5 Vessel - Steam Jacketed - First Timer

[Alphaacid]

So I'm firing up a 3 vessel steam jacketed system. MT, LT, and WP. We have a CLT, and HLT as well. I have a couple of questions, as the system I was using before was a 5bbl, non-heated system. So I would boil water, run throught HeatEX, and then into my MLT to get it nice and warm. Then I would calculate my strike in temp based on grain and HLT temp.

1) I've never used steam before, how do I calculate what temp to have the steam at? If I want to mash in at 152F, so I just make the steam 152F or do I need to compensate for grain and MT temp?

2) Once I've mashed in in my MT, at what point to I transfer the grist over to the LT?

[beerme]

you need to decide what your mash profile will be, which depends on what malt you use and what you are trying to do.

you could mash in at 50C for a protein rest and then ramp up to -->65-->68-->75C for saccarification, but if you are using all malt, and well modified canadian / us 2 row you probably don't even need to do that.

you could mash in at 62 -->68 -->75 to avoid this.

You could even do a single step infusion mash at 65-68C and not even use the steam on the mash tun. Sometimes if you have a Mash/ lauter tun and you don't have a mixer they use the rakes to mix which doesn't work well. this may be the easiest. It may be hard to get repeatable results if you can't get even heating/ mixing.

You don't mention kettle: MT, LT, WP.

is it a mash lauter tun - kettle - whirlpool?

or a mash tun - lauter tun - kettle/ Whirlpool?

what kind of beers do you make? Lagers/ ales/ ipas/ belgian?