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Start with cold water or hot?
For extract brewers (maybe with a specialty grain thrown in), I' m curious whether most people out there put hot or cold water in the brewpot to start. I've seen some instruction sheets specify hot water and obviously it saves time, but it seems like in cooking other stuff I've heard cold water is better, that hot water might carry more crud out of your pipes. Any thoughts?
I personally aim for mid temp water. No special reason, other than my water heater is pretty small. I'm using enough hot water already that I don't really need to push through another three gallons. Haven't had any troubles yet, and batch #6 is in primary.
I used to use hot water to fill my brewpot until I brewed with my brother one day who's going to school to become a chef. He said the same thing about hot water picking up extra minerals and stuff that you don't want. Don't know if he's right but he'd know more about it than me. So since then I use mid temp water.
I use bottled gallons of spring water. It's probably a little below room temp. Yesterday, it may have been a little warmer, as they sat in the sun for a couple hours befor we started to brew, but I don't think it matters. Sometimes, I start with a cold water steeping for my grains; let them sit in cold water for 20-30 minutes, then bring the temp up to 150 or so, and let them sit another 20-30. For me, it's about time management..if I have the time, I'll let them sit longer......
I start off with cold water and put in my steeping grins and bring it up to temp.
Aside from the minerals and the steeping techniques, cold water will heat faster than hot water. So if time is of concern, cold is better.
Flare_dogg wrote:
Aside from the minerals and the steeping techniques, cold water will heat faster than hot water. So if time is of concern, cold is better.
Cold water heats faster than hot water???
Please help me understand this?
You want to start with cold water and for a very good reason. One wordl LEAD.
EPA recommeds using cold water, here's why.
Hot water dissolves lead in home plumbing more quickly than cold water, and far and away most of the lead that comes out of our taps comes from our own home plumbing. Whether you live in a very old home with lead pipes or a very new home with copper piping joined with lead-containing solder, hot tap contains more lead than cold. In recognition of this, the EPA advises consumers to always use cold water for cooking. If you've got any worries about lead in your tap water, have your water tested by a state certified lab, and check first with your public water supplier. Some of them will test for free.
DC
brewchez wrote:
Flare_dogg wrote:
Aside from the minerals and the steeping techniques, cold water will heat faster than hot water. So if time is of concern, cold is better.
Cold water heats faster than hot water???
Please help me understand this?
Yeah it does sound strange. Well its the same reason that hot water pipes freeze before cold water pipes. Temperature difference drives heat transfer and a larger difference allows more heat to be transferred.
Keep in mind that "heating faster" and boiling faster are not the same thing...
One bored night in the kitchen we took two quarts of water, one tap cold, and the other tap hot and put them in pans over full gas.
The cold one does heat up faster. Partially because it is cooler than the air, and loses heat that way, partially because the stuff that is heated at the bottom of the pan moves more, and distributes the heat more.
However, going from 45 degrees to 212 still takes FAR more energy than going from 110 (typical "hot water" from a tap) to 212.
-R
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