Strike Temperature

[LegTaste]

Is the strike temperature, the temperature of the water before it goes into the tun, or the temperature the water should be in the mashing tun before the grain is added?

[kane]

The temperature the water should be in the mash tun before the grain is added, hopefully at the correct temperature so that when the grain is added you end up at your desired mash temperature.

Kane

[LegTaste]

Thanks, was having a hard time extracting that bit of information.

Needed to be sure.

[richc]

Actually it can mean either depending on what order you add your water and grain to the mash tun. If you add your grain first, or, as in a commercial brewery, mix the grain and water in the input flow somewhere, then the water temperature you can measure is the temperature of the water before it is added to the mash tun.
If you add the grain to the water in the mash tun you might as well use the water temperature in the tun as it simplifies the calculation a lot.