Does it matter if i add my grain to the water or the water to my grain?
Thanks
I found water to grain made for nasty dough balls. Grain to water seems to let you stir better.
I have added water to grain, grain and water together, and grain to water.
Grain to water is much easier on the homebrew scale.
I’ve never noticed it to make any difference. Whichever way is easiest on your system will be fine.
I don’t think it matters that much, but I add the water to my cooler first to pre-heat the cooler. That way my mash temperatures are right on.
My favorite way is to “underlet” the grain bed—put the grain in the cooler first, then pump- or gravity-feed water in from the spigot. Never had a doughball that way!
I find if I do grain to water it gives me an extra chance to adjust my mash temp. In single infusion in an unheated vessel (igloo cooler) you have to account for the temp loss to the vessel and the grain. If you add the water by itself first, you can make sure you have precisely accounted for the vessel temp before adding the grain.
I also agree with the other posters that I find I have fewer grain balls this way as well.
Adding wet to dry ingredients cuts down on dust, but you’re more likely to get dough balls. Dry to wet makes doughballs less likely.
Add me to the grain to water list…
I let my strike water run freely then after it is above my false bottom I start scouping in my grain and stiring along the way.
Doesn’t matter, do whatever is easier for your system. I pump water in to a tun already full of grain, and I’ve never had doughballs that a little stirring didn’t take care of.
Doesn’t matter as long as your cooler is blue 
I add a couple gallons of water, some grain and stir. Add more water, grains, stir…repeat until I’m doughed in. This method works well for me with no dough balls.
i recently have been adding my grain to a bag first then putting this in the tun then adding water. had not been a problem until recently i realized my temperature was way too hot. then i tried to cool it down, thought i had but due to poor mixing went back an hour later and my temp actually had gone up due to equilibrium. end result poor efficiency. low og. new session beer.
I’ve done both without problems. If you do water to grain make sure the mash tun is heated. I started off mashing in a cooler(blue of course) and I did water to grain. The first few times I did it without warming the cooler and I had to play catchup to get it to mash temp. Warming the cooler first made a big difference.
I don’t like the bacteria-laden dust floating around, so I fill the tun with grain in another room before wheeling it into the brewery. Then I underlet.
So to summarize: Do what works for you.
+1
I’ve done both. I really haven’t seen any difference in dust or dough balls.
When adding water into grain, I have learned to add the grain, then add almost all my strike water and let it all sit for a couple of minutes. This seems to give the grain time to absorb the water before I start stirring. This is kind of like adding water from the bottom and produces fewer dough balls.
Paul
Im a grain to water guy. I brew on a Brutus system and found that adding my water to my mash tun, starting the re-circ process with jsut water and adding the grain slowly from there not only cuts down on doughballs, but since doing things this way, I haven’t experienced any pump clogs since I re-circ for the duration of the mash.
Good point. Even when underletting, I wait until all the water is in the tun to start stirring. Stirring early equals doughballs.