Sparge Water Temp Question

[cpsmusic]

Hi Folks,

I'm going to have a go at doing an American Amber Ale this arvo. This is my fifth AG brew and in the past I've only used a small amount of water for batch sparging - for a 20 litre batch I was using 4 litres which I think was a mistake!

For this brew I'm aiming for the following:

For a 20 litre pre-boil volume:

15 litres strike water -> 10 litres wort

11 litres sparge water -> 10 litres wort

The thing I'm not clear about is what temperature should the sparge water be - should I aim for it to be the same temperature as the initial mash (around 68 degrees) or should I aim for a higher temp? Palmer says that it shouldn't be higher than 77 but I'm not clear about what it should be.

Cheers,

Chris

 

[BoilerBoy]

Hi Folks,

I'm going to have a go at doing an American Amber Ale this arvo. This is my fifth AG brew and in the past I've only used a small amount of water for batch sparging - for a 20 litre batch I was using 4 litres which I think was a mistake!

For this brew I'm aiming for the following:

For a 20 litre pre-boil volume:

15 litres strike water -> 10 litres wort

11 litres sparge water -> 10 litres wort

The thing I'm not clear about is what temperature should the sparge water be - should I aim for it to be the same temperature as the initial mash (around 68 degrees) or should I aim for a higher temp? Palmer says that it shouldn't be higher than 77 but I'm not clear about what it should be.

Cheers,

Its not so much the sparge water temp but the temp of the grain bed in sparging that matters , I add 90c sparge water which keeps the grain bed around 76-78c.

The higher temp than the mash aids in better extraction of the malt sugars.

Cheers,
BB

Chris

 

[Ducatiboy stu]

I use boiling water straight from the kettle for batch sparging

Boiling water will only raise the mash temp to about 80ish*c which is perfect for mashout and will stop the enzymes. It also helps rinse out the sugars better from the mash

If you where to fly sparge, then the water temp is a bit more critical

 

[Crusty]

I batch sparge & I usually heat my sparge water up to 76deg & do the sparge. This is after my 78deg mashout for 10mins.
I wouldn't be too comfortable sparging @ temps higher than 80deg.

 

[Ducatiboy stu]

I batch sparge & I usually heat my sparge water up to 76deg & do the sparge. This is after my 78deg mashout for 10mins.
I wouldn't be too comfortable sparging @ temps higher than 80deg.

You must remember that using boiling water wont raise the temp that much, in fact by the 3rd sparge, it would be lucky to be at 80*c

I have allways used boiling water for years and never had an issue, infact it helped increase my eff% :icon_cheers:

 

[legham]

I usually batch sparge with 88 to 90 deg water. Hit my 78 deg mash out every time.

 

[browndog]

I batch sparge & I usually heat my sparge water up to 76deg & do the sparge. This is after my 78deg mashout for 10mins.
I wouldn't be too comfortable sparging @ temps higher than 80deg.

90C is absolutely fine for spargewater.

 

[malt_shovel]

The thing I'm not clear about is what temperature should the sparge water be - should I aim for it to be the same temperature as the initial mash (around 68 degrees) or should I aim for a higher temp? Palmer says that it shouldn't be higher than 77 but I'm not clear about what it should be.

Cheers,

Chris

Get brewmate. Brewing software designed by randrob from this forum, which is free and has an excellent "brewday" page that gives all the info on sparge volumes and temps for your particular reciepe and batch size.

Brewmate Download

Cheers
:icon_chickcheers: