Sparge water temp.

[Monkeyguts]

G'day,
Just wondering what temp do you have your water at when you batch sparge? I have been reading some books that have conflicting advice.
Cheers

 

[manticle]

I aim for 72 deg C but you'll find conflicting advice because there's no single correct answer and there are pros and cons of various temp ranges.

Hot water should make sugar viscosity reduced and therefore easier to rinse off but there are practices of cool sparging and also no sparging. Ducatiboy stu recommends boiling water although as far as I can work out, his method replicates how I might perform a mashout.

Also depends on the temp of grain bed which it's preferable to keep at 80 or below.

I batch sparge and have never fly/continuous but I believe 70-80 with fly and slow consistent runoff is best.

 

[Ducatiboy stu]

If your doing a "batch with recirculation" sparge use boiling water, or close to boiling. This will perform the ( not needed ) mashout and as Manticle points out, it helps rinse those sugaz out

Dont panic boiling water will not hurt the mash at all, and by your 3rd sparge it still wont be high enough to leach tannin's out. You would be surprised at how little boiling water raises the grain bed temp each time

If you fly sparge then dont use boiling water

 

[manticle]

I do for different reasons but a good 6-8 L of boiling water will take my grain bed from 72 to 78. If not doing the mashout step, as dbs suggests, you'll need a fair bit before you get from mash temp to tannin territory and tannin extraction is a result of more than just temp.

 

[Ducatiboy stu]

If your re-circ sparging, then only sparge with the amount of water that the runoff gives. Ie, if you drain 3ltr from the mash, fill with 3ltrs.. Let it sit for 5-10mins between draining

If you go to crazy with the water you end up with more in the kettle which means more boiling

 

[Monkeyguts]

thanks guys