"Rinsing the Grain Bed"?
 

Hello All,

I'm pretty new to this all grain stuff and I'm wondering if I'm shooting myself in the foot. Specifically, here is my question:

After I collect my 2nd runnings, I have been putting 130 degree water into my grain bed and drawing it off until I get to my desired boil volume. I do this because it both seemed logical and is visibly clear that I am getting a lot of additional sugars that would otherwise be tossed with the spent grain.

Is this a mistake?

I'd very much appreciate your thoughts!

The second sparge isn't bad, but that temp is a bit high. That hot and you can be extracting a lot of tannins from the grain.

edit: misread the temp. Nevermind the temp is too high comment.

Hmmmm, I was going to say that 130F is low. I always sparge with 175F water.

I thought you didnt have to worry about extracting tannins until you got over 170 Deg F. I ususally sparge with 150 - 160 deg F water and haven't had any issues with extracting tannins.

Thanks for your input!!!!

Interestingly, I was more worried about it being too cool since BeerSmith has me put in 196 F water for the Mash Out (which drops to like 177 when mixed with the grain bed). I'm pretty confident that this second sparge (that I do immediately after the 196 deg mashout), is actually cooling the grain, not heating it. Will that release tanins?

Yeah my understanding is that you don't want the grain bed to get too much over 165 or so. Adding 175 degree water just keeps it warm enough so that the mash doesn't gelatinize. That's why I don't really get the whole point of a mash out. Why would you add boiling water to the grain when you are going to boil the whole thing anyway?

To the OP - Are you doing a batch or fly sparge? What do you mean by second runnings? If you are continuing to sparge to collect your desired amount of wort, that is still considered first runnings. Second runnings would be collecting more wort after you have enough for one batch. The term second runnings usually means you are collecting more wort for a second and light batch of wort that will ferment separately from your first.

I have never heard of sparging that low: Here's what Palmer says: http://www.howtobrew.com/section3/chapter17.html

And here's another thread on the same subject: http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f36/sparge-water-temperature-141885/

My bad. I misread the temp. Still waking up and my eyes aren't catching up to the rest of me yet. That is a bit on the low side.

I don't have all the terminology down. BeerSmith calls it a "single infusion, full body." Here's what I'm doing, if you'd be so kind, I'd really like to know what it is called:

Step1: I add 11.88 quarts of 170.5 F... this drops to 158 F and I let it sit for 45 minutes.

Step 2: I vorlaf, then collect everything that'll come out.

Step 3: I add 4.57 quarts at 197 F, which drops to 168 F... let this soak for 10 minutes... and collect everything that'll come out.

Step 4: Since I don't have the 6.5 gallons that I want, I pour 130 F water through the bed until I get 6.5 gallons. I use 130 F water because that's the temp I get from the tap.

BeerSmith calls Step 1 the Mash In, and Step 3 the Mash Out.

I batch sparge, which it seems like the OP is doing, with 190-195 F water. For the short amount of time it's in there, there is not going to be any significant tannin extraction. Picked up this procedure from Denny Conn and have been doing it for 15-20 batces and never had a problem.