Low mash temp = low sparge temp?

Hey there

146 deg 90 min mash for a saison i am doing.

Am I supposed to sparge with cooler water? or is 180 ok? I did the exact batch two weekends ago and racked to secondary today and it tasted fine. Just curious if you can fine tune with cooler sparge water is the mash temp is low?

I sparge with the same temp, no matter what's the temp of the mash. My sparge temp is 175-180 (measured in the Lautering Tun and NOT in the Hot Liquor Tun).

Sparge water is best at ~170°F (by the time it hits the mash). This is a constant in brewing, unlile the variability in mash temps. 180°F is a bit high. Depending on your sparge water pH, you risk tannin extraction with temps that high.

In Brew Like A Monk, one of the brewers recommended mashing out and sparging no higher than 163. That way you purposely don't denature the enzymes and conversion continues until the boil starts. If you're mashing at 146, you're going for a highly fermentable, dry beer. In that situation, I think 163 makes sense. I did it on my last batch. I achieved my best efficiency to date and fermentation went like gangbusters. This wasn't a huge beer (1.046 SG) and I nearly had a blowout with 5 gallons in a 6.5 gallon Ale Pail (the kreusen crept up the airlock but didn't quite go out the top).

I haven't measured the FG, yet but I bet it's going to be very well attenuated.

hmm interesting..

It is from the great Bobby_M's Overbrook Brewery website and his No Mash Out Double Batch Sparge technique that suggests the 180 deg sparge water temp. The exact batch of Saison I did two weeknds ago, I ended up with 82% efficiency, which I am certainly happy with. I thought it had something to do with needing to raise the grain bed temp up high enuff during the sparge? If you use 180 deg water, dont you lose some of that heat during the sparge to grain bed abosrption?

jackson_d said:

If you use 180 deg water, dont you lose some of that heat during the sparge to grain bed abosrption?

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Well, I'm batch sparging with a HERMS rig. I mash out at 163 and drain the tun. Then I add 163 sparge water and let the HERMS bring it back up to 163 (there's a few degrees lost in the process), hold for 10 minutes and drain.

jackson_d said:

hmm interesting..

It is from the great Bobby_M's Overbrook Brewery website and his No Mash Out Double Batch Sparge technique that suggests the 180 deg sparge water temp. The exact batch of Saison I did two weeknds ago, I ended up with 82% efficiency, which I am certainly happy with. I thought it had something to do with needing to raise the grain bed temp up high enuff during the sparge? If you use 180 deg water, dont you lose some of that heat during the sparge to grain bed abosrption?

Click to expand...

Yeah, by the time the 180F water hits the grains it levels off around 170F or so.

Batch sparging (no mash out) may be very different in terms of sparge water temperature than what I'm used to doing. 180°F is probably right. I fly sparge after having done a mash-out, so my sparge water is kept at 175°F or less.