Rinse specialty grains?

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bd2xu

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In kits with specialty grains, is it a good idea to rinse (or sparge I guess) the specialty grains with 170 water after steeping for the recommended time? I would think this would get the most good stuff out of the grain without squeezing it.
 
Yep, a sparge of this type is just what the doctor ordered. Me, when I soak grains, I just dunk and drain a lot.
 
I did it, have an electric tea kettle that worked perfect. Hold 64 oz and brings water to 170 fast, poured it all over the grain bag before removing.
 
Not sure if it makes a huge difference or not, but I do it. I put the muslin bag in a large stainless colander and rinse with 170°F water.
 
you're basically rinsing the grains when you steep them, sparging them afterwards is unnecessary
 
Sparging is rinsing the mashed grains with 170 water right?

yes, but 170F isn't a requirement, you can sparge cooler with just as good of results. in essence steeping is batch sparging as conversion has already taken place in the malting process of specialty grains
 
You aren't extracting sugars (not enough to matter) from these grains, just color and flavor. I would think it wasn't necessary. I don't think it would hurt anything if you wanted to do this either.
 
I steep my grains(without a bag) in 1.5-2 quarts of water per pound of grains. While they are steeping I start the majority of my water in the boil pot heating up while heating up a gallon of water in another pot. When I am done I pour the grains through a stainless steel strainer into the boil pot. Then I pour the gallon of heated up water over the steeped grains into the boil pot. This way I eliminate some of my time waiting for the boil water to heat up and rinse as much flavor and color off of the grains as possible.
 
I say "If it feels good... DO IT!!" I personally dump my adjucts into a fine colendar and rinse them off into the primary prior to tranfering the wort. Never had a problem and it cools the spent grains off before they are fed to my goats. Just my 2cents...
 
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