Sparge stuff

As I sit here smoking my pipe, watching the orioles, brewing my beer...and drinking some too, I'm pondering some details of the batch sparge. I understand how mash temperatures affect the beer but I'm blank in sparge details such as-

What does the temp of your sparge affect and what problems can occur?

What do numerous sparges vs 1 sparge help with?

When doing 2 sparges, why aren't they equal volumes on beersmith? (1.5g followed by 3.5g for this batch.)

How long do people let the batch sparge sit before draining?

I don't like the burn on my tongue when I take a sip of beer after smoking a pipe...but hell, I look intelligent!

Thanks for your help

1. If your temp is too high you run the risk of extracting tannins from the grain, too low and you can lose efficiency.

2. Can help with efficiency, I think.

3. I assume the 1.5g you are referring to is the mashout addition(unless I'm forgetting something, and that is entirely possible. That volume should equal the amount of water absorbed by the grain during the mash, so it brings your first runnings back to your initial strike volume.

4. Typically 10 minutes.(For me and the people I have brewed with.)

5. The illusion of intelligence is all that really matters, right?

For the unequal sparge volumes you can edit this with the edit mash profile button by your mash profile on the mash page. Under the batch sparge section on the edit screen click use equal sparge volumes.

The purpose of sparging is to rinse the sugars from the mash that were left behind when you drained your tun. The temperature isn't as critical as most of us would believe. Hotter water dissolves sugar more readily than cold but in a home system the difference won't affect your efficiency a great deal. You can sparge with as hot of water as you like as long as your pH stays low but when you do a second sparge the pH tends to drift higher and you risk the extraction of excess tannins. Much of this will depend on the minerals in your water so some risk tannins with only one sparge while others can sparge twice or possibly 3 times depending on the grains in the mash.