Sparging Grains in Extract Recipe

I'm reading through some Clone Brews recipes, and they all mention sparging the steeped specialty grains prior to boiling and adding the extracts. In my vast experience of my ONE effort at extract-specialty grain brew (still in primary), I was not instructed by the kit instructions to sparge my specialty grains. I know what sparging is, but what's the best way to sparge the specialty grains (all recipes appear to mention doing this with 1/2 gallon at 150 degrees F)? Do you just pull the grain sack out of the water, and pour the hot water over the sack?

Thanks.

Let me start off by saying that I too am a noob, so any more experienced brewers feel free to correct me if I am wrong. What I have done in a few batches that called for sparging specialty grains in extract recipes is heat 1/2 gal. of water to 150 degrees and slowly rinse the grain bag with the sparge water. I use a turkey baster and really take my time doing it, spending about 20-25 mins or so slowly dripping the sparge water over the grains.

Well sparging is a throwback to AG brewing. In extract brewing, "sparging" can extract a little more flavor then if you just took the grains out after steeping them. What I would do is heat up a seperate sauce pan of water to 170....then take the grains out and pour that water over the bag before discarding. But honestly, I got some pretty good brews just from steeping the specialty grains...then taking them out and placing them in a saucepan and leave them there for a few minutes. Gravity will extract more liquid while not providing more pressure for extracting tannins.

Would there be any harm in taking the grain bag(s) out of the brew kettle and dunking them the proper volume of hot water in a separate pot, then adding that liquid to the kettle?

Would there be any harm in taking the grain bag(s) out of the brew kettle and dunking them the proper volume of hot water in a separate pot, then adding that liquid to the kettle?

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Nope, it would be a good thing. Although, I just teabag specialty grains.

It sounds from the recipes that they are more or less telling you to rinse the grains at 150. Actual sparging requires a higher temp like 170.

If it's just steeped specialty grains then thier method is probably fine. If your grain bag has a significant amount of fermentables, that's when I would be concerned with higher sparge temp.

david_42 said:

Nope, it would be a good thing. Although, I just teabag specialty grains.

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Right, I wasn't thinking to leave them sit in the fresh water, just dunking them.

The reason I asked was because I don't have a strainer or colander big enough, so I wanted to do the second pot method.