Sparge temps?

So I've got this fancy setup with a sort of sprinkler head for the sparge and 'they' say to sparge at 168-170 deg so that's what I've got up in the sparge water tank. However, once it runs down the line and sprinkles through the air it's not really that hot. The thermometer in my mash tun that was in the water above the grain bed read 140 deg during sparge. I just ignored it figuring I wasn't going to ruin my beer but I was wondering what the consensus of those more experienced than I am about this. Sparge temps matter? Don't matter? Just go for it? I didn't do a mashout, having read in various places that the mashout is unnecessary at the size batches we do. Any opinions on that? Maybe I had the mashout and sparge confused temperaturewise.

Thanks guys.

I keep my sparge water at about 185F... then it runs down through my sparge arm and keeps the grain bed warm. BUT you have to also keep in mind that while you are fly sparging, the top of your cooler MAY be open and you are losing alot of heat that way too. My grain bed sparge temp runs about 155-160F and I still get about 79% eff... so, I wont complain or get too worried.

http://s168.photobucket.com/albums/u189/PolTavern/?action=view&current=DSCN0118.flv

Pol

I fly sparge and I first mix enough nearly boiling water into my mash to bring the temp up to about 168 degrees. I then put 180 degree water in the hot liquor tank and sparge with that. By the time it gets to the mash/ Lauter tun it is below 170 degrees.

I checked out Palmer again last night and he says not to sparge over 170, nothing about how low to go. I guess you want to keep it hot enough that your sugars don't start to cool off and stick the grain bed, but not so hot as to extract tannins out of it. Pol - I saw that video right after I got done with that batch and that's pretty much what mine looked like. I had never seen a sparge arm like that work until I ran mine. Pretty cool. Thanks for the tips guys.

Yah, not worth $40, but it looks neat.

Pol

Yeah I didn't pay 40 for it. I got 2 10 gal rubbermaid converted coolers with the whole setup, thermometers too and the sparge arm for 100 - made out like a bandit.