Batch Sparge Temp

Ok I have a question about what my batch sparge water temperature should be. My recipe is for a 5 gallon batch. Recipe says to heat strike water to 167 for a 152-154 degree mash. Then it says to heat your sparge water to170 but I'm not sure if they are writing the instructions for a fly sparge. So my question is if these instructions are for a fly sparge what temperature would I heat my water for a batch sparge?

Thanks,

Mike

that should work fine for batch sparge. I usually try to get my batch sparge water between 150 and 170, as far as i know it doesn't matter too much as your just rinsing but if you go to hot it can extract tannins.

Yeah, it's fairly inconsequential. I still try to get it to where the bed is 165-168*F after the infusion and stirring (I have a RIMS so I err a few degrees on the short side and let the element bring it up), but the biggest "benefit" this provides is probably viscosity of the running, with "denature enzymes" coming in somewhere behind that.

My batch sparge temps also typically fall between 150˚ - 170˚F, but I have batched sparged with sparge water that was simply "warm" with no ill results.

You can batch sparge with cold water if you want to, with no effect on your efficiency (ref: http://braukaiser.com/blog/blog/2009/05/12/cold-water-sparging/.) The biggest benefit of hot water sparging is that the wort is hotter, and the time to heat to boil will be less.

If you are batch sparging, you should be mashing with more water than the 1.25 - 1.5 qt/lb typical for fly spargers. Thinner mashes convert faster than thicker mashes (ref: http://braukaiser.com/wiki/index.php?title=Understanding_Efficiency#Mash_thickness), so more water can improve your efficiency. You should target half of your pre-boil volume from the initial run off, and the other half from the sparge. The additional mash water will also decrease the mash viscosity, and make the initial run off flow better, thus negating the need to heat the mash to improve initial run off.

Brew on

I'm pretty much always at 165-168 on my spare water temps.

Alpha amylase will denature at 168, and you get some degree of tannin extraction at 175. So your grain bed temp should be in between there.

Batch sparge water can be around 185. I know cold is OK but the warmer the wort comes out the faster it reaches boil.

Bobby_M said:

Batch sparge water can be around 185. I know cold is OK but the warmer the wort comes out the faster it reaches boil.

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+1 - but gotta keep your pH at the right range, right? i.e 5,5 - 5,8?

PH is important throughout but dumping 185f water in and stirring is not really exposing the grain to out of bound temps because it drops under 170f almost instantly.