Sparged at 168 should I toss the batch?

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NervousDad

NervousDad

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I followed Beersmith which said to drain the mash tun and sparge with 5 gallons of water @ 168. I also forgot stir when I sparged. Should I just toss this batch? The wort has a grainy smell to it?
 
No, it's all okay. I am assuming you have already boiled and have it in the fermenter? If not do so. RDWHAHB. It will be beer.
 
168 is a standard sparging temperature. Why do you think it would be a problem?

The no-stir will probably make your gravity a couple of points lower, but no harm no foul.

Your wort is grainy; of course it smells like grain!

Relax and enjoy the ride man :mug:
 
That's good to hear, thanks! I was reading that you need to sparge with water @ 185 to compensate for the mash temp. It's fermenting nicely this morning so I'm hoping in a few weeks I'll have some ok beer :)
 
NervousDad said:
That's good to hear, thanks! I was reading that you need to sparge with water @ 185 to compensate for the mash temp. It's fermenting nicely this morning so I'm hoping in a few weeks I'll has some ok beer :)
Click to expand...

Correct. Since you probably mashed in the low to mid 150 range when you sparge at that higher temp you will need hotter water. There are some good apps and software that will help you out allot as far as hitting your temps. Since conversion takes place early on in the mashing process, your sparge is for suspending the rest of the sugars and give you your pre boil volumes. Your going to be fine and in a couple of weeks, you will indeed have beer.
 
You can sparge with 32 degree water if you want to - it's just not going to be as efficient and the beer will be drier (part of the reason for the 168-degree grain bed is to denature the enzymes).
 
ArcaneXor said:
You can sparge with 32 degree water if you want to - it's just not going to be as efficient and the beer will be drier (part of the reason for the 168-degree grain bed is to denature the enzymes).
Click to expand...

I sparge with cold tap water about half of the time and hit efficiency numbers within 1% every single brew. Old wives tale? ;)
 
My OG was pretty high before I pitched my yeast. I had a small boil over and had to top off the wort with a gallon of water and it was still ~1.055 for an American cream ale that should have been 1.041. I measured with a refractometer.
 
MalFet said:
I sparge with cold tap water about half of the time and hit efficiency numbers within 1% every single brew. Old wives tale? ;)
Click to expand...

Efficient as in it takes longer to bring it back up to a boil, not in terms of extract.
 
NervousDad said:
My OG was pretty high before I pitched my yeast. I had a small boil over and had to top off the wort with a gallon of water and it was still ~1.055 for an American cream ale that should have been 1.041. I measured with a refractometer.
Click to expand...

Hmm...there's something fishy here, likely in your math or your measurements. 1.055 is fully reasonable for a cream ale, so there's nothing to worry about per se, but if you post your recipe and process we can walk through your process with you to figure out why your numbers don't add up.
 
It was a Cream Ale kit from NB

http://www.northernbrewer.com/documentation/allgrain/AG-CreamAle.pdf

8 pound grain

my grain and mash tun were both (53 degrees)

Beersmith recopied steps.

Pre boil volume needed was 6.78 Gallons I only ended up with approximately 6 gallons.

Should have Mashed in @ 152 (I was at 151.2) I let it sit for one hour. When I opened up the cooler I was still at the same temp.

I did my vorlof (about 8 quarts before is ran clear) I drained into my Kettle. I added the sparge water in @ 168.2 and didn't stir. I stopped sparging because my runnings where at ~1.001 and it was very light. (I read that if you keep sparging this low you'll have pH problems, not sure if that's correct or not)


I boiled for 1 hour and had a small boil over, less than a gallon I think.

I made up the lower water volume with 1 gallon of mineral water to = 5 gallons.
 
ArcaneXor said:
You can sparge with 32 degree water if you want to - it's just not going to be as efficient and the beer will be drier (part of the reason for the 168-degree grain bed is to denature the enzymes).
Click to expand...

32 degree water would be a block of ice. but your point is taken.:mug:
 
NervousDad said:
It was a Cream Ale kit from NB

http://www.northernbrewer.com/documentation/allgrain/AG-CreamAle.pdf

8 pound grain

my grain and mash tun were both (53 degrees)

Beersmith recopied steps.

Pre boil volume needed was 6.78 Gallons I only ended up with approximately 6 gallons.

Should have Mashed in @ 152 (I was at 151.2) I let it sit for one hour. When I opened up the cooler I was still at the same temp.

I did my vorlof (about 8 quarts before is ran clear) I drained into my Kettle. I added the sparge water in @ 168.2 and didn't stir. I stopped sparging because my runnings where at ~1.001 and it was very light. (I read that if you keep sparging this low you'll have pH problems, not sure if that's correct or not)


I boiled for 1 hour and had a small boil over, less than a gallon I think.

I made up the lower water volume with 1 gallon of mineral water to = 5 gallons.
Click to expand...

To end up with 5 gallons of 1.055 wort, you would have needed to pull a cool 93% efficiency. Considering the boil over, the top off, and the weak sparge (likely due to no stirring), that seems extremely unlikely. My guess is that you don't actually have 1.055 wort, and that you've got a faulty measurement on your hands. You might want to test your refractometer on a standard sugar solution of some sort.
 
NervousDad said:
That's good to hear, thanks! I was reading that you need to sparge with water @ 185 to compensate for the mash temp. It's fermenting nicely this morning so I'm hoping in a few weeks I'll has some ok beer :)
Click to expand...

Are you sure you didn't misread? Popular wisdom says that a sparge above 170 F can extract tannins from the grain husks.
 
I sparge @ 170, send me your ruined beer. =). Also nb cream ale was one of the best beers I've made or tried, you are gonna love it.
 
Tannins are an illusion for the homebrewer, only keeping you from no fear brewing.
 
NervousDad said:
I stopped sparging because my runnings where at ~1.001 and it was very light. (I read that if you keep sparging this low you'll have pH problems, not sure if that's correct or not)
Click to expand...

That's true to a point, and you should really be testing the pH to watch for this, but a gravity reading is an indicator. I'm assuming the low reading was from the sparge water running straight through the grain and not washing the sugars, as was mentioned above.
 
Thanks everyone for calming my fears. After all that went wrong with my first AG batch, if it tastes remotely like beer I'll be happy. It can't taste any worse than Coors Light right? :)
 
NervousDad said:
That's good to hear, thanks! I was reading that you need to sparge with water @ 185 to compensate for the mash temp. It's fermenting nicely this morning so I'm hoping in a few weeks I'll have some ok beer :)
Click to expand...

Don't sell yourself short, sir, you will have GREAT beer.
 

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