Sparging temperature issue?

In the past I've used the stove to mash and transfered the wort into a bucket lauter tun to sparge (one inside the other)... so I would bring the sparging water up to 170 on the stove and add it to the buckets to sparge.

I just built a cooler-system to mash the grains and used it for the first time today. I mashed 15-lbs of grain at 150F for 1-hour then added water to sparge. The problem is I used 5-gal of water to sparge (as the recipe called for to yield the correct amount of wort to boil) except that I used 210F water to raise the temperature from 150F to 170F.

Is this going to add tannins or any off flavors?

This is only my 12th brew, so bare with me on my terminology / technique.

Thanks.

Nope, that's the proper procedure for an infusion mash method. There's the possibility that extra tannins are extracted from the grains that are first to come in contact with the near-boiling water, but in my experience it's negligible.

THis may not be proper, but when I'm doing my batch sparge, I just heat that water to about 170F and open the drain on the HLT. the grain's already been heated to your mash temp in the last hour, and as you see those coolers are VERY well insulated so you lose maybe 3 degrees tops.

then again, I've read that many people don't bother with a 170F mash out, with no ill effects.

it seems like you have to try really hard to screw up bad enough to make bad beer

I do the first infusion 3.5 gals.at 154deg,then sparge 2gals.2x at 170 all my batches have turned out really well. Keep it simple....Shane

Yeah, the mash-out is optional. It just stops enzymatic conversion from taking place while you're sparging. I'm not even really sure why I do it either.

Contrary to popular opinion tannin extraction is not so much a problem of temperature as it is of pH. If this wasn't the case then who would decoction mash? Batch sparging makes the pH problem a non-issue. You'll be fine.

Thanks for all of the posts... my beer has successfully begun the fermenting process. Time will tell how it tastes.

Got Trub? said:

Contrary to popular opinion tannin extraction is not so much a problem of temperature as it is of pH. If this wasn't the case then who would decoction mash? Batch sparging makes the pH problem a non-issue. You'll be fine.

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This is my understanding as well. It's actually a combination of temp, Ph, and time that causes excessive tannin extraction. I seem to remember Denny Conn talking about it on Better Brewing Radio a while back (speaking of batch sparging.)