Enzyme question

[tiredofbuyingbeer]

When I BIAB, I lift the grain bag, let it drain for a bit, then dunk the bag in the sparge water. Because I sparge, I don't do a mashout, which I thought of as beside the point since I sparge at mashout temperatures.

While I sparge, the first runnings of my wort sit in the kettle at my mash temperature, or maybe lower because of heat loss. I don't heat them up until I dump the sparge water in. My question is: While my first runnings are sitting in the kettle, are alpha and beta enzymes still working, even though there's no grain in the kettle? Could this cause my wort to excessively break down complex sugars, leading to an over-attenuated final beer?

 

[pricelessbrewing]

Yes they will continue to work until the wort is heated and the enzymes are denatured.

Will it change attenuation, possibly.

 

[Kerrbrewer]

This is the reason I only BIAB certain recipes. I couldnt brew a beer that would end above 1.006 without firing up the burner before pulling the bag. The recipes that I still do that way are very good and are supposed to be that low a gravity. Get the temp up above 170 as fast as you can.

 

[doug293cz]

There's no reason you can't start heating the first runnings in your kettle while you do the sparge in another vessel. Time to denature would be about the same as a mashout.

Brew on