Fly sparge question

[Faseel]

Hey all, I've been all-grain for around a solid 1.5 years and I fly sparse. My issue is this, im very careful to not raise my hot liquor tank water much higher than 178 degrees F. However after recirculation I start the fly sparse and before I start my run-Off I stop the sparse to take a temp reading and its at best 140 to 145 degrees. Does this sound right? I've always been concerned about pushing it through too hot and releasing all the nasty husks tannin, but if its really that low my efficiency could be hurting. The hot liquor tank is a nice and thick cooler and temp in the tank is nice and stable. Thoughts? Thank you!

 

[emetcalf]

If you are mashing kind of low (like 148-150) then that could very easilly be the temp of your mash at the end. I don't fly sparge, but I think doing a mashout would help a lot with your system. As far as I know, you want to get the grain up to around 168* before you start sparging. You have a few different options for raising the temp. You can add hot water if you have enough space in your mash tun, you can heat it directly if your system lets you do that, or you could drain some of the liquid from the mash, bring it to a boil, then add it back in.

You could also just raise the temperature of your sparge water, but I think doing a mashout and keeping your sparge water at the same level would be better.

 

[ETCS]

I usually do a Mash-Out (10 Minutes) then let the MT drain completely. I put 190 degree water in my HLT and sparge until I get 6.5 gallons. Don't know if this is the "Right" way to do it, but my beer turns out great. I

 

[Faseel]

Thank you for the response, hmm so let me review since im fly sparging should I not be able to raise the mash by flying in water at 168 to 175? I see what your saying about mashing out with detoction (sp) or heating the mash-tun. I have both a cooler and heated keg mash-tun, so both are an option, but I just thought from my research that continual sparging was done at 168 to 175 ( not to exceed 178 to hault mashing and get a through rinse of the grain bed?

 

[Faseel]

Thanks jkaylor, see that sounds solid to me. I've been hesitant to do a full run off before starting the sparge in fear of messing up the suction of the grain bed. If your flying out at 190 its most likely hitting the grain bed at 170-ish, again, not a bad method at all.

 

[Brewpastor]

Trickle in, trickle off. Pay attention to what the grain bed is reading and not the sparge water as it goes in. Sounds like you could raise the sparge temp without any concern. I don't empty and then sparge, is recirc a bit and then start to slowly run it off. The suggestion to empty then fly sounds like a hybrid batch-fly. If it works, go for it.

 

[ETCS]

I've been hesitant to do a full run off before starting the sparge in fear of messing up the suction of the grain bed

I guess it would depend on what type of manifold you are using, I'm using a copper manifold on the bottom of my cooler, haven't had a problem so far. Just whatever works for you.

 

[Faseel]

Great input guys thank you. I think I will borrow a bit from all of you. I will start mashing out with a hot water addition and bump up my fly-sparge temp to around 190 because clearly there is a significant heat loss when using a brass fly sparse arm. Thanks again!

 

[beach]

When temps like mash out or *don't go above x degrees or you'll extract tannins* are mentioned these are grain bed temps. Depending upon my mash temp I can fly sparge with 190-200*F water and the grain bed still doesn't get to 168* (11 gal into the ferm).