A couple questions

[MFigz]

Hey all! So I'm sort of new to all grain brewing, I've got around 10 batches under my belt and the results have run the spectrum. I've recently built an EHERMs setup and I've got a few questions.
1.) When I fly sparge, the temperature drops pretty quickly using 168F sparge water in my keggle mash tun. The grain bed will get down to high 140's by the end of the sparge sometimes. BUT! If I set the sparge water to around 180 and maintain a good 1.5" of water on top of the mash until sparge is finished (running's measure 1.010), I can keep the grain bed in the 165F range. Since I've already mashed out at 168, does the grain bed temp matter at this point, or should I try to continues to try and maintain the grain bed at a certain temp range throughout the sparge by adjusting my HLT/sparge water temp?
2.) Alternately, I've also tried following Beersmith directions which tells me I should use a set volume of water for the sparge. There have been times that I am not quite at 1.010 gravity after I have used that volume. Long story short, I typically sparge until I hit my gravity, and sometimes throws off the boil volume if I continue to sparge past my estimated pre-boil volume. Should this happen, I typically will boil down to my estimated boil volume before adding the first round of hops so it doesn't alter the hop profile, I'm pretty sure this is a good practice, but I haven't read anything instructing others to do the same so I just want to be sure that there isn't some reason I shouldn't.

Thanks!
Mike

 

[RM-MN]

1. Once you have stopped the enzyme activity by doing a mash out the sparge water temp doesn't matter. You could use cold water and get nearly the same effect as if you used boiling water.

2. The 1.010 gravity is a "do not go past this" number as when you do your pH is likely to be too hight and allow tannins to be extracted, especially with hotter sparge water. By attempting to get to this number you do extract more sugars for a better efficiency, but then you have too much water in your boil and have to boil longer to get to the amount of wort you want. It will be a trade off between the cost of grain to get the efficiency way up and the cost of the heating to get there. I'd quit when I had the volume I wanted and forget chasing the highest possible efficiency with the real possibility of extracting the tannins.

 

[MFigz]

Thanks so much! Your reply came just in time for my brewday yesterday. I've been stressing with each batch because I lose a lot of temperature in my Keggle Mash Tun during the sparge because beersmith tells me to sparge at 168, I figured it was because you needed to keep the mash temp up during the sparge.

So after this last batch I have a couple more questions.

1.) How critical is it to hit 168 during mashout? I typically use Beersmith's instructions, but I don't always hit 168, I'm usually closer to 166/167.

2.) Does it matter if I have extra water on top of my grain bed during the sparge assuming I keep it draining at .5qt/min? I have an E-HLT/BK and a Keggle MT. I typically drain sparge water into a fermenter bucket and then transfer back to the HLT/BK after the sparge. I was thinking that if I drain the HLT a little faster then I drain the MT, I could start heating the wort for the boil a little sooner.

Thanks!
Mike

 

[jalc6927]

The most important temp is the mash temp, the temp that you hit and maintain during mash out

You may start at 168, what is temp after you add and stir in grains?

 

[RM-MN]

Thanks so much! Your reply came just in time for my brewday yesterday. I've been stressing with each batch because I lose a lot of temperature in my Keggle Mash Tun during the sparge because beersmith tells me to sparge at 168, I figured it was because you needed to keep the mash temp up during the sparge.

So after this last batch I have a couple more questions.

1.) How critical is it to hit 168 during mashout? I typically use Beersmith's instructions, but I don't always hit 168, I'm usually closer to 166/167.

2.) Does it matter if I have extra water on top of my grain bed during the sparge assuming I keep it draining at .5qt/min? I have an E-HLT/BK and a Keggle MT. I typically drain sparge water into a fermenter bucket and then transfer back to the HLT/BK after the sparge. I was thinking that if I drain the HLT a little faster then I drain the MT, I could start heating the wort for the boil a little sooner.

Thanks!
Mike

Mashout is to stop the enzyme activity when the mash is done. The enzymes take time to be denatured so you need to keep the temperature up to accomplish this. I don't think one or 2 degrees would matter too much but I'd probably try to be a little high and then let it slip back to the 168.

The 168 degree is to avoid the possibility of tannin extraction which can happen if the grain bed exceeds 170 F. AND the pH goes over 6.0. That should never happen during mashout as your mash should have been 5.2 to 5.4 pH. When it can happen is during a long fly sparge where your wort goes below 1.010. Sparging with cooler water will avoid this.

For a fly sparge it is necessary to keep water above the grain bed to avoid channeling. Whether this is 1/2 inch or 1/2 foot shouldn't make much difference.