"Another" Partial Mash Question

[Tippsy-Turvy]

My first partial mash today. Thot i had read up on everything and had it all figured out until sparge time.

Is the sparge temp of 170F to be maintained for the full 10-15mins duration? With vigorous stirring, my sparge cooled quickly to the mash temperature where it hovered. If that's ok then how does this differ from just mashing 10-15 mins longer (I guess the sparge water's not saturated with sugars?)? Sorry, that's more than one question.

 

[RM-MN]

Actually your sparge water temperature doesn't matter all that much. Its purpose is just to dissolve more sugars from the grain bed. The first runnings should have most of the sugars but there will always be some left behind and the sparge gets much of that. If you do a smaller first sparge and then a second sparge, you will get more sugars, but each time you get a smaller amount of sugar and if you continue to do sparge after sparge, eventually you will get almost no more sugars but you might be able to leach out something else that is less desirable.

 

[Tippsy-Turvy]

Ah ha........thank you.