batch sparge water temp

[Sidman]

so I just moved up to all grain from partial mash and I am doing a simple batch sparge for a recipe. My instructions say to heat sparge water to 175 and then fly sparge. When I last tried this I got the sparge temp up to 180's but by the time I got it in the mash tun I could only get mid 160's as the temp. I also saw a video where their suggestion for batch sparging was to get the temps close to 190 to 200.

So my question is am I trying to just get the sparge water to 175 or the entire mash tun temp to 175?

Thanks in advance for any help.

 

[pricelessbrewing]

I would not advise doing a fly sparge. Batch sparge is much easier, and while you may lose a couple % lauter efficiency for a well done batch sparge vs a well done fly sparge, a poorly done fly sparge is basically useless.

Don't worry about sparge temps imo, but if you do a long fly sparge, you should try and get the grains to 170F to halt enzyme activity. For batch sparge, it takes a lot less time so I don't worry about it.

 

[Rev2010]

I batch sparge as well, I do a double batch sparge which I often use around 4.5-5G of total sparge water (like say 2.5G for the first sparge and 2.5G for the second). You really should be using brewing calculators. I have an Android phone and use the calculators in an old no longer support app called Brewzor. You would go the batch sparge calculator and input the grain weight,desired boil volume, current mash water amount, and number of sparges you want to do. It then tells you how much sparge water to use.

So, for example I have 11lbs of grain, want a boil volume of 7 gallons, currently have 3.5G of water in the mash, and want to batch sparge twice. I tells me to use 4.93G of sparge water total. That's close enough to 5G so I round it up and do two sparges at 2.5G each. To determine the temp, you now take this information and input it into the Mash Infusion calculator - since I want the sparge to be at 168 degrees. You input the current temperature, water in mash, grain weight, target temperature, and infusion water volume. With the current mash temp at 152 and the other info inputted it tells me that first sparge needs to be heated to 193.9 - so I heat my sparge water to 194.

I hit my numbers on point every single time, only ever being a degree or two off maximum which wouldn't matter. The only trick is to keep the lid off the sparge pot or half on/half off so the water for the second sparge can cool down a bit otherwise the second sparge will be over 170. I usually leave the lid off and just give it a temp check. I find I most commonly want the second sparge to be around 180ish so it keeps at 168 when added to the tun. This is something you can also calculate but I've never seen a need to.


Rev.

 

[TAK]

So my question is am I trying to just get the sparge water to 175 or the entire mash tun temp to 175?

The reasoning behind the instructions you were given is to get the grain bed up to about 168-170F. Above that, and you start getting extra tannins from the grain. As you've seen, the sparge temp needs to be higher, as it equalizes with the cooler grain bed. Batch sparging will require higher temps than fly sparging to equalize out at 170F.

I batch sparge, and for me, I lead into the sparge with this question. Am I looking for a highly fermentable wort, or not so much? For highly fermentable recipes, I don't worry about raising the sparge temps that high (aka, mashing out at 170F to stop enzymatic activity). If I am aiming for something with more specific fermentability, I might try to mash out. But still, I don't typically worry about it to much.

My advice would be, if you want to mash out, heat your sparge water to 180ish, and see where that gets your grain bed. On the next recipe, adjust, and continue until you know about what temp your water needs to be. Keep in mind, volume of water will make a difference.

 

[doug293cz]

For batch sparging, if your starch to sugar conversion is complete, then sparge water temperature does not make a difference. (ref: http://braukaiser.com/blog/blog/2009/05/12/cold-water-sparging/. You can determine completeness of conversion by monitoring the SG of the wort in your mash, and comparing to this table: http://braukaiser.com/wiki/index.php?title=Understanding_Efficiency#Measuring_conversion_efficiency. A refractometer is useful for monitoring the SG during mashing.

After starch to sugar conversion is complete, there can still be complex sugars in the wort that are subject to further size reduction (which makes them more fermentable) due to continued enzymatic action. You may not want this, as it could make your FG lower, and the beer thinner. Since proper fly sparging takes a long time, the continued enzyme action during this time could be undesirable. To stop the enzymatic action, the mash temp needs to be raised above about 168°F, and this will destroy the enzymes in about 10 minutes. Temp can be raised by direct heating of the mash, doing an infusion of high temp water, or using very hot sparge water (although just using very hot sparge water will take a long time to raise the mash temp, so isn't a very effective mash out step.) If sparge water is kept below a pH of about 5.8 - 6.0, you don't have to worry about tannin extraction, no matter what the water temp is.

Since a batch sparge can be completed in 10 - 15 minutes, and the initial run off can be heating to boil during the sparge, stopping the enzymatic action is less important compared to when fly sparging. Thus many batch spargers don't do a mash out.

Brew on

 

[govner1]

so I just moved up to all grain from partial mash and I am doing a simple batch sparge for a recipe. My instructions say to heat sparge water to 175 and then fly sparge. When I last tried this I got the sparge temp up to 180's but by the time I got it in the mash tun I could only get mid 160's as the temp. I also saw a video where their suggestion for batch sparging was to get the temps close to 190 to 200.



So my question is am I trying to just get the sparge water to 175 or the entire mash tun temp to 175?



Thanks in advance for any help.

Batch sparge (simple) is not the same as fly sparge. If you're using BeerSmith change to a setting that includes bath h sparge & it will give you the appropriate volumes & temp. Usually in the 168°F range.

 

[hucklb]

This calculator will give you the temps, too. http://www.brewersfriend.com/quick-infusion/

 

[dsaavedra]

I routinely batch sparge with room temperature water and get good results. I started a thread on it this morning and apparently I am not alone