So if my recipe in Beersmith tells me to sparge with 4 gallons of 168 degree water, does that mean I heat the water in the HLT to 168 and add that, or does the temperature need to be 168 degrees once the sparge water is added in the mash tun?
Depends on what temp you are trying to hit.
Yes sparge with 168° water. Your mash should already be at the "mashout" temp unless of course you don't do a mashout. (the mashout is to raise the grain temp to the point at which the enzymatic process stops)
The idea being if you are sparging then you will be adding the sparge water continually for 20 or 30 minutes or more.The grains being sparged will quickly rise to the sparge temp and stay there during the sparge. The temperature at which grain husks start to release their astringent qualites is above 168° so that should prevent those husky astringents from invading your beer.
Or something like that!
Hah, I was thinking of fly sparging and didn't even think of batch sparging.
Obvioulsy a batch sparge would not take 20-30 mins to add so I guess my question would be did dmbnpj batch or fly sparge?
Hah, I was thinking of fly sparging and didn't even think of batch sparging.
Obvioulsy a batch sparge would not take 20-30 mins to add so I guess my question would be did dmbnpj batch or fly sparge?
Depends on what temp you are trying to hit. When I enter sparge info into BeerSmith, I tell it the grain temp(temp of dry grains, no water added yet), and then enter in my target temp for the mash and sparges. BeerSmith then tells you what temp to heat the water to in order to achieve that desired temp. So far It's been incredibly accurate, I was a bit skeptical first time I brewed an AG batch and it told me how hot to brew the water, but I did it, stirred it, stuck in my thermometer, came back in 10 minutes and it was exactly where BeerSmith said it would be.
If it's not working, my guess is you have the wrong temp entered for your grain. I always stick a thermometer in the grains for about 20 min before sparging and then adjust BeerSmith as needed(though it's almost always at 71 degrees at my house).
Beersmith's one big downfall is the sparge temp. Ideally you want your grain bed in the 168-170 range. It will not give you a temp that will raise your grainbed to that temp. If you don't mash out, I use 185-190 water to raise the temp to 168-170. I simply pour 1/2 to 3/4 of the sparge in, stir and check it. It's usually close enough to dump the whole amount in without going over 170f.
I personally heat the water to 168 and sparge with it. Thats how most other brewers also do it I believe. Theres just no way I'm heating my sparge water to 190-200 degrees to achieve 168 once mixed in with the grains. With my rectangle 10 gallon cooler w/bazooka screen and a double batch sparge(equal sparge sizes) method I'm achieving 80% eff. using 168 degree sparge water.
According to Gordon Strong at the AHA, the mash must not only exceed 168 but also have a rising or high PH in order to extract tannins. If you use PH 5.2 in the sparge water, it will buffer tannin extraction allowing you to use higher temperature water.
"5.2" doesn't seem to work with folks who's brewing water is naturally higher in pH......
Can you mix it with distilled water and use some acidulated malt?
Seems like we are getting a little crazy working into the pH, etc. of water. Really who measures this (I know I know I'm sure some of you do). For the average Joe, I was just wondering what definition of the temperature of the sparge is.
Sorry to get , but it seems your original question has been answered?
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