"mash out or not to mash out, that is the question?"

[thenatibrewer]

i have very limited experience with AG but on my first couple i did not "officially" mash out. basically i ran my mash two different ways. first was a batch sparge and the second was a modified continuos sparge. so the question is if i am using lets say 10lbs of grains, and the mash temp is 154f and i am shooting for a 170f mash out what should the original water temp. be and how much water should i add for a mash out? is it even worth doing?

 

[Chriso]

If batch sparging, a mash-out is not a necessity. I batch sparge every batch, and don't even attempt a true "mash out", I just target 170F-172F for my sparge water temp. BeerSmith does the rest.

 

[FSR402]

If you're batch sparging and don't do a mash-out use 180* sparge water.

I always do a mash-out. I have found that it works better for me.

 

[Jaybird]

as a home brewer its not really worth doing in my opinion, we arnt trying to create the exact same product every time. Why stop the conversion process? why not still convert while your sparging? I used to mash out and when I stoped my eff went up a few points. On that note I have never batched sparged I am still in the fly sparge world, because I like the results. I generally see 87 to 90 % in my system.
JJ

 

[knowltonm]

If you're batch sparging and don't do a mash-out use 180* sparge water.

We generally do a mashout, but saw no efficiency change when we forgot on a batch. If you do skip it, use hotter water like FSR402 says. If you only use 170 degree water into 154 degree grain, you're losing a lot of your heat that you need to rinse all that sugar off. With my new system (never been used) I plan to mashout and use 170-175 degree sparge water in my fly sparge.