Sparging and Mash Out

[crawlspacestudios]

Alright, so noob question and I apologize. I am confused about sparging and mash out? Is it correct to assume that I mashout to stop activity, then fly-sparge until I reach my pre-boil volume?

If this is correct, what is the best way to raise the grain bed up to the 170(?) temperature. Should I hot water from the tank, or fire up the induction heater to raise the whole mash tun up? Does the mashout need to be immediate, or would I not want to reheat the tun slowly up to 170? And lastly, I promise, do I need to worry about tannins being released by adding the hot water, or raising the temp up?

I have read the other forums on this topic, but could not definitively find a correct solution.

I have 11.75 pounds of grain in a 10 gallon SS tun.

Thanks in advance!!

 

[MrHadack]

The purpose of the mash out is to denature the enzymes and stop any further conversion. You can do this by adding water in a volume and temperature that will raise the entire temperature of the mash to 168F, or you can use your heater. Either way is fine.

Personally, I fly-sparge and don't mash out at all. I heat my sparge water to about 185F. That's usually enough to raise the mash temperature to 168F while I sparge.

Anyhow, reaching the 168F doesn't have to be immediate, but getting it there sooner rather than later is probably better since the purpose is to stop conversion and lock-in the current state of the wort.

You do not have to worry about tannin extraction too much with temperatures. The most important factor regarding extraction of tannins is pH level. Keep your sparge / mash out water's pH under 6.0 and you'll be fine.

 

[crawlspacestudios]

The purpose of the mash out is to denature the enzymes and stop any further conversion. You can do this by adding water in a volume and temperature that will raise the entire temperature of the mash to 168F, or you can use your heater. Either way is fine.

Personally, I fly-sparge and don't mash out at all. I heat my sparge water to about 185F. That's usually enough to raise the mash temperature to 168F while I sparge.

Anyhow, reaching the 168F doesn't have to be immediate, but getting it there sooner rather than later is probably better since the purpose is to stop conversion and lock-in the current state of the wort.

You do not have to worry about tannin extraction too much with temperatures. The most important factor regarding extraction of tannins is pH level. Keep your sparge / mash out water's pH under 6.0 and you'll be fine.

Ok gotcha! Thanks so much for the reply. I really appreciate it.