I plan to brew my 2nd extract kit over the weekend that will be a hoppy IPA and the kit uses dry malt extract. One of the steps in the directions calls for sparging and it has me a little confused. I looked it up and from what I gather this seems more of process used in all grain brewing so is this step in extract brewing asking for more of a rinse? Just curious if you pour the boiled water over the grain bag or if you open the bag up and pour into the grains that way. Thank for the feedback.
Sparging?
- Thread starter JamesJ
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In extract with grains, sparging is just another way to say "rinsing." What you do is lift your grainbag out of your brewpot and let it drain (but don't squeeze it.) After it slows down then pour a couple quarts of water over the bag to further rinse any sugars off of it.
One thing I often do is rather than sparging into the brew pot, I hold the grain bag over a large metal bowl and "sparge" it into that, then I set the bag into the bowl for a few minutes to steep out, lift it, rinse with another quart or so of water, then add the liguid from the bowl into my brewpot.
One thing I often do is rather than sparging into the brew pot, I hold the grain bag over a large metal bowl and "sparge" it into that, then I set the bag into the bowl for a few minutes to steep out, lift it, rinse with another quart or so of water, then add the liguid from the bowl into my brewpot.
Also, one other point- you don't sparge with boiling water. You should sparge with water in the 168-170 degree area.
Brewmando
Well-Known Member
I have a strainer that fits over my brew pot. When I'm done steeping I place my grain bag in the strainer over the brew pot and let it drain. I make a pot of water thru my coffee maker and slowly pour that over my grain bag, VERY slowly trickling it and moving the pour around the surface of the bag. I can actually see the color and I assume some sugars and flavor being leached from this process. My coffee pot just happens to heat the water to 170* so I'm good there.
LuvMyRedDog
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You are not really doing a sparge like in an all grain brew. I mostly just dunk my grain bag in the hot water and let it drip/drain into the wort a few times. Do not open up your grain bag. There is no need to and you're going to make a mess.
Just a little off topic, but, do not pour boiling hot water on your malted grains. The tannins in the barley husks become water soluble at about 180 deg. f. Tannins are bad for beer.
Here is a great article on steeping specialty grains from an old issue of BYO Magazine, written by Chris Colby. It will explain everything you ever wanted to know about the process of steeping specialty grains. I've used this process to the letter many, many times when I used to do extracts, with terrific results.
These are image files, so you can just right click and save them to your desktop to be printed out.
MOD EDIT: Don't post copyrighted material. Paraphrase the article instead.
These are image files, so you can just right click and save them to your desktop to be printed out.
MOD EDIT: Don't post copyrighted material. Paraphrase the article instead.
cheezydemon
Well-Known Member
Wow. What could I possibly add after that?
The article was posted three years ago as scanned images on another forum by the author. He didn't seem to mind doing it. The mods here decided that it may be a slippery slope to allow the posting of copyrighted material. It didn't occur to me at first that it would be a problem considering that the author didn't have a problem posting the image files on the web in the first place.
After thinking about it I can see that the mods position here is the correct one. I've gone back to the forum that the article was originally posted on and can't seem to find it, after hours of searching. It was either deleted or lost in a crash. Also, BYO magazine gives access to a bunch of articles from past issues on their website. Unfortunately, the article on Steeping isn't one of them.
I have the original image files and would be willing to email them to you if you want to PM me your email address.
After thinking about it I can see that the mods position here is the correct one. I've gone back to the forum that the article was originally posted on and can't seem to find it, after hours of searching. It was either deleted or lost in a crash. Also, BYO magazine gives access to a bunch of articles from past issues on their website. Unfortunately, the article on Steeping isn't one of them.
I have the original image files and would be willing to email them to you if you want to PM me your email address.
