Time between mash out and sparge

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Brian Parfitt

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Quick question regarding my batch sparging process.

When I drain my mash tun at the end of the mash, it may take 5-10 minutes at a rate slow enough to not compact the bed. I typically have a little work to do to get water moved around, pumps reconfigured etc before I can add my sparge water to the mash tun.

So my question is this. How long can you let a grain bed sit and cool before adding the sparge water? I assume that the grain temperature will be dropping due to the tun being opened and a large thermal source of water being removed. Is 10 minutes ok? Or should you be ready to add sparge water immediately after the tun is drained? Or am I overthinking this and it's not really an issue?

Appreciate any feedback on this.

Brian
 
1. You are over thinking it. It will be fine.

2. What are you mashing in? Is it insulated? The temperature should not fall much if it is just a few minutes. The grains will retain water, and this mass will retain heat pretty efficiently, especially if in an insulated container.

3. The less time the better, but 10 minutes will be fine. I have a second kettle (7 gal) that I use for sparge water and clean up water - this allows me to sparge immediately after the mash is done.
 
Are you batch sparging or fly sparging? The reason for that question is because you don't need to mash out for batch sparging.

If you are indeed fly sparging and have gotten the mash to mash out temp and held it there for the 10 minutes or more that it takes to denature the enzymes, then the cooling only matters in that you will need more time to bring the wort to boil.
 
^correct on all points^

I think it has been shown often that the temperature of the sparge liquor really doesn't matter much wrt extract. I would expect that would extend to the mash bed as well...

Cheers!
 
I think it has been shown often that the temperature of the sparge liquor really doesn't matter much wrt extract. I would expect that would extend to the mash bed as well...

Cheers!
I use water straight from my tap for sparging. I get very high brewhouse efficiency with this, so high that it doesn't seem like hot water would make any difference.
 
Exactly.
The only concern is the pH of the sparge water, really. Too high a pH (above 5.6) and the sparge can start pulling tannins and silicates out of the mash...

Cheers!
 
Exactly.
The only concern is the pH of the sparge water, really. Too high a pH (above 5.6) and the sparge can start pulling tannins and silicates out of the mash...

Cheers!
Only if the sparge water is too hot. As long as you keep the sparge water below about 170F you won't be extracting excessive amounts of tannins regardless of the pH of the water.
 
Only if the sparge water is too hot. As long as you keep the sparge water below about 170F you won't be extracting excessive amounts of tannins regardless of the pH of the water.

I believe that both will extract tannins . I use Bru N Water and it calls for the sparge to be treated .
 
Sorry for the confusion.. Mixed up my terminology.. I'm batch sparging and was referring to draining wort from mash at end of 60 mins.

My process is as follows:

2 vessel frankenstein HERMS setup where boil kettle doubles as HLT during mash.
After mash completes, I drain first runnings into a secondary (smaller pot) for temporary holding.
Then I sparge with water from HLT (which has been treated). Typically shoot for 170F on sparge water.
Once the sparge water is drained from HLT and it is empty, I transfer 1st runnings into it (now it has become the boil kettle) from temporary holding pot
I then transfer sparge water from mash tun into BK.

Looking to add a dedicated HLT to the process shortly.

Thanks for weighing in on this. Sounds like I'll be ok based on what I am doing.
 
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