Please help me understand my two mistakes

I just brewed my 6th batch and I realized that I am doing two things wrong. Probably more, but these two for now I was learning from J.Palmers book and probably overlooked or misunderstood some things.

I want to ask you about your opinions and your thoughts about consequences:

1. Batch sparge temperature
Palmer says that sparge temperature should be 165-175, preferably about 170.
So every time I heated the water to about 170, poured it into the mash tun, stirred, closed the lid and let it sit for 15 min, then drained. (Note that temp in the mash tun was about 158 after sparge water was poured in.)
Now I can see that these temps are target, like in multi-rest mashing, so I should heat the water to the higher temp to get about 170 in the mash tun after I will pour it in.
So, how it should be? 170 for the water, or for the mash tun? And what consequences it may have? My OG is always close to the target and beer tastes good.

2. Cooling
I am using immersion copper cooler from my 2nd batch and I learned to stir the wort often to help it cool faster (about 15 min). I don't know why, but I stirred it every time like crazy, making whirpool.
Now I read in the book that wort should be stirred gently to prevent oxidation.
So, how you stir the wort during cooling? And what consequences it may have? My beer seems good, but actually I am not sure how oxidation can be recognized in the beer.

Thanks a lot for help.

The way you're doing it is fine. For #1 if you're hitting your OG, you're doing it right. I also batch sparge and heat the strike water to 170; not the grain bed. For #2, he means don't introduce oxygen once fermentation has taken hold. Yeast needs oxygen in the beginning to do its job properly.

I am sure people will disagree but:

1) If you are batch sparging, the sparge temp really isn't that important as you are really just washing the sugars off of the grains. The higher "mash out temp is to stop conversion and set your wort profile> The amount of time between the end of the mash and starting the boil is not really long enough for any continued conversion to take place and alter the profile of your wort. If you were fly sparging this might be different.

2) The hot side aeration issue is one of those homebrew debates. I am guessing that most homebrewers add oxygen, either by shaking or with gas. Maybe it is only a problem before the wort is cooled - I don't know. I have never had a problem from stirring while cooling, but you don't need a whirlpool strength stir while cooling.

RDWHAHB.

One technique for late hop additions is whirlpool hoping aka hop stand. Also many people create a whirlpool to allow some of the trub to settle in the center of the kettle and transfer less trub into the fermenter. Don't worry about it.

#1 - I usually heat my sparge water to ~170 as well. Some techniques tell you to bring the grain bed up to 170 others just the water. Either way you are trying to extract as much sugar from the grains as possible. The way I see it you are fine.

#2 - The whirlpool is actually a great technique to collect all of the cold break and hop material in the middle of your kettle. Many people do this to create a sort of pyramid so they can siphon thier wort from the sides to minimize the amount of trub that goes into the fermentor. As long as you aren't splashing you will be fine. The wort needs to be aerated prior to the yeast being added. If the wort is aerated after the yeast have started fermenting you will get the stale cardboard like flavor in your finished beer.

There are no specific set of rules you must abide by when brewing. Everyone has their own techniques and procedures as to how they brew. This is one of the joys of brewing. As long as you enjoy your beer then nothing else really maters.

Thanks a lot for all your comments. Looks like I am fine Anyway, I was just curious about these problems, not really worried.

#1 - Looks like there are two ways and probably both are right. If I read some czech beer tutorial, where simplest and cheapest ways are used, I can see that grain bed is rinsed in strainer for one to three times with 170 water from kettle. So no worries about the grain bed temperature (which is impossible this way). See the picture:
http://pivnirecenze.cz/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/P3060036.jpg

#2 - Well, from what I understood, there are few stages:
1. wort is hot - mashing, draining, boiling, cooling = avoid areation as much as you can (but isn't aeration presented during boiling? just curious)
2. wort is cold - whirpooling, racking from kettle to bucket = probably avoid aeration too, but because whirpooling can cause aeration and you can also transfer the wort by pouring it directly to the kettle through strainer, aeration is possible in this stage
3. wort is cold with yeast - after yeast is poured in = aeration is needed for proper fermentation
4. wort is fermenting - racking to secondary or to bottling bucket = avoid aeration

Well, my procedure is:
1. here I watch for aeration all the time, until cooling, which I described above = so I'll try to stir gently next time, which will be probably also better for cooling
2. after wort is cooled and cooler removed, I make whirpool and let it sit for about 15 min = nothing to change here I think, because it makes nice pyramid and racking is easier then
3. after wort is transfered to the bucket, I clean and sanitize the kettle and transfer the wort back to it vigorously, then back to the bucket vigorously again = I think also nothing to change here. This creates a good aeration with a lot of foam and when yeast is pitched and bucket closed, I shake and swirl the bucked to redistribute the yeast and make another aeration. By this way, fermenation always starts within 12 hours and I never had problem.
4. I always racking the beer to the bottling bucket carefuly, so no problem here

All I described is from the book, so maybe it is not actual at this time, but I think these are some basic rules which never changes, right?

Looking forward to another comments! Thank you people.

Eladaos said:

All I described is from the book, so maybe it is not actual at this time, but I think these are some basic rules which never changes, right?

Looking forward to another comments! Thank you people.

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Right! It sounds like you're doing it perfectly.

The only thing I have to add is that when you are batch sparging, it's important to stir in the sparge water. Stir in quite well, very thoroughly, and then you can vorlauf (recirculate a bit of the runnings until it runs clear) and drain. You don't have to wait 15 minutes- the beauty of batch sparging is the time savings.

I really like this website for a quick and easy explanation of batch sparging: http://hbd.org/cascade/dennybrew/

I'm glad I read this I just put my chiller in and never stir it. I see what I need to do when I brew my next batch.