Sparge temp error - way high

[Paradingbull]

Two weeks ago brewed a simple AG cream ale. Long story short, after adding batch sparge water had 180F in the mash tun. Took a couple of frantic trips to the kitchen to get enough ice to get back to 170F. Took about 5 minutes total to get back to 170F.

During a gravity check today took a taste and it was very good. My question is did I dodge the bullet with my short term high sparge temp or is this the kind of error that may show up a few weeks down the road with bad tastes in the beer? Just curious as I only have a handful of AG's under my belt.

 

[helibrewer]

You should be fine, I heat my HLT to about 190F...pH is much more important with regard to tannin extraction.

 

[VikingChrisColby]

You will probably be fine. In continuous sparging (also called fly sparging), you don't want your the grain bed temperature to exceed 170 °F at the end of wort collection. At that point, the pH might have climbed to above 5.8 and the combination of relatively high pH and heat will extract excess tannins. If you're batch sparging and your grain bed hit 180 °F, you'll probably be fine as the pH was probably substantially less than 5.8 and you were only 10 °F over 170 °F. If you run into any problems, it will be with tannins and you should be able to detect them immediately. (The beer will have an astringent, iced-tea-like character to it.) If the beer tastes good initially, it shouldn't develop any problems down the road from this.


Chris Colby
Editor
beerandwinejournal.com