First Batch Sparge

[richas]

I am trying batch sparging, I have always fly sparged.

I am using the Brew Pal iPhone app. The mash in strike temperature looks correct, 166 degrees. But the sparge temperature is 168 degrees for a 168 degree sparge. it says to sparge with 8.36 gallons at 168 degrees. Since I am doing a batch sparge I would imagine the sparge water should be hotter than 168 to bring the 152 degree grain up to 168 degrees.

Thanks

rich

 

[morticaixavier]

I am trying batch sparging, I have always fly sparged.

I am using the Brew Pal iPhone app. The mash in strike temperature looks correct, 166 degrees. But the sparge temperature is 168 degrees for a 168 degree sparge. it says to sparge with 8.36 gallons at 168 degrees. Since I am doing a batch sparge I would imagine the sparge water should be hotter than 168 to bring the 152 degree grain up to 168 degrees.

Thanks

rich

sure, but you're not doing a mash out, just spargeing. I suspect the are saying 68 to avoid tannin extraction. I sparge with water just off the boil because I am confident in my mash pH and sparge water pH so I don't worry about tannins.

a good tip on batch spargeing, run off your first runnings, measure your volume in the kettle and subtract that from your target pre boil volume and add only that much more sparge water. this way it reflects reality instead of a projection.

 

[richas]

So the goal is not to bring the mash to 168 during sparge? I thought it was....

Rich

 

[morticaixavier]

you are talking about two different things. there is sparge and mashout. the goal of a mashout is to raise the grainbed and wort temp high enough to denature the amylase fast enough so that it does no further conversion of long chain, less fermentable 'Body' sugars into short chain highly fermentable sugars.

spaging is just rinsing sugars out of the mash to make sure you aren't wasting them.

neither of these things is required at all as you can do no sparge no mashout brew where you simply run your first runnings to a kettle and start the boil. it's less efficient but some people (myself included) think that it gives a fuller more rich flavor and mouthfeel.

regardless of whether or how you sparge you can choose to do a mashout or not. I don't usually bother but I did on my marzen and I am liking the initial results. this should cause the fermentability profile of your wort to freeze more or less where it is when you mashout rather than have further conversion going on while you raise the temp through that 168ish range on the way to a boil.

 

[richas]

you are talking about two different things. there is sparge and mashout. the goal of a mashout is to raise the grainbed and wort temp high enough to denature the amylase fast enough so that it does no further conversion of long chain, less fermentable 'Body' sugars into short chain highly fermentable sugars.

spaging is just rinsing sugars out of the mash to make sure you aren't wasting them.

neither of these things is required at all as you can do no sparge no mashout brew where you simply run your first runnings to a kettle and start the boil. it's less efficient but some people (myself included) think that it gives a fuller more rich flavor and mouthfeel.

regardless of whether or how you sparge you can choose to do a mashout or not. I don't usually bother but I did on my marzen and I am liking the initial results. this should cause the fermentability profile of your wort to freeze more or less where it is when you mashout rather than have further conversion going on while you raise the temp through that 168ish range on the way to a boil.

So if I sparge with x gallons of 168 degree water, we will call that the sparge and its final temperature is whatever it is, somewhere between 152 and 168.

If I INTENTIONALLY add water that is hot enough to raise the grain to 168, then that is a mashout. I would imagine if you are doing a mashout, you don't drain the mash first.

Rich

 

[monkeymootj]

So if I sparge with x gallons of 168 degree water, we will call that the sparge and its final temperature is whatever it is, somewhere between 152 and 168.

If I INTENTIONALLY add water that is hot enough to raise the grain to 168, then that is a mashout. I would imagine if you are doing a mashout, you don't drain the mash first.

Rich

If you intend to do a mash out, then you are correct. That is done prior to collecting first runnings. Heating your sparge water to 168 ( and therefore not heating the grain bed to 168) helps to better dissolve the sugars and increase efficiency.

 

[morticaixavier]

correct.

 

[Null_Paradigm]

Generally the 2nd running from the batch sparge uses water heated to 185ish to set the grain bed to 170F. This may or may not be completely necessary but I do it and seems to work.

Denny's page has all the steps though://http://hbd.org/cascade/dennybrew/