Batch Sparge Water Temp

[skatz (Stevie)]

@Kinetic

Alright, back on topic.  Serious question.  Why would anyone purposely sparge with hotter than 180F water?

When batch sparging, 190+ water may not even get your grain bed up to 170. I normally aim for 180° sparge water, but sometimes I space out and over do it. I once had it boiling but had a bit of left over RO water that I was able to dump in.

[riceral]

@Kinetic

@riceral

Remember the marketing campaign, “When you’re out of Schlitz, you’re out of beer.” We always thought that was true, since Schlitz was the absolute last brand of beer you bought. It was that bad.

So you haven’t had Schaeffer or Flagstaff in the 90s?  Consider yourself lucky.

I’ve heard the new Schlitz is decent.

Actually, this was back in the mid-60s.

You are right—I haven’t tried Schaeffer or Flagstaff.

[jonhughey_att.net (HoosierBrew)]

@Kinetic

Alright, back on topic.  Serious question.  Why would anyone purposely sparge with hotter than 180F water?

When batch sparging, 190+ water may not even get your grain bed up to 170. I normally aim for 180° sparge water, but sometimes I space out and over do it. I once had it boiling but had a bit of left over RO water that I was able to dump in.

+1.  It usually doesn’t quite get my grain bed up to 170F.

[jonhughey_att.net (HoosierBrew)]

@Kinetic

So you haven’t had Schaeffer or Flagstaff in the 90s?  Consider yourself lucky.

I tried Schaefer 2 or 3 times over the years (more accurately, politely drank one handed to me). The single worst beer I’ve ever had -  f!@#$^g dreadful.  As in, not fit to boil brats in. This from a guy who pays occasional $ for Schlitz and PBR.

[Kinetic]

@Kinetic

Alright, back on topic.  Serious question.  Why would anyone purposely sparge with hotter than 180F water?

When batch sparging, 190+ water may not even get your grain bed up to 170. I normally aim for 180° sparge water, but sometimes I space out and over do it. I once had it boiling but had a bit of left over RO water that I was able to dump in.

Why shoot for a grain bed temp of 170F for sparging?

[Kinetic]

@Kinetic

So you haven’t had Schaeffer or Flagstaff in the 90s?  Consider yourself lucky.

I tried Schaefer 2 or 3 times over the years (more accurately, politely drank one handed to me). The single worst beer I’ve ever had -  f!@#$^g dreadful.  As in, not fit to boil brats in. This from a guy who pays occasional $ for Schlitz and PBR.

Schaefer is in fact, the worst beer made in the past 20 years.  Get drunk from it and you will be hurting for two days.

[erockrph]

When I grew up my options for crap beer were Natty Ice and Keystone. I’m jealous of you guys who grew up on Schlitz.

[jonhughey_att.net (HoosierBrew)]

@Kinetic

@Kinetic

Alright, back on topic.  Serious question.  Why would anyone purposely sparge with hotter than 180F water?

When batch sparging, 190+ water may not even get your grain bed up to 170. I normally aim for 180° sparge water, but sometimes I space out and over do it. I once had it boiling but had a bit of left over RO water that I was able to dump in.

Why shoot for a grain bed temp of 170F for sparging?

In a true mashout, holding the grain bed at 170F for a period of time denatures/stops all enzyme activity, ‘locking in’ your mash profile (fermentable sugar profile). Raising the grain bed to 170F obviously requires sparge temps considerably hotter. Most homebrewers (myself included) don’t do a true mashout - I got in the habit of doing it also thinking it might increase my efficiency a bit due to reduced viscosity at higher temps. I don’t believe it does to any real extent, but I make good beer thanks to having a handle on pH. The astringency I got came at cooler sparge temps with lax pH control, ironically.

[Kinetic]

I’ve never seen a need to mashout in the tun for homebrew.  If I mashed barrels of beer, it would be a different story.

[mattybrass]

What effect would higher sparge temps have when fly sparging? Is is the tame where the PH is more important than the temp?

[morticaixavier]

@mattybrass

What effect would higher sparge temps have when fly sparging? Is is the tame where the PH is more important than the temp?

yes and no. It control of pH will lessen the risk of tannin extraction a lot but as Martin and Jeff have both found if you go to far trying to squeeze those last efficiency points out you still risk some astringency.

but generally speaking, yes, pH is more important than temp.