Hello! when i do a single infusion mash i have always done a mash out increasing the mash to 170 F and sparging with water at the same temperature in order to inactivate enzymes and have a less viscous wort… But, what is the main difference if i do a single infusion mash…and at the end of mashing just use sparge water at 170? do i need to be aware of something different? do you have some suggestions?
thanks!
In my experience, my efficiency decreases if I don’t do a mash-out. I believe part of the reason is that it is hard to raise the temperature of the grain bed with sparging alone because the thermal mass of a large load of grain at 150F would be losing heat at a rate similar to what would be gained from the sparge water at 170F. That said, I usually do my best to bring the temp up in the grain bed using an infusion of boiling sparge water and if it doesn’t quite get it to 170F I don’t worry about it and my beers haven’t suffered from missing it by a few degrees.
If you’re fly sparging then it might be a problem as svejk describes. If you batch sparge like me, then not so because you can heat the sparge water enough that when mixed with the grain it stabilizes at mashout temps.
Batch-sparger here!
I’ve found that it usually takes boiling water when performing a mashout to see an effective rise in overall mash temp. Dumping in a few gallons at 170 only results in a few degrees rise.
Usually I forgo a mashout and just include that volume in the initial strike. I’m not sure whether or not the wort viscosity really plays a significant role. A good stir at the end of the mash- a couple minutes to settle and lauter… Sparge and lauter again…
I’ve made many, many batches of beer without a mashout with great success. Although, I find I do get a little better efficiency with a mashout. It’s not going to make better beer, but a mashout might save you a buck or two at the end of the day. It’s a matter of personal choice. I can easily do a mashout on my single tier Brutus10 system, so I choose to do so, but that’s just my choice.
Hmm, I’ve never measured the temperature after adding sparge water.
If you want, it’s relatively easy to do the calculation to tell you how hot your water needs to be to raise to mashout temps. Similar to what you do for your intial strike temps.
Unless you hold 170 for 20 min. or more you won’t denature the enzymes. I think the increase in efficiency is due to the higher temps making sure you have as complete a conversion as possible.
and maybe gelatinizing any remaining starch
I always raise my mash to 168 degrees. Let it sit for 10 minutes and sparge with 175 degree water. This places my grain bed at 165 degrees. My understanding is that 165 is optimum for a good sparge.
You can always just sparge at ~85°C/185°F and achieve roughly the same thing. That’s pretty common for breweries without a stirred mash tun.