I was wondering about sparging with room temp water. I saw a brulosophy experiment that showed negligible difference but was wondering if anybody else has experimented with cold water sparging. If I could drop one vessel from my set up and still sparge, I am in. Any input?
The colder the sparge water the longer it takes to get to a boil.
Steve brings up a good point about temperature, but outside of that there’s no real negligible difference. I sparged with room temp water a few times back when I was testing variables on NE IPA recipes as to why we were getting off flavors, and didn’t see any difference in quality.
THIS^^^^
I heat my total water volume to mash strike temp, treat it with minerals, and drain off a portion to use as sparge liquor into a water cooler. After the mash is complete, I drain my first runnings then add the reserved sparge liquor to the grain bed at whatever temp it settles to.
why not drop 2 vessels and go no sparge?
When making kettle sours, I sparge with room temp water. Works fine. I presume it would also work fine for other beer styles.
Sweet! I know that it takes longer to boil but that’s a non issue for me. I’d rather drop a vessel and increase garage space. My garage also doubles as a home gym and I work out while I brew. The longer the boil, the better work out I get. It’s a weird combo of fighting obesity while adding to obesity at the same time.