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Author Topic: Batch Sparge Water Temp  (Read 15283 times)

Offline Kinetic

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Re: Batch Sparge Water Temp
« Reply #45 on: July 16, 2014, 05:39:27 pm »

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.     

Offline erockrph

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Re: Batch Sparge Water Temp
« Reply #46 on: July 16, 2014, 05:43:12 pm »
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.
Eric B.

Finally got around to starting a homebrewing blog: The Hop Whisperer

Offline HoosierBrew

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Re: Batch Sparge Water Temp
« Reply #47 on: July 16, 2014, 05:54:56 pm »

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.
Jon H.

Offline Kinetic

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Re: Batch Sparge Water Temp
« Reply #48 on: July 16, 2014, 05:59:38 pm »
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.

Offline mattybrass

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Re: Batch Sparge Water Temp
« Reply #49 on: July 17, 2014, 08:52:07 am »
What effect would higher sparge temps have when fly sparging? Is is the tame where the PH is more important than the temp?

Offline morticaixavier

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Re: Batch Sparge Water Temp
« Reply #50 on: July 17, 2014, 08:54:23 am »
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.
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