[ccarlson]

Keep in mind that Kai did an experiment where sparging with room temp water got him the same efficiency as sparging with hot water. Based on that and my own experience, I have to question how much the viscosity is reduced and how much difference it makes if it is.

My experience has shown hotter sparges to be a little more efficient. Also, a guy on another forum did a test that virtually eliminated conversion as factor. As he, and even Kai both pointed out, Kai's tests were inconclusive because he compared 2 different grain bills.

[malzig]

How did this other brewer eliminate conversion as a factor?

Viscosity would only matter if it resulted in more liquid being lost to the grain bed at lower temperatures, which doesn't happen in average gravity beers, in my experience.  If you lose 0.12 qt/# from 9 gallons of thin sugar solution, or 0.12 qt/# from 10 gallons of slightly more viscous sugar solution, the amount of solution and therefore the percentage of sugar lost is the same.

[ccarlson]

How did this other brewer eliminate conversion as a factor?

He took grain from a batch that had been mashed over night as well as hot sparged. From that he measured out equal amounts of that grain and sparged one with hot water and the other with cold. The grain had been sitting at room temperature for a while so, even the one with hot water didn't get that warm, plus he collected the runnings and tested them within 5 minutes. Conversion could not have been a big factor, if any. In the end, the hot sparged grain produced a gravity of 4 or 5 points higher than the one cold sparged.

Keep in mind that he used dramatically different water temps. I think the hot was around 180F and the cold was in the 50's. It seemed like a pretty good test to me. At least he compared apples to apples, which was not done in the original test.

[malzig]

Quite a bit of conversion can take place in 5 minutes.

[hopfenundmalz]

I always heat my water at least 20 degrees above my target mash temperature....otherwise your in for a nightmare if your mash is not hot enough.

It is way easier to cool down a 4 gallon mash in a cooler than it is to heat it up....I would heat that water to 174....if it's too hot, just keep stirring your mash, like soup, and expsose it to the air to get it to cool down.....do this before using ice cubes or cold water....it might take longer to get your temp down, but at least you'll get it to where you want it...believe me, it's a royal pain to be constantly adding boiling water to a 10 gallon cooler full of mash that wont hit your target temp 

This is system dependent.  I mash in a half barrel with a false bottom and recirculate with a pump.  Turn on the pump, light the fire, wait until within 1 or 2 degrees of desired temp, turn off the fire and pump.  Stir a little as the heat goes from the  metal into the mash and equilibrates, and that is it.  Not hard at all.

[ccarlson]

Quite a bit of conversion can take place in 5 minutes.

How much conversion do you think could take place in 5 minutes using spent grain, that had been mashed overnight and hot sparged? He also said that the hydro sample of the hot sparged runnings only measured 116F. I'm sure that the sample jar cooled it a little, but the mash couldn't have been that hot in the first place.

[BrewinSB]

All right so my first all grain day went pretty well.  I heated my mash tun with 2 gal of 160 degree water  as I heated up my strike water (? terminology) then drained it.  I used 2 gal distilled with 1.5 gal tap for 3.5 gal.  Heated that to 170 and my temp settled in at 154.  After an hour I lost about 1.5-2 degrees.  First runnings collected 2.5 gallons.  Drained and batch sparged with 3 gal distilled and .75 tap, sparge temp was 185 let sit 10 minutes.  Total pre boil volume was 6.5 gallons.  After a 60 minute boil I had just under 5 gallons.  OG:  1.054  

I had a very hard time cooling the wort down and couldn't get it any lower than 72-74.  I am also having trouble getting my fermentation temperature below this.  So far no signs of the yeast doing their thing.  I am hoping tomorrow morning I will see bubbling.  All in all though a good first all grain day.  Here's hoping things get going and I can figure out a way to bring down my fermentation temps.  BeerSmith shows I had an efficiency of 78.8%...

Some pics located here:  https://picasaweb.google.com/110758456097083941678/Brewing?authkey=Gv1sRgCJW2xI7Y9YSCZQ

Thanks again everyone. 

[narvin]

Yep, a gal. for the mash and 6 gal. for the sparge just doesn't seem right.  And your sparge water should be more like 185-190F, not 168.

That seems high for sparge water temp doesn't it?  I thought general consensus was that sparge water above 170F would extract tannins?  Are you assuming some amount of temperature loss for a batch sparge or something?

If you're batch sparging, there is more temperature loss because you add only enough water as will be drained. Sparge water heated to 185 added to a drained grain bed that was at 150 seems to settle at or below 170 in my experience.

[BrewinSB]

Ah yes, I forgot to take a temp reading after adding my sparge water to see what it settled at.

[ccarlson]

Yep, a gal. for the mash and 6 gal. for the sparge just doesn't seem right.  And your sparge water should be more like 185-190F, not 168.

That seems high for sparge water temp doesn't it?  I thought general consensus was that sparge water above 170F would extract tannins?  Are you assuming some amount of temperature loss for a batch sparge or something?

If you're batch sparging, there is more temperature loss because you add only enough water as will be drained. Sparge water heated to 185 added to a drained grain bed that was at 150 seems to settle at or below 170 in my experience.

And that's perfect.

[newrocset]

Sounds like a good brew day to me!

To keep my fermentation temps in check, I use a 20 gallon tub from Lowe's/Home Depot...put the fermenter in there and then add any plastic vessel you can freeze (i.e. plastic soda bottles, water bottles, etc), or those blue ice packs that you can refreeze.  You gotta change your ice out every 12 hours but it works great.

When that fermentation takes off, it's going to heat up a bit, so ice the sh*t out of it before it starts 
Oh, and place a towel under that tub - it sweats a lot.

[dannyjed]

Hey BrewinSB, Congrats on your first all grain brew! 

[BrewinSB]

Sounds like a good brew day to me!

To keep my fermentation temps in check, I use a 20 gallon tub from Lowe's/Home Depot...put the fermenter in there and then add any plastic vessel you can freeze (i.e. plastic soda bottles, water bottles, etc), or those blue ice packs that you can refreeze.  You gotta change your ice out every 12 hours but it works great.

When that fermentation takes off, it's going to heat up a bit, so ice the sh*t out of it before it starts  
Oh, and place a towel under that tub - it sweats a lot.

I finally got it down to between 62-65 and have been able to maintain that temp range fairly well, just constantly swapping out bottles.  It works though.  Here's hoping it clears up after three weeks or so.  I was worried when trying to cool the wort down and starting stirring the wort around the immersion chiller to help it, but that kicked up all the trub, most of which went into the primary....is that bad?

Hey BrewinSB, Congrats on your first all grain brew! 

Thanks.  It wasn't as bad as I thought it would be, just took twice as long as expected.  It was also my first batch creating my recipe instead of using a kit.  Here's hoping it turns out okay. 

[BrewinSB]

Okay, so my first all grain batch has been in my primary fermentor for 3 weeks.  I took a gravity reading yesterday and it was at 1.008 (Beersmith predicted 1.009).  It was clear and tasted great.  I am so impressed by my first all grain batch and recipe from scratch, I don't think I will be going back to extract again.  It is around 6% ABV, so a little be high for the style, but that doesn't really matter to me.  I will be bottling it this weekend.  Thanks for all the help on my first all grain batch everyone. 

https://picasaweb.google.com/110758456097083941678/Brewing?authkey=Gv1sRgCJW2xI7Y9YSCZQ#5633878311635610354

[newrocset]

Glad it went well! See, Wait 'till you start doing 10 gal. batches! 

Anyway, I always stir to cool down, given that I have a tiny immersion chiller...stirring is good, since it helps oxygenate your wort to help your fermetation...don't stir when it's too hot, though, wait for it to cool to about 120.  Stirring at temps above that can cause reactions to occur with the oxygen that can lead to off flavors.
I wouldn't worry too much about kicking up protiens either via stirring.  They will eventually drop out, and you can rack to a 2ndary to get the wort off of 'em....sometimes (and believe me, sometimes!) I let the wort sit for a few hours on brew day, then rack to a 2ndary, and then pitch - it's an effective way to get a cleaner beer, plus you'll be able to get a cleaner bit of yeast if you decide to save it...but usually I just let it sit in the primary from start to finish!