Ask Mr. Wizard

Sparge Temperatures

TroubleShooting

Russ Brunner • Fort Lauderdale, Florida asks,
Q

Help me with batch sparging. To get the grain bed to 168 °F (76 °C) you need to heat your sparge water to 180–195 °F (82–91 °C) depending on the volume of grain. I also have read that the mash out isn’t really necessary as the boil stops enzymatic activity. Do you see any problems with only heating my sparge water to 168 °F (76 °C) to eliminate any possible tannin extraction from the hot liquid on the grain?

A
I remember when I first began homebrewing back in 1986 and almost immediately wanted to start brewing all-grain. At that time the information related to homebrewing was a little more difficult to