After lautering, there is still wort remaining in the grain bed usually. In order to drain out the wort thoroughly, we must sparge hot water on grain bed through a ring with nozzles, which is called sparging. In general, the sparging is divided into three steps and lasts around 90-120 minutes. The first step would require less hot water, around 20%, which is used to extract the first wort. In the second step, more water(around 50%) runs through the grain bed, so the wort remaining decreased a lot. After that, we would clean the grain bed further with 30% hot water so as to improve the wort yield.
During this process, how much hot water would be used in total? It is related to the quantity &concentration of first wort and wort concentration in full brew kettle. If brewing pale ale/lager, the mash concentration is very lower, so the hot water needed is less accordingly. On the contrary, if brewing dark beer, it will require amount of hot water for sparging as the mash concentration is very high.
Besides, we must pay more attention to the temperature of sparging water. The higher the sparging water temperature is, the faster the sparging goes and the more wort is drained out. But, It should be controlled in a reasonable range, 76-78℃, not exceeds 80℃. Otherwise the over-temperature would deactive the α-amylase, then the starch can not be broken down. That means we are not able to make full use of material.
Edited by Vicky
Sales Manager in Tiantai Beer Equipment Company
Email: [email protected]
Skype: tiantaisale5
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