Cold Sparge

[Peter Smith]

Pretty radical idea..... anyone here tried cold sparging

[Rhys Williams]

What would be the point?

It's the hot water that strips the sugar from the grain - it it was cold it would be less effective, so why do it?

[Peter Smith]

its fad of the day Rhys, all over the net, some claiming increased eff%

maybe more so in systems that recirculate.

[Crusader-Rob]

i doubt increased efficiency - cancs are they got lcky more than anything else.

i know the madfermentationist does it, and he loeses 2-3% efficiency. but its solely for convenience reasons.

the downsides wouldbe the temp of your wort would go down, and take longer to get to boil - you'd lose some efficiency aswell - 

cold water dosnt make sugar as soluable as warm does. it'll dissolve sure, but hot water its almost instant

[Rhys Williams]

This looks interesting:

http://brulosophy.com/2016/04/11/sparge-temperature-pt-1-standard-v...

My hot water comes out at 55c or so  - so I might try a sparge with that next batch to save me from heating 15L to 76c on the gas hob..

Mind you - then the 3Kw element will have to heat the temp diff, so I'm really not sure I'm saving any time and it's not much of a hassle...

Grainfather people might be interest as the need to heat a separate HLT and the need for another vessel...

[Peter Smith]

I sometimes finish the sparge with 55C hot water tap...   if I get caught short of heated sparge water....   article hasnt swayed me to change anything major.....