How to "mash out"

One more question regarding the St. Paul Porter all grain kit. Do I begin to drain the wort and sparge with the mash out water at 170* ? Is that what “mash out” with 170* water is? or do I just simply add the 170’ water to the mash tun which has been resting at 152* for an hour? I’m confused, maybe I’m supposed to completely lauter the wort from the single infusion, and then add the mash out water? please help, thanks,

Mash out usually is used to mean, raise the temperatures of the mash to around 170 to denature the enzymes that are converting the long-chain sugars into shorter-chain sugars (more easily fermentable sugars will result in a drier beer). You can do this by adding near-boiling water until the temperature of the mash reaches 170-ish, or you can heat your mash tun to that temperature. Then you sparge with water at about 170. On a homebrew timescale (1 hour or so for sparging), it won’t matter too much, so if it’s impractical to raise the mash temp, you could just start sparging with 170 F water.

ok, good to know. Your answer is the same as the info in dave miller’s homebrewing guide book. So the mash out process is totally different than the sparging process, but it’s done just before the sparge and is supposed to be 10 minutes long. The NB’s directions don’t mention anything about sparging, I guess im just supposed to know this stuff automatic. thanks so much. I have never made beer, but i was very successful at making wine out of my apples in washington state. Ive been on maui for six years, and Ive been yearing to get back into the satisfying craft of home made alcohol.

With all due respect to Dave Miller, get rid of that book! The info in it is so dated that much of it may be useless. Get a copy of How to Brew by John Palmer. Much more informative and it’s based on current ingredients and research.