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I was reading an article regarding mash temps and sparge temps had a question if any of you had a moment.

I am planning an American IPA this weekend, probably going to be a hoppy hoppy sumbitch, and the mash temperature listed on the recipe I'm using for reference said 165 with a sparge temp of 180. I was reading http://www.howtobrew.com/section3/chapter14-5.html about the various temperatures and my question is:

What if you mashed in at under 150 and sparged at over 160? Would the sparge water temp denature the beta amylase or could that possibly create a beer that is uses both the alpha and beta amylase? both a bit sweet (to mellow out the bitterness a bit) and a bit dry? Does that even make sense?

I'll take this one boys:

I suspect the 165F you read about is the temperature the water needs to be BEFORE you put it and the grains in the mash tun. Once everything is doughed in you should be roughly 150F. Knowing nothing about exactly what you are brewing I suspect the O.G. is planned to be roughly 1.065 or so. If that's true, I would mash at no higher than 150F because you want to dry the beer out and therefore want to mash for maximum attenuation. As far as sparge water goes, I would try to keep the grain bed below 165F otherwise you risk extracting tannins which will impart a harsh taste to the beer. Since the grain bed will be at roughly 150F before you start the sparge clearly the sparge water will need to be a little hotter than that to raise the temperature to mash out (hence the recommendation to use 180F water). Once the grain bed gets above 160F all the enzymes will be denatured however that is not a concern because you should have already completely converted at 150F. Hopefully, that answers your question and good luck with your IPA.

Thank you for making sense of a very poorly worded and confusing question.

Here's an article I read recently that gave me clarity on the subject of body and mouthfeel.

http://pintwell.com/2013/nov/27/how-con ... -homebrew/

Cheers!
Smitty