lautering
Sparging
Rinse the grain bed with hot water to recover the substantial quantity of sugar that would otherwise be left behind in the liquid clinging to it.
Pronounced SPAR-jing.
What is actually happening
A mash retains roughly its own weight of wort in the grain. Rinsing recovers most of it and typically accounts for a third or more of total extract.
The limits are set by pH and by runnings gravity. As sugar is washed out the remaining liquid becomes less acidic and more able to extract husk tannin, so sparging too far — or with water that is too hot or too alkaline — produces astringency. Brewers stop at a target gravity rather than rinsing until nothing sweet remains.
Typical conditions
| Temperature | 72–78°C |
|---|---|
| Scale | Used at both homebrew and commercial scale |
Ranges, not targets. These describe what is usual across the styles and breweries that use this step, and a value outside the range is a decision rather than an error.
What goes wrong here
Risks rather than certainties. This step does not cause these faults; getting it wrong can.
- Astringency — A drying, tannic harshness from over-extracted grain husk — the classic sign of sparging too hot, too long or at too high a pH.
Questions
How do I know when to stop sparging?
By runnings gravity rather than by volume alone. Below roughly 1.008–1.010 the liquid leaving the bed is extracting more tannin than sugar. Stopping there costs a little efficiency and avoids astringency, which is a good trade — the efficiency is recoverable with slightly more grain, the astringency is not removable at all.
Related steps and concepts
- Fly sparging — The continuous method.
- Batch sparging — The discrete method.
- Tannin — What over-sparging extracts.
Also at the lautering stage
Batch sparging · Fly sparging · Lautering · No-sparge brewing · Parti-gyle brewing
See the whole process in order on how beer is made.
Last reviewed 2026-08-16.