Sparging Water Temperature

[NeedsMoreHops]

Looking at the sensiblemole Brewery site, a sparging temperature of 62 degrees is recommended in the FAQ. The suggestion is that a high sparge temperature would reduce the thickness/viscosity/body of a beer. This is the opposite of what I would have thought, as the higher the Mash temperature, the greater the body of the beer and the higher the percentage of unfermentables.
Once the conversion is complete during the mash, if the temperature is lowered, without a high temperature to denature the enzymes, don't the low temperatue enzymes start to convert unfermentables to fermentables, thus lowering the body/final gravity? Is a low sparge temperature something to experiment with? Am I missing something?

[jmc]

62c sounds really low to me. I batch sparge and add sparge water to raise mash to 76 or so to mash out / kill enzymes and retain body. Also helps run off and efficiency.
My sparge water typically 82 - 86c depending on mash temp.

[calumrobertson]

Yup i'd say JMC is stop on with that and thats how i batch sparge.
Temperatures in the 60s for a sparge wouldnt work i'd say...well would but not properly!

[critch]

way too low. i sparge at 75.c, had good results with the last couple of million pints

[Dave S]

I must say I like sensible mole's approach to brewing, but I reckon he's on a sticky wicket with that too.

[darkonnis]

NMH, the low temp enzymes would in theory be denatured. Brewkaiser (think it was him, I'll check later) did a test with 2 very similar brews but he used a normal sparge for one and cold water for the other. The difference was that the cold sparge was generally cloudy(er) than the normal sparge which dropped bright.

As for it giving viscosity/thickness/body, that doesn't sound right at all. If the mash is complete (100% converted), then surely there will be no difference either way.

[NeedsMoreHops]

Thanks for the respnses. I will not bother experimenting with lower sparge temperature and will stick to round the 72-75 degree mark, which has been successful so far. It won't let that put me off having a go at a couple of the Sensible Mole recipes though