Sparge temperature of 180F for a wheat beer?

[Brewer #457364]

Hi - I am about to brew an Allagash Wheat beer and the recipe says that after a 60 minute infusion mash, there's a 10 minute sparge at 180 F. That seems dangerously high to me. Is it? Thanks!

 

[Craigerrr]

Sounds like a "mash out" step, which I do, but not that high, I do a mash out around 170F, and my sparge water is at the same temperature.
The mash out denatures the enzymes which will stop any further conversion.

 

[Minbari]

At our scale, mash out and sparge aren't super critical. Lower it if you want, you will be on to boil in 10 minutes. Mostly you want the rinse

 

[J A]

A lot depends on the method you're using. I heat sparge water up to well over 170 but I transfer to a different vessel for gravity fed fly-sparge. It doesn't hold that temp for long and doesn't raise the temp of the grain bed.
If you're doing full-volume BIAB and heating the tun with the bag in it, I'd be careful of raising the temp that high because the submerged grain will heat to the same temp. If you're heating water and/or wort separately and doing a dunk sparge, you'll be fine because 180 is a strike temp and will be losing heat as it's raising the temp of the grain.