Cold sparging used hops

[-Bezza-]

I have the River Cottage Booze Handbook which includes some info on homebrew beer, alongside the various infusions and hedgerow wines.

One thing that is mentioned in the book was "liquoring down" with the "most common method" being to "cold sparge the used hops". In other words, you strain the wort post boil into the FV and, to reach your target volume, pour cold water through the trub (or I guess just hops if you've used a hop spider).

I hadn't heard of this before, couldn't find reference on this forum or anything in Palmer's latest version of How to Brew.

Any ideas what this is meant to be achieving?

Reference is here: https://books.google.co.uk/books?id...CAkQAQ#v=onepage&q=cold sparging hops&f=false

 

[Drunkula]

I love John Wright but half the time I think he's just bringing together stuff he's heard down the pub and got too ****** to remember all the details. Still pushing **** about making elderflower or nettle beers and bottling them after 4 days and burping the bottles every day - that **** needs to be gone.