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Krausen89 · 10-01-2012, 03:31 PM

so ive brewed all grain quite a few time before but since my equipment was defunct i havnt in awhile. since then i bought a 10 gal. 3 tier all grain setup with a false bottom.(in mashtun) i have always used a homemade "false bottom" made out of copper and i have never had any problems. yesterday i brewed an ipa and made a few mistakes. to start i did bad math and mashed with twice amout of water i meant to. i was brewing 5 gals in a 10gal mashtun. using 8lbs grain and meant to use 1.5qts/lb. which would be 3 gallons.... I used 6 gallons, and didnt realize it was wrong until i went to sparge. my target boil volume was 7 gallons and i barely got to sparge at all. another problem i had was that the grains kept coming through the false bottom. (i started to recirculate again) and i got a stuck mash. (the valve was only open a small amount) i stirred it up and recirculated again until clear. and then again some grain came through. ive never had this on my homemade equipment. i was thinking maybe it was because i used way too much water in the mash but idk. any thoughts? will if effect the beer if you cant rinse the grains?. i didnt measure the o.g so im not sure how that went(just assumed it was lower then i wanted). but it is fermenting now and i will find out soon enough how well it turned out. this is my first brew with this system and its been a couple years. so im not sure what was going on ha. another thing is since this is kind of up in the air. i took the spent grains and made bread and dog treats and milling it into flour (just incase the beer dosnt turn out)

**mredge73** · 10-01-2012, 03:40 PM

You basically did a "no sparge"
I do it for all my low gravity brews (<1.05) because it saves so much time and only sacrifices a few points of efficiency.
So you should expect it to be a little maltier than a batch sparge with a slightly lower OG.
Sounds like it should be easy drinking and go down quickly so your time in between brews will be short

**mbauer013** · 10-01-2012, 07:09 PM

Seems like you had multiple issues so I'll default to the RDWHAHB and do it again keeping in mind what issues you had. If your false bottom is not filtering well next time, maybe add in a double handful of rice hulls to help filter.

duboman · 10-01-2012, 10:37 PM

Since this is a new set up you will just need to pay attention and take notes so you can dial everything in. It seems like you know what you are doing and just need to learn your new set up!

Krausen89 · 10-02-2012, 02:03 PM

so i brewed an accidental no sparge. hah it might turn out just like i want it! when i was draining the mashtun and the grains started coming through i just recirculated again and kept draining. but with the grains in the boilpot will that affect it? since i prob extracted tannins and stuff that normally you wouldnt extract? not sure how much got in there, but more then i wanted. i think the problem was i used so little grain, only 8lbs but im not sure if thats it. i will try rice hulls next time. ive used them before in a recipe but didnt think i would need one in this

duboman · 10-02-2012, 02:59 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Krausen89

so i brewed an accidental no sparge. hah it might turn out just like i want it! when i was draining the mashtun and the grains started coming through i just recirculated again and kept draining. but with the grains in the boilpot will that affect it? since i prob extracted tannins and stuff that normally you wouldnt extract? not sure how much got in there, but more then i wanted. i think the problem was i used so little grain, only 8lbs but im not sure if thats it. i will try rice hulls next time. ive used them before in a recipe but didnt think i would need one in this

IMO I would not worry about what came through as there should really be very little if any issues. Even when you think you are getting clear runnings there is still minute particle that is in the extracted wort.