New Mash Tun, New Issues

enohcs · 02-05-2012, 04:51 PM

Wtf...I used to use an orange Gatorade 10 gal cooler for my mash. Worked great for 5 gal brews. I moved up to a converted keg so I could do 10gal brews. Temp is not an issue, actually I feel that I have better control over temp since I can now add flame while recirculating.
My issue is that with the old mash tun I had nice, compact grain beds during my fly sparge. I could easily maintain about an inch of water over the top of the grain. Now my grain bed seems to float. I any keep any water over the top because as I add more water, the top of the grain bed rises...

Rowdy · 02-05-2012, 05:40 PM

maybe the keggle flows faster or slower than the cooler did? are you using a different style of false bottom in the keggle? bigger or smaller valves? sounds like a flow speed problem too fast or too slow? maybe the distance of the sparge arm over the grain bed is different than your used to? just kicking out ideas

enohcs · 02-05-2012, 05:46 PM

Good point. I did also try a lower flow rate so that I could try to increase eff.

Rowdy · 02-05-2012, 06:08 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by enohcs

Good point. I did also try a lower flow rate so that I could try to increase eff.

that may explain the floating, outflow not pulling the grain bed tight while sparging? maybe after vorlauf blast it open full force then dial it back to a slower flow.