Stuck sparge when batch sparging???

After nearly 50 batches of brew, I finally experienced what I believe to be a stuck sparge. I batch sparge, so usually this isn't an issue. I did close my mill a bit this batch, and my eff went up about 7 points! All I did to in-stick the sparge is close the valve from my MT, stir the grains, vorlauf, and voila! Worked like a charm.

Anyone else ever experience this?

i've only had one stuck sparge too, but mine was because my manifold came off, that was fun. have you tried rice hulls? might be able to keep the higher efficiency without the stuck sparge.

lee_smn said:

i've only had one stuck sparge too, but mine was because my manifold came off, that was fun. have you tried rice hulls? might be able to keep the higher efficiency without the stuck sparge.

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Still for 76% and everything looked great!

If all you had to do was stir it a bit to get it going again; I'd say that's acceptable. For 7 more points!

DanaDana said:

If all you had to do was stir it a bit to get it going again; I'd say that's acceptable. For 7 more points!

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My thought exactly. I usually open my valve all the way, as Denny recommends. Perhaps I'll shoot for a slower flow next time and see what happens. Either way, the ease of fixing such problems is one reason I batch sparge. Cheers!

I've had it happen once. I just blew air into the drain hose to unblock it and it went just fine.

Homercidal said:

I've had it happen once. I just blew air into the drain hose to unblock it and it went just fine.

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Brilliant.

lee_smn said:

i've only had one stuck sparge too, but mine was because my manifold came off, that was fun. have you tried rice hulls? might be able to keep the higher efficiency without the stuck sparge.

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How much rice hulls do you put in for a 5 gallon batch?

I have learned with my system that if I open my pump 100% that I will compact the grain to cause a stuck sparge. I probably don't need them, but I use hulls probably every brew. It strikes me as just cheap insurance.