Tube came loose

Here I am, it's midnight after a 75 minute mash. I go to turn the pump back on to vorlauf and.........NOTHING. I mean not even a trickle. The god-damned tube from the false bottom to the valve came loose somehow and the mash is just plugging up the valve.

F?CK!

The mash is sitting at 150*F so, there is no chance I am getting my arm down in there to fit the tube back into place. 120*F I might chance it. **** it's gonna take all damn night to cool down enough to do that.

Got anything to dump the mash into? Cooling it off will almost certainly ruin the beer. You need to temporarily dump the mash, repair the problem, then replace the mash, let it set, and vorlauf thoroughly. Your boil kettle might make a good temporary mash tun.

BTW, don't worry about hot side aeration at this point. It's WAY more important to get the sparge running properly.

Buckets. I have 4 of them. That should do.

I was already ahead of you, so to speak. Just as soon as I posted the buckets came to mind. At this point I am just cooling myself off before I get into and do something stupid cause I am furious.

The is the first time I have ever had a stuck mash in the 2+ years I have been doing this.

Thought I'd brew myself a nice big DIPA and eat a ton of hops. The wife told me this morning we are pregnant.......again. My first one is just barely 2.

Congrats on the birth of a new beer!

Oh yeah...and cheers to the new kid and stuff.

No good. It may be a dump.

The damned FB collapsed (cheap 12" stainless retro-fit to a keg). 2 YEARS I HAVE BEEN USING THIS DAMNED THING AND IT FOLDS NOW!

I got nothin else and I am too damned tired. At best, I suppose I could use a collander to filter it out. Maybe I could dilute these runnings and still salvage 10 gallons.

DAMN!

Do you have something that fits under the false bottom to support it? At this point, even a small scrap piece of 2x4 might be your salvation.

A TOTAL loss.

By 2:00 the storms raged. By 2:30 came the Tornado watch and hail warnings. At that point the whole thing got dumped down the drive so I could scramble to get the cars back in the garage.

By 2:40 the cars were inside and by 2:45 the hail came down.

I couldn't even save the spent grain for the goddamned compost bin.

30 pounds of grain lost due to a damned $20 false bottom.

Bro,

I can't tell you how bad I feel for you. Your only consolation must be held in the fact that you will be able to upgrade your system and make it better, stronger, faster. It could have been worse, you might have been fwh and lost the hops too.

The only way to get over this is to brew again, soon. I'd brew a ten gallon batch of BW.

BTW, congrats on the upcoming addition.

Sean