Stuck sparge & hazy wort, what to do now?

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Tarheel4985

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So last night was our second all-grain batch. We made a ton of mistakes, including jumping to 10 gallons, trouble with keeping mash temperature constant, and the biggest problem, too fine a crush.

For the crush we used a Barley Crusher on its inaugural run with the factory setting, so I didn't think twice about it. But after reading up more about crushing grain, there was a lot of flour in ours. Also, we were doing a 10 gallon batch so we had some 20 lbs of grain.

As far as equipment goes, we are using 2 converted kegs, one with a false bottom for the MLT and the other we use as both the HLT and boil kettle. We are also limited to 1 burner, so there is a lot of moving and switching of full kegs. Last night definitely made a case for why we needed a brew stand, or at the least another keg and burner.

Anyways, we had some issues keeping our mash steady at 154. We had to continually turn the burner on and off. After the mash, we tried vorlaufing but even after 2 or 3 quarts the wort still wasn't clear and it started to drain a lot slower. Finally, after vorlaufing a gallon, we had a stuck sparge. We tried a lot of different methods but finally resorted to stirring the mash. We were able to get a decent drain for short periods of time, but it never really cleared up.

After realizing the batch was already in danger of being dumped, we decided just to drain what we could, continue with the sparge, and deal with the consequences later (hazy beer, etc.). We continued to deal with clogging on both sparges and nearly everything we collected was hazy. But we collected about 11 gallons and continued with the boil and actually ended up overshooting our OG (another factor I attribute to the fine crush).

All this is to say that I now have about 8.5-9 gallons fermenting that is almost opaque. We got a decent cold break (using an IC) and then ran the wort through a strainer covered with mesh to try and filter even more of the junk out, but it was still very hazy. I'm planning to use a secondary and possibly even a tertiary, but is there anything else I can do to make the beer clearer? Should I use any fining agents after fermentation?

Also, for those using the Barley Crusher, were you successful using the factory settings on the roller gap? Maybe somehow mine was changed from the factory setting, but the crush was incredibly fine and I imagine others using this setting would also experience stuck sparges.
 
Your wort will never be crystal clear when sparging. This is a real persistent false expectation out there. You just want large grain husks out of there and a good flow. The runnings will look like unfiltered apple cider, or as you describe, opaque. In other words, I don't think there was anything wrong with your beer. All that fine flour will settle out in the fermenter and be left behind when racked.
 
Your wort will never be crystal clear when sparging. This is a real persistent false expectation out there. You just want large grain husks out of there and a good flow. The runnings will look like unfiltered apple cider, or as you describe, opaque. In other words, I don't think there was anything wrong with your beer. All that fine flour will settle out in the fermenter and be left behind when racked.

I guess the reason I thought something was off was because the wort was much hazier than the last all grain batch we did. Although surprisingly, when that one is still pretty hazy, so I guess I have no idea what I'm doing.
 
Runnings are often crystal clear. But you are 100% correct that unfiltered apple cider looking wort is just fine.

Hell, I don't even vorlauf anymore.
 
Could he try lagering it for a while after the secondary if it doesn't clear? I notice my ales will clear quite a bit after being kegged and cooled for a couple weeks.
 
Second all grain .. stop panicking for goodness sake. Have a beer and relax.

I have a Barley Crusher - yes, you somethings get a bit of flour. So what? Different grains come in different sizes, so if you want to get pedantic whenever you get a bigger or smaller grain and modify the settings, you'll go crazy. Besides, you can brew wheat beers using ground flour, so don't worry unless EVERYTHING is flour (that would mean a stuck sparge)

Vorlaufing (or whatever you call it) - never done it in over 100 AG brews. As said by Chris, the idea is to stop grains coming through (so I use a strainer). Cloudy wort .. get used to it. It'll clear in the boil a bit and when the yeast gets its turn.

And yes, ikidd is right when he says a beer, whether lager or ale, can benefit from a dose of cold conditioning. Just be careful to avoid oxidisation when transferring around all those containers.
 
If you're really concerned about your crush you might try adding a pound of rice hulls in with your mash. I've never had a stuck sparge when using rice hulls.
 
To answer OP's question, I would cold-crash the beer after fermenting, and then use gelatin for fining. This, plus a couple of weeks worth of conditioning in the kegerator, usually makes my beer crystal clear.
 
To answer OP's question, I would cold-crash the beer after fermenting, and then use gelatin for fining. This, plus a couple of weeks worth of conditioning in the kegerator, usually makes my beer crystal clear.

So would you cold crash before transferring to secondary? Or just cold crash after secondary when kegging? I typically cold crash all of my beers before kegging and that has helped get clearer beer, but I've never had one as hazy as this one to start out. I'll give the gelatin a try as well. I know cloudy beer isn't the end of the world but it's nice for the many non-homebrewers who try my beer.

And concerning the rice hulls, I'll definitely add them to my inventory just to have on hand for instances like this, when the crush was too fine. The benefit of the fine crush was that our efficiency was around 78%, about 10% higher than our first all grain effort.

Another question, our last batch had a pretty serious off-flavor that I associated with tannins from the grain. Doesn't that happen with too fine of crushes as well? It could have been that our mash temperature creeped up too high. Still trying to solve the issue of maintaining temperatures in the MLT. Even wrapped with insulation the keg just doesn't hold temperatures well. We are also using a lid that doesn't fit quite right, so maybe I'll make a lid with some 2" foam insulation or something.
 
So would you cold crash before transferring to secondary? Or just cold crash after secondary when kegging? I typically cold crash all of my beers before kegging and that has helped get clearer beer, but I've never had one as hazy as this one to start out. I'll give the gelatin a try as well. I know cloudy beer isn't the end of the world but it's nice for the many non-homebrewers who try my beer.

Well, I don't usually use a secondary anymore, so YMMV. I rack off the trub in the primary fermenter straight into a sanitized corny, then toss it in the keg fridge. The next day, I add about 1/2 pack of gelatin dissolved in a cup of preboiled (but not still boiling) water through the lid of the corny, then cover and pressurize to seat the seals.

Within a few days, the gelatin should have settled out, carrying along with it whatever it's grabbed. At that point, you can dispense out some of the settled stuff from the keg, then carbonate, or remove the keg from the fridge and prime it if you want to naturally carbonate.

Even with gelatin, the beer usually needs a few weeks to drop crystal clear without chill haze, but it will get there eventually.
 
Well, I don't usually use a secondary anymore, so YMMV. I rack off the trub in the primary fermenter straight into a sanitized corny, then toss it in the keg fridge. The next day, I add about 1/2 pack of gelatin dissolved in a cup of preboiled (but not still boiling) water through the lid of the corny, then cover and pressurize to seat the seals.

Within a few days, the gelatin should have settled out, carrying along with it whatever it's grabbed. At that point, you can dispense out some of the settled stuff from the keg, then carbonate, or remove the keg from the fridge and prime it if you want to naturally carbonate.

Even with gelatin, the beer usually needs a few weeks to drop crystal clear without chill haze, but it will get there eventually.

Thanks for the suggestion! I'll probably try the exact same method, except do the gelatin and cold crash in the secondary.
 
No problemo. To elaborate on the gelatin, I bloom the gelatin in cold water first (I preboil it and allow it to cool), then heat it and stir until the gelatin dissolves. IF you boil the gelatin, it will become a lot less effective.
 

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