Stuck sparge!

Well, about 12 batches into all grain I've finally dealt with my first stuck sparge.

Less than ideally prepared, i shoved a chopstick up the spigot to try to free up the flow. then when that didn't work we tried a coat hanger so we could bend around the elbow. No dice.

Finally we dumped the entire mash into the brew kettle, cleaned and reassembled the false bottom and other plumbing, dumped the mash back into the tun, reheated the sparge water and started fresh.

Who knows how this thing'll turn out. But it was a good time, regardless.

Here's to good beer without too many screw ups.

*arrogant bastard ale clone, by the way*

did you ever think of just taking a deep breath and blowing in the outlet tube? could of saved you all that hassle.

i did, as a matter of fact. our problem was bigger - the tubing had come loose from the false bottom. so now matter how much we blew into the outlet tube, we wouldn't have gotten anywhere. had to reset the entire system.

+1 on that. Had it happen today!!

Ouch!
I did my first "real" (non-BIAB) AG batch the other day and after a gallon or so had drained, the first runnings and then subsequent sprage runnings slowed to a crawl. They never stopped entirely but slowed down reaaaally sllooowwwwww. I evertually collected 5.6 gallons of 1.048 wort, but it took over 1-1/2 hours after the mash finished!

Is that normal?