First AG, little messy.....

Well I built a 10 gallon Home Depot mash tun Friday night and Saturday morning 2 friends and I started brewing a Phat Tyre Amber Ale.

Mash temps were perfect, but when I started to drain the wort off I only got one gallon before it got stuck... Now as many of you know, it's a little hard to unclog or even deduce what's going on when the grain is this hot. So, I ran into the house grabbed a huge nylon steeping bag I had bought at the LHBS placed it into the boiling pot and we poured the wort and grains right in. Placed the grain bag back into the mash tun and started sparging.

By this time, I'm a little bummed and depressed thinking I'm going to lose this one or not get enough wort from it, but luckily I had added an extra 2 lbs of grain over what the recipe called for expecting my efficiency to be low. After a good boil and cooling it, my OG was right on target! 1.051

I'm happy to say it's fermenting like crazy right now at 72 nestled away in a dark closet.

I use the same cooler, but batch sparge with a stainless braid. I did a 10 gallon Hefe that had 14# of Wheat and 8# of Pils and didn't even bother with rice hulls. No problem. What kind of manifold do you have?

On the inside I used a "T" brass piece put a barbed nipple on each end. I had a 12" SS braid with a piece of rubber tubing inside that I cut huge notches into. The rubber tubing is on the barbs and the SS braid fits over top of it.

Lonek said:

On the inside I used a "T" brass piece put a barbed nipple on each end. I had a 12" SS braid with a piece of rubber tubing inside that I cut huge notches into. The rubber tubing is on the barbs and the SS braid fits over top of it.

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Glad to hear that your brew came out OK.

I think you will find if you remove the inner tubing of the braid it will work as advertised. I do believe that was the source of your problem, and you probably don't need the brass T. Make sure that the braid is actually stainless steel and not a plastic facsimile.

What do you guys use to connect the braid to the nipples? (that didn't sound good)

I just built my mash tun using one of these steel braided lines and simply removed the rubber tubing from inside. The SS braid is suprizingly rigid on it's own.

Lonek said:

What do you guys use to connect the braid to the nipples? (that didn't sound good)

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I use a small hose clamp. Take a look at FlyGuy's picture gallery. He lays it out nicely. https://cdn.homebrewtalk.com/gallery/browseimages.php?do=searchresults&catid=searchresults&searchid=966&page=2

I went by his directions but he said the stainless steel hose clamps rusted on him. So didn't use them.

Mine look nasty but not rusty.

I'll grab some and go that way then, thanks for the input!

Lonek said:

I'll grab some and go that way then, thanks for the input!

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As Blender said, be sure that you got a stainless steel braid and not a polymer one. They look very similar, but the polymer braid will definitely not work. There have been previous posts, just like yours, where people had bad stuck sparges and then realized they had the wrong type of braid.

Also, the tubing inside the SS braid trick works REALLY well. The only way that I can see it could cause a stuck sparge is if you didn't cut big enough holes in the tubing, or you didn't use enough of them. My systems lauters as well or better with the inner tubing because it prevents the braid from compressing, which I think was letting some openings develop in the mesh of the braid.

Regardless, I just don't trust those hose clamps any more. If they are corroding in the mash, then you know where those metals are going --> straight into your brew. Not good. But lots of people swear by them, so if you can get some all SS ones that won't corrode, it should work too.

Finally, given that this is your first AG, maybe your problem was with your lautering technique and not your equipment? Did you just open the ball valve and let 'er rip? Or did you slowly starting running off when you recirculated, and gradually increased the flow? Sometimes the former works, but the latter is a much less risky way of getting a stuck sparge.

Anyways, hope you get it figured out.

If your hose clamps are rusting, they're not 304 or 316 stainless period. Get some quality ones from Mcmaster. Personally I used ones from Lowes and they're shiny and new looking after 8 batches.

You don't need rubber hose inside the braid and I'd be leary of rubber off flavors. If you really want some kind of reinforcement inside, the best bet would be a coil of 12 gauge electrical wire. Anything that makes contact with the braid is potentially cutting off flow. You'd be better off with a 6" unobstructed braid vs. a 20" braid with hose stuck inside.

I connected my stainless braid by stuffingthe end of the braid inside itself for about an inch. Then slipit onto the brass barb fitting. The braid stays on because if you try to pull it off the barb, it simply tightens down on the fitting more. No clamps required.

Bobby_M said:

If your hose clamps are rusting, they're not 304 or 316 stainless period. Get some quality ones from Mcmaster. Personally I used ones from Lowes and they're shiny and new looking after 8 batches.

You don't need rubber hose inside the braid and I'd be leary of rubber off flavors. If you really want some kind of reinforcement inside, the best bet would be a coil of 12 gauge electrical wire. Anything that makes contact with the braid is potentially cutting off flow. You'd be better off with a 6" unobstructed braid vs. a 20" braid with hose stuck inside.

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I got my clamps from Home Depot. They were stainless (but nowhere do they tell you what type). Anyways, the clamps themselves were fine, but the tightening screws were definitely not stainless -- they corroded after a few batches. I definitely would not trust hose clamps from a hardware store unless you can be certain of the quality. But I guess you could always buy some and experiment with vinegar to see, as well.

As Bobby says, don't use rubber hose (but I don't think the OP actually meant that). I recommend high-temp, food grade vinyl tubing. I have used it in my MLT and it works perfectly (better than a naked SS braid, IMO). There is absolutely no worry of off flavours with this hose, either. It might have been better to use a section of slotted copper pipe, but I had the vinyl tubing on hand, and it costs next to nothing.

Regarding flow, the 3/8" ball valve is the bottleneck in my MLT. Bobby, I wonder if you are being overcautious that a perforated piece of tubing will necessarily be problematic. It most certainly is not in my system. As I said above, you just have to make sure that you cut plenty of holes/notches along the tubing and that you cut enough of them.

FlyGuy said:

As Bobby says, don't use rubber hose (but I don't think the OP actually meant that). I recommend high-temp, food grade vinyl tubing. I have used it in my MLT and it works perfectly (better than a naked SS braid, IMO). There is absolutely no worry of off flavours with this hose, either. It might have been better to use a section of slotted copper pipe, but I had the vinyl tubing on hand, and it costs next to nothing.

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How do you assure that it is food grade and high temp? I buy a lot of my vinyl tubing from my LHBS and am assuming they sell quality stuff. But I guess I shouldn't assume. I have also bought tubing from the plumbing department at local hardware stores and have always seen them advertise it as "non-toxic" which I assume means it's ok for plumbing in which case I would hope it is cool for brewing... Unless the little bit of extra temp factors in...

I simply used some plastic zip ties, and they have held the braid to the barb with no problems. No rusting either!

Greg

Jekster said:

How do you assure that it is food grade and high temp? I buy a lot of my vinyl tubing from my LHBS and am assuming they sell quality stuff. But I guess I shouldn't assume. I have also bought tubing from the plumbing department at local hardware stores and have always seen them advertise it as "non-toxic" which I assume means it's ok for plumbing in which case I would hope it is cool for brewing... Unless the little bit of extra temp factors in...

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The packaging/sticker on the tubing should state it's temperature range on it. You need tubing that will handle up to about 180 degrees F. I think mine was rated for 220F. And if it doesn't say that it is food grade, or it doesn't have an FDA-approved endorsement, it probably isn't food grade.

FWIW, the tubing that my LHBS sells is the same stuff that I can buy (for much cheaper) at Home Depot.