How Can I Prevent a Stuck Lauter? AND What About Chocolate?

ishkabibble · Oct 3, 2012

STUCK...
I have an all-grain oatmeal stout on the horizon, and I was wondering if anyone had any tips on preventing a stuck lauter. I'm adding 1# of flaked oatmeal to the basic Palmer stout recipe, and everyone everywhere cautions that I'm not going to be able to drain the dern tun. I've read that some people just give the drain line a quick windy, but I'd like to prevent having a pic of that somehow end up on a reputable forum.

CHOCOLATE...
I'd also like to flavor said stout with chocolate--does anyone have a tried/true ratio for chocolate to wort volume? And I assume I can just add some squares of baker's chocolate to the pot immediately after the boil?

(This chocolate business makes me nervous because I've had chocolate "break" before when being introduced to h2o, and I don't want a brew pot full of hot schmutz.)

ChessRockwell · Oct 3, 2012

Rice hulls!

T-Dan · Oct 3, 2012

I have had issues with slow draining tuns while using oatmeal too. luckily they have eventually drained, but it took some time. and that is with rice hulls included. I think I will skip the oatmeal in the future personally.

As for chocolate, I had very good luck using hershey's cocoa powder. 8 oz. gave a nice chocolate flavor to a chocolate milk stout I made. I added it with 15 minutes left in the boil.

RM-MN · Oct 3, 2012

Two items for you to think about.
1. BIAB. Never a stuck lauter or sparge even with lots of wheat or oats.
2. Chocolate malt gives a hint of chocolate flavor without adding real chocolate.

ishkabibble · Oct 3, 2012

rice hulls? who the fart thinks of this stuff? who knew rice had hulls? what about unsalted, unroasted peanut shells?

maybe i'll just skip the whole thing as it seems like a pita. thanks for the help on this.

kylevester · Oct 3, 2012

The size of the peanut shells is probably too big to help, unless you can crush them reliably to the size of grain husks.

As for rice having hulls, since it's a grain it has a husk. Whether you end up with a stuck lauter or not depends on your mash tun geometry and your manifold. I use a bazooka tube and have done mashes of 50% rye with no problem, had I used a slit manifold I probably would have gotten a stuck mash. One pound of oatmeal is unlikely to stick the mash, but 1/2 to a full pound of rice hulls will provide insurance and are cheap.

kylevester · Oct 3, 2012

Oh, and I'm not sure what flavors you'll get from peanut shells, so better to stick with something we know is neutral.

ChessRockwell · Oct 4, 2012

Rice hulls worked really well for me when I was using a lot of rye in the mash... Haven't tried it with oats though.

KarlHungus76 · Oct 4, 2012

ChessRockwell said:
Rice hulls!

+1. They're cheap and impart no flavor. Helps to prevent stuck sparges. I just throw a couple handfuls in when I'm using something that will thicken the mash I.e. wheat, rye, oatmeal, flaked barley. They work.

ishkabibble · Oct 4, 2012

thanks for the tips. i have the steel braided sleeve of a dishwasher tube for a filter. i'm sure that'd get just as gummy as a slit manifold. rice hulls sound like a classic diy solution, and a great way to repurpose what is essentially garbage.

just to push the envelope on this--say i don't have rice hulls, say i have no access to them before this weekend's brew--could i pass the lautered wort through a muslin bag of flaked oats in my brew pot, or even leave a muslin bag of oats in the brew pot as it comes up to temperature?

kaconga · Oct 4, 2012

ishkabibble said:
thanks for the tips. i have the steel braided sleeve of a dishwasher tube for a filter. i'm sure that'd get just as gummy as a slit manifold. rice hulls sound like a classic diy solution, and a great way to repurpose what is essentially garbage.

just to push the envelope on this--say i don't have rice hulls, say i have no access to them before this weekend's brew--could i pass the lautered wort through a muslin bag of flaked oats in my brew pot, or even leave a muslin bag of oats in the brew pot as it comes up to temperature?

The oats have very little diastatic power and so cannot convert themselves in the boil pot. In the scenario you described I would utilize the bag in the mash and pull it out before you lauter. It should convert and you will hopefully get rid of most that gummy mess. I have never done this but it would be something I would try.

kylevester · Oct 6, 2012

Agreed. Give it a try. You should still get the mouthfeel from the oats with that method and the sugar that they're gonna offer is pretty low in any case, and overall it should be really close. Good idea!

Take good notes on your process and then tasting. Then next time you brew it and use a different method, compare the results.

KarlHungus76 · Oct 6, 2012

ishkabibble said:
thanks for the tips. i have the steel braided sleeve of a dishwasher tube for a filter. i'm sure that'd get just as gummy as a slit manifold. rice hulls sound like a classic diy solution, and a great way to repurpose what is essentially garbage.

just to push the envelope on this--say i don't have rice hulls, say i have no access to them before this weekend's brew--could i pass the lautered wort through a muslin bag of flaked oats in my brew pot, or even leave a muslin bag of oats in the brew pot as it comes up to temperature?

I have the braided supply line in my mash tun as well and it is a classic works great lasts a long time. Rice hulls do the trick, and very cheaply.

msa8967 · Oct 6, 2012

ishkabibble said:
thanks for the tips. i have the steel braided sleeve of a dishwasher tube for a filter.?

I have wrapped my ss water supply line braid with voile cloth or boilled panty hose and I have never had a stuck sparge when using flaked oaks/corn/wheat. My runoffs are very clear during batch sparging.

I have even bought a white voile curtain from walmart for $5 to use for making BIAB sacks. The loop that the curtain rod slides through is perfect for sliding over my ss braid and tie the other end. Add a zip tie or hose clamp at the front and you are good to go.

duboman · Oct 7, 2012

Appears everyone already answered your question but had to say love the screen name and the Schmutz comment

ishkabibble · Oct 9, 2012

duboman said:
Appears everyone already answered your question but had to say love the screen name and the Schmutz comment

many thanx. (plenty more yiddish weird that came from) everybody's so crazy friendly on this forum, wow! it's almost like you've all been drinki--wait a second... :mug:

helibrewer · Oct 9, 2012

ishkabibble said:
STUCK...
I have an all-grain oatmeal stout on the horizon, and I was wondering if anyone had any tips on preventing a stuck lauter. I'm adding 1# of flaked oatmeal to the basic Palmer stout recipe, and everyone everywhere cautions that I'm not going to be able to drain the dern tun. I've read that some people just give the drain line a quick windy, but I'd like to prevent having a pic of that somehow end up on a reputable forum.

CHOCOLATE...
I'd also like to flavor said stout with chocolate--does anyone have a tried/true ratio for chocolate to wort volume? And I assume I can just add some squares of baker's chocolate to the pot immediately after the boil?

(This chocolate business makes me nervous because I've had chocolate "break" before when being introduced to h2o, and I don't want a brew pot full of hot schmutz.)

For chocolate use powered cocoa, the lowest fat content you can find. I used Hershey's which is very low in fat content, 1 lb per 5 gallons added to the fermentor, I didn't boil it.

C-Rider · Oct 10, 2012

ishkabibble said:
many thanx. (plenty more yiddish weird that came from) everybody's so crazy friendly on this forum, wow! it's almost like you've all been drinki--wait a second...

Didn't think about it to much till duboman brought it up and you confermed it. Haven't heard either term since I left the Jewish section of Brooklyn I was raised in.

Mazaltof or how ever you spell it.
:rockin:

duboman · Oct 10, 2012

C-Rider said:
Didn't think about it to much till duboman brought it up and you confermed it. Haven't heard either term since I left the Jewish section of Brooklyn I was raised in. Mazaltof or how ever you spell it.
:rockin:

Oy Vey! It's Mazel Tov!

How Can I Prevent a Stuck Lauter? AND What About Chocolate?

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