I am now an all grain brewer (and junior Macgyver)

After mooching off the great information on this site for the past year, I finally did my my first all grain batch / equipment fail / crisis aversion all in the same day.

Brewed a simple ESB with an 11# grain bill - it was all smooth sailing until it was time to collect the runoff from the mash tun. Apparently the holes in the copper manifold I had constructed were too small, because I had the ball valve opened fully and there was nothing coming out. So I dumped the mash into my bottling bucket and drilled larger holes into the manifold (which was hot as a mofo, by the way).

Mash back into the tun, opened it up, and still nothing. Lots of swear words, then I poured the mash back into the bucket, ripped out the manifold, screwed in a hose barb and strapped on a washing machine lint trap. I batch sparged 3 times, and crisis averted.

I probably lost a lot of heat back and forth between the bucket and MLT, but I had done a mashout, so that probably helped a bit. There were a few more grain husks swirling around in the boil than there probably should have been , too, but I hit my OG right on the nose (1.054), and she's bubbling away happily right now

So there it is - one all grain session, and one panicked near-catastrophe in the books.

Anyone else have any Macgyver moments to share? Please, put me in my place. I was way too proud of myself today.

Congratulations.

I can almost guarantee that your stuck sparge was related to a wide open valve. Open it too far and you create a huge vacuum on your outlet and things clog quickly.

Draining should be done slow and steady...with little pressure on the output opening.

I've been very fortunate with my MLT. Bought it off a guy that had been brewing a long time and had to quit. He had a bazooka T installed and I've never had it stick. I plan to challenge it with a barleywine soon though. Congrats on saving your brew and enjoy it. You'll probably come across a situation eventually that you can't resolve. I know I have.

I was bottling a batch last night and wondered what I would do if my Emily capper broke mid bottling session. A lot of things I buy 2 of - just in case one breaks or gets ruined... no panic. But I only have 1 capper, and don't bottle a whole lot. What would you do if you broke your capper after adding priming sugar. My thought was to put it back in the carboy with a blanket of co2. Let the priming sugar ferment over a couple weeks, then bottle it again with the new capper.

my last nite macguyver moment. I have only one blowoff tube, and I did a double batch. I had some dry yeast in one and a reconstituted yeast from a previous batch in the otehr, wanted to see the difference in flavor between nottingham and wyeast american ale. At any rate, the one I thought would be blowing off in the tube wasn't and the other was about to explode. In a panic I open the valve on the one before it pops and foam goes everywhere :O. So I get that mess cleaned up and the hose transferred to the one going berserk and put a normal ferm lock on the slower one... by the time I get that mess clean, the OTHER one starts goign berserk! So I am like... shat what do I do now????? I realize if I put my water bucket up higher I can cut the blowoff tube in half and I'm golden... macguyver moment... and save the day... both are blowing off like a politician in election season, and I'm a beaming beer poppa

Your solution in stressed situation is awesome, and makes you feel like a king eh?

diatonic said:

I was bottling a batch last night and wondered what I would do if my Emily capper broke mid bottling session. A lot of things I buy 2 of - just in case one breaks or gets ruined... no panic. But I only have 1 capper, and don't bottle a whole lot. What would you do if you broke your capper after adding priming sugar. My thought was to put it back in the carboy with a blanket of co2. Let the priming sugar ferment over a couple weeks, then bottle it again with the new capper.

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1. I'd see how much I had left to bottle, and how many Grolsch bottles I have laying around (about 15 empty right now)
2. I'd run to the store, grab a bunch of 1-liter PET soda bottles of something that seems easy to clean quickly, and use those.

I'm considering getting the Colonna capper/corker mainly because it caps Europeans and corks Belgians (and is a nicer way to cap in general), but the thought of having a backup has crossed my mind.

Fortunately I have my Grandfather's homemade capper as a backup.

alee said:

Fortunately I have my Grandfather's homemade capper as a backup.

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I saw that in the original thread. That thing is awesome.

Havent had my Macgyver moment quite yet, but I have a feeling I will be more like this guy...God help us all.

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aiAOLeX8AB8]YouTube - PEPSI MacGruber[/ame]