stuck mash trying to find problem

on Saturday i was brewing a 10 gallon batch with 20# grain and i got stuck mash for the first time.There are allot of factors that might contribute to this,

1. my lhbs closed recently so this made me make my own grain mill. i made a 2 roller one that is adjustable. i set it to a good crush i though from looking at thishttps://www.homebrewtalk.com/wiki/index.php/Evaluating_the_Crush
and here are some pictureshttp://i289.photobucket.com/albums/ll204/jblewis85/DSC00007.jpg
http://i289.photobucket.com/albums/ll204/jblewis85/DSC00002.jpg
might be hard to see my camera is not that good.

2. after i tried to unstick the mash i just dumped all the grain and noticed that when mixing my mash i stretched out my SS braid making it really thin.

the mash did look milkier then usual and i forgot to put water in mash tun before putting grain in so the grain on the bottom was all dry after adding my mash water so i had to mix it up real good to get all the grain wet

so do you guys think it was my ss braid or my crush that caused the stuck mash
to fix i am going to make a copper manifold with hack saw slits for false bottom. i can adjust my mill but i think crush still looks good. what do you guys think.

also for the first time i was using a march pump and it was having issues. it would work good after i first primed it then some how air was getting in the line and it would stop pumping . I tightened all the fittings and could not get he air from building up there was a leek after the pump on my bleeder valve that could be causing this.

If your braid flattened then adding some tubing inside the braid with lots of holes in it works good to keep the braid open. This will prevent stuck sparges. Water first works best.

the flattened SS braided line is the main reason I made a copper manifold for my MLT. No way it's going to flatten out, no matter how much grain I put on top of it.

Also, yes, I also put some mash water in the MLT, first, then add some grain, stir and continue. Even if I have to alternate water and grain. That way I can guarantee no dry spots in the grainbed. Also, this takes place AFTER I have put boiling water, or close to it, to temper the MLT, prior to the mash process.

sorry picture didn't work I fixed them

I cant find any copper crosses locally for the copper manifold so i am thinking a square CPVC one in a circular 10 gallon mash tun. on the CPVC ones do you just press fit them together or is the glue ok?

All you need is some copper pipe and some fittings. You wont find a pre-made cross.

Depending on what your grain bill was can cause stuck sparge also. My only stuck sparge so far was a wit that hat oats and wheat in it. Even with rice hulls I still got a stuck sparge. I ended up scooping all the grain out, adding a mesh bag over the PVC manifold and then dumping everything back in. Worked great. For normal grain bills though the bag isn't need and is a pain to clean.

Linc

Hey JBLewis,

Same thing happened to me on my last brew. I would say it was definitely the stainless braid. At least it was in my case.

Sounds like a smart idea to make a "hard" manifold....

Personally, I am going w/ a full false bottom on my current brew rig build.