Stuck mash disaster

I grossly underestimated the amount of debris that makes it through the false bottom of my mash tun. I figured id clean up my wort a bit by putting some screen just above the outlet, its 2 inches in diameter so i didnt think it would hurt it. Boy was i wrong.....i had to completely empty my mashtun during my sparge to fix the problem.

I think i saved the batch, but im worried about oxidisation, i guess only time will tell. Oh, then my newly built hopback clogged up, gota rethink that one as well.

I wouldn't worry, most of the oxygen will be removed during the boil.

For what it's worth, when I was at Gremlyn1's house last year watching how to do AG brews, his mash got stuck too. About a minute later, he decided to blow in the outlet valve pushing the stuck debris back inside (but out of the valve), and that fixed it right up. Might be worth a try in the future? Not sure of any possible implications this could have, but I wouldn't think many since it's pre-boil.

The beer will likely be just fine. Aren't stuck mashes fun? I gave up on hop backs after a couple of failed attempts. IMO, not worth the hassle.

Stuck mashes are fun, u gota get creative. I actually hooked my cooling line up to the outlet and gave it a few good blasts, but it just blocked up again. I thought about trying to find something flexible enough to go up my plumbing and push the screen out of the way. I also could have just taken my compression fitting off and shoved somethin in there, wish i had thought of that actually.

As far as the hopback goes i really like the idea of it, so im gonna try a larger screen.

I've been brewing all-grain for about 1 year now. I find that if I use my March pump to re-circ the mash, it gets stuck. I have been using gravity only for the past 4 batches and have not gotten a stuck mash. I'm using 10Gal Rubbermaid round cooler with a perforated SS false bottom. I surmise that I was pulling too much fluid too fast, causing the grains to pack the holes of the false bottom.

I had a couple slow or stuck mashes and changed out my 1/2" steel braid to 1" steel braid. Man what a difference. I saved 30 minutes off my brew day.

ONe time I had a stuck mash...twice in the same batch. I ended up pouring all of the grains/wort into the HLT, cleaning the SS braid and returning to the MLT. Started running again only to have it get stuck a second time. Transferred it all back into the HLT, removed braid, cleaned, reattached and returned the grains to the MLT. Worked fine for the rest of the sparge. The entire time I was swearing like a sailor about how my whole batch would be ruined and that I was never doing something like this again. Well, needless to say the batch was one of my best ever! It is very hard to screw up brewing, and even when you think it's over...it aint.

BigBadMikey said:

I've been brewing all-grain for about 1 year now. I find that if I use my March pump to re-circ the mash, it gets stuck. I have been using gravity only for the past 4 batches and have not gotten a stuck mash. I'm using 10Gal Rubbermaid round cooler with a perforated SS false bottom. I surmise that I was pulling too much fluid too fast, causing the grains to pack the holes of the false bottom.

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When circulating with a pump, I've found that it's best to limit the flow rate to about what you would have with gravity flow alone to prevent compaction of the grain bed, or only slightly more. The trick is knowing what the speed limit is.

Sometimes, with a configuration such as you have, the plastic tubing which connects the false bottom to the outlet can collapse and cut off or greatly reduce the flow if too much suction is applied. This can also happen with only gravity flow if the outlet hose creates enough of a siphon effect.