Bad brew day.

[moski]

Decided to brew my house stout with two changes and had a stuck sparge that took four hours to remedy. Never had one stick with my stainless braid.

Oatmeal Stout 5gal
8.5lbs Maris Otter
2lbs flaked oats (up one pound)
1lbs flaked Barley
8oz each of Roasted Barley, Chocolate malt, Crystal 120.
2oz each of Special B, Debittered Black
1lbs dark Malliard syrup (flameout)

1oz Glacier FWH

That sucker stuck right after Vourloff and stayed that way. I made the mistake of backblowing the wort resulting in a freakin Volcano of mash splattering everywhere. After much fiddling I ended up dipping and straining manually. When I went to get my hops out the eggs decide they've had enough and leapt to their death as I opened the fridge door.
This one almost got the better of me. 20min to flameout andthe penny's in the air......

 

[homebrewmike]

Relax have a homebrew and take a deep breath. I once flooded my in-laws kitchen with water on a brew day. We all have bad brew days. It just happens, it make those great brew days seem all that much better!

Let us know how the beer turns out!

 

[diatonic]

Why not just stir like crazy after having it stick?

 

[moski]

Yeah, I tried stirring, scraping, tunneling, and even giving it the stink eye.

 

[iowabrew]

i've had a 1 stuck sparge in my day with a giant barley wine. I tried all of the above as well. Eventually dumped the whole thing through a colander. Makes for a very painful/stressful brew day. Beer turned out fine tho!!

 

[rxpx40]

I made the mistake of backblowing the wort resulting in a freakin Volcano of mash splattering everywhere.
When I went to get my hops out the eggs decide they've had enough and leapt to their death as I opened the fridge door.

Man, that cracked me up. I hope it turns out better for you.
~Breathe~...That's good...

 

[Indian_villager]

How tight is your crush? I had a few stuck sparges lately and I solved it by conditioning my grains and running my mill slower (corona mill).

 

[bchurch]

I say spend the extra couple dollars and get yourself some rice hulls, I had a stuck sparge once, once....

Sent from my PC36100 using Home Brew mobile app

 

[NorthwestBrewman2013]

Never fun! Try having a full mash tun and realizing that you placed the hose link wrong side up and it was plugged with the mash. I did that on my last brew and had to collander the whole 6.3 gallons of wort into my kettle. Pain in the butt! Thank goodness I had a couple of buddies there to help!

 

[LandoLincoln]

There are way too many threads that contain the phrases "I had a stuck sparge" and "stainless braid."

I went to a CPVC manifold and haven't had a stuck sparge since. I'm just sayin'.

 

[Hello]

If your stuck sparge didn't budge with the stink eye then I don't know what you could have really done.

It sounds like in a weird roundabout way you will have beer. No eggs, but beer. The last brew day I had I focused so much on my propane burner that I melted my better bottle.

 

[moski]

I think it may have been the three lbs of flaked products. Fortunately it's now chugging along and I only lost 8 points of gravity, still hitting 1.080 actual in the fermenter vs. 1.088 with my normal efficiency. Started slow and is now going well, no other foods committed sepuku.

 

[estricklin]

There are way too many threads that contain the phrases "I had a stuck sparge" and "stainless braid."

I went to a CPVC manifold and haven't had a stuck sparge since. I'm just sayin'.

Which is why I advocate a nice stainless screen style false bottom, OR just make yourself one out of a pizza pan. I'm sure the PVC manifolds are a sight better than the hose braids too.

Rice hulls are a MUST when doing an oatmeal stout, or really any beer with a lot of sticky adjuncts. I use rice hulls in all my beers, it's cheap insurance.

Go slow, it's not a race, when I do a beer with a lot of adjuncts I slow the sparge wayyyyyyyy down.

 

[moski]

@estricklin, I spent the whole time fantasizing about a false bottom thinking I'd collasped my braid of knocked it off because I stir every 15min during the mash plus doing a double decoction and mixing that. Besides, that grain bill packs my 5gal tun.

 

[LandoLincoln]

Which is why I advocate a nice stainless screen style false bottom, OR just make yourself one out of a pizza pan. I'm sure the PVC manifolds are a sight better than the hose braids too.

Rice hulls are a MUST when doing an oatmeal stout, or really any beer with a lot of sticky adjuncts. I use rice hulls in all my beers, it's cheap insurance.

Go slow, it's not a race, when I do a beer with a lot of adjuncts I slow the sparge wayyyyyyyy down.

I've done oatmeal stouts without rice hulls, no problem. I haven't tried a pumpkin ale yet. That will be the real test of my manifold.

 

[hou_me]

I too am a member of the colander club. I even have a false bottom and still managed to stick a mash. The worst part was that I looked right at the rice hulls the day before when I was buying my grain and said "Nah, I don't need 'em. I'm super brewer and I have a false bottom anyway..." Lesson learned.

 

[estricklin]

I too am a member of the colander club. I even have a false bottom and still managed to stick a mash. The worst part was that I looked right at the rice hulls the day before when I was buying my grain and said "Nah, I don't need 'em. I'm super brewer and I have a false bottom anyway..." Lesson learned.

Exactly, I pulled the same stunt with a rye beer once. The fact is sometimes we get lucky. Why chance it? Rice hulls are super cheap!

 

[moski]

How tight is your crush? I had a few stuck sparges lately and I solved it by conditioning my grains and running my mill slower (corona mill).

My grains are milled at my LHBS and I've never had a problem. In fact I just did my American Dunkelweissen, double decoction with 57% wheat malt and nary a problem. I do wish I had a mill so I could condition.

I think it was the three pounds of flaked product that gummed up and did me in.