Glass beads to separate wort from mash ?

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How well it will work depends on the diameter of the glass beads. Are you thinking marbles, sand, something in between?
In traditional lautering the malt itself is the filter (in conjunction with a false bottom of some sort). How are you milling the malt and what type of system are you currently using to lauter?
 
tried bags - took forever to come through and hazy.

I purchase pre milled grain as used by my local microbrewery..

I was thinking 2mm diameter beads

cleaning should be easy as glass and barley will have different specific gravities
 
Before going into unknown territory why not try a conventional method like an insulated drink cooler with a Bazooka style screen (what I use) or a false bottom? This system works well and provides good efficiency.
 
Sound like an idea not at all though through.. Grain and glass beads, how are you going to separate them??

There is probably a reason why no one does it!!
 
walking out into traffic sounds like a better idea
 
bobtheUKbrewer2 said:
tried bags - took forever to come through and hazy.
Click to expand...

What kind of bags? My mash results are hazy but after a good hot and cold break the wort are clear as can be, if I let it settle before pulling it out of the brew kettle.I've been using my own bags and also Wilser bags, both fine poly mesh.
 
How would you get them out of the spent grains after the mash? Sounds like a terrible idea to me.

If a bag took too long for you, you must have used the wrong bag or you had the wrong expectations... 10-15 Minutes is normal for BIAB.
 
bobtheUKbrewer2 said:
Has anybody tried this ?
Click to expand...

I can't speak about the glass beads, but you know what does works well? Line the mash tun with Gravel.
Brewing with a high percentage of flaked wheat or oats? Say goodbye rice hulls, say hello to gravel!
Mineral content of your water not where you need it to be? Nothing a handful of gravel can't fix!
Gravel, good for what ales ya!

Sorry man couldn't resist ;)
 
what is a bazooka screen please ?
I have tried a rectangular copper manifold with 2 mm slits but as my cooler box has no tap I have to syphon the wort out and sometimes the syphon stops and makes life very difficult.
I will put spent grain and beads in a bucket, fill with water, agitate and collect the grain with a sieve.
 
By the way, you can brew a perfectly clear beer using a bag. Mashing technique has little to do with clarity. It's just a filter to separate grain from wort.

Adequate calcium levels in the wort, mash pH, solid hot and cold breaks, whirlfloc and cold conditioning one week (even with bottle conditioning) produced this beer using BIAB method: https://www.instagram.com/p/BQaVtpxgU9M/
 
bobtheUKbrewer2 said:
what is a bazooka screen please ?

I have tried a rectangular copper manifold with 2 mm slits but as my cooler box has no tap I have to syphon the wort out and sometimes the syphon stops and makes life very difficult.

I will put spent grain and beads in a bucket, fill with water, agitate and collect the grain with a sieve.
Click to expand...


I really think that sounds like a nightmare to clean and will take longer to clean than even a traditional 3 vessel system. I brew in a bag exclusively and have never had a slow lauter. You can simply pick the bag up at the end of the mash and let it drain into your cooler and then siphon into your kettle. It takes minutes. I also brew very clear beer. Cloudy wort does not make cloudy beer.

Perfectly clear pilsner, though the glass is frosty so it's a little hard to tell.

View attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1497006607.038330.jpg
 
thanks all - I loved the gravel recommendation - and still nobody says what a bazooka screen is...

For 40 years I have believed the wort has to be crystal clear before the start of the boil - it would appear now that this is not the case.....
 
I did a Google search on "Bazooka screen" and found hundreds of photos and articles. Google does a much better job than me telling you what it is.
 
bobtheUKbrewer2 said:
thanks all - I loved the gravel recommendation - and still nobody says what a bazooka screen is...

For 40 years I have believed the wort has to be crystal clear before the start of the boil - it would appear now that this is not the case.....
Click to expand...

bazooka screen is just a stainless steel woven mesh.. here is a quickie video that shows how to make one out of a SS reinforced water supply line:
[ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Goi0KHx9Ss[/ame]


and here is an example of a purpose-made one:

http://www.homebrewing.org/12-Stain...ZNU9ION33XuMbrFpKdtLHiap2o5Qy9iW04xoCCSHw_wcB
 
It's just a stainless steel tube screen. Though he's stated he does not have a valve and must siphon from his mash. I think.
 
bobtheUKbrewer2 said:
what is a bazooka screen please ?
I have tried a rectangular copper manifold with 2 mm slits but as my cooler box has no tap I have to syphon the wort out and sometimes the syphon stops and makes life very difficult.
I will put spent grain and beads in a bucket, fill with water, agitate and collect the grain with a sieve.
Click to expand...

First, get a different cooler. You can get by without a valve if you batch sparge by using one of those plastic hose clamp valves. I inherited a box cooler that just has a high temp hose that runs through the regular drain port on the cooler (no metal manifold through the cooler). It has a cheap brass ball valve on the outside. On the inside, it has a SS bazooka screen that I got on Amazon for $10.

Total cost to build something like this:
Cooler $25
Hose $ 5
Bazooka screen $10
Valve $ 11 or pinch valve $4

This system has worked very well for me.
 
bobtheUKbrewer2 said:
For 40 years I have believed the wort has to be crystal clear before the start of the boil - it would appear now that this is not the case.....
Click to expand...

You don't even need crystal clear wort going into the fermentor. I regularly dump the entire kettle, break material and hops included, into the fermentor. I get just as clear beer at the end.
 
Glass beads are good for blasting scale and paint off metals only.

All other glass bead uses are some hippy, mystic mumbo jumbo.
 
MIAB. Mash In A Bag

When I do a 1/2 batch, no sense using my 70-qt tun, I go with my smaller, 16-qt cooler (with no drain spout) lined with a bag. Lift it out to lauter, siphon wort into boil kettle

Easy peasy

Yes, I could do it in the kettle, but with a propane burner, it's just easier to maintain temps in the cooler
 
many thanks everybody - much food for thought - can I close this thread now please.
 
bobtheUKbrewer2 said:
tried bags - took forever to come through and hazy.
Click to expand...

Saw this thread yesterday and then could not find it again. I line a cooler with a bag and have a valve that I open all the way to sparge. It takes forever because a little bit of the bag gets into the valve on the inside of the cooler. I put a slotted spoon in between the bag and the valve opening inside the cooler to keep the bag from getting sucked into the valve. I can sparge in about 2 minutes.
 
TheMadKing said:
... I brew in a bag exclusively and have never had a slow lauter. You can simply pick the bag up at the end of the mash and let it drain into your cooler and then siphon into your kettle. It takes minutes. I also brew very clear beer. Cloudy wort does not make cloudy beer.

Perfectly clear pilsner, though the glass is frosty so it's a little hard to tell.

View attachment 403652
Click to expand...

My experience as well: cloudy wort, clear beer.

Nice looking beer, but hate the glass - GO DAWGS! :p

Brew on :mug:
 
doug293cz said:
My experience as well: cloudy wort, clear beer.

Nice looking beer, but hate the glass - GO DAWGS! :p

Brew on :mug:
Click to expand...

There have been a couple informal studies done on that. Years back, a poster on the Brews & Views forum, Joakim Ruud, posted that he made 2 batches of pils, one with and one without trub. Not only was the with trub batch clearer, tasters preferred it. Unfortunately, that archive is gone so you can't read it for yourself. More recently, Brulosophy did a similar experiment with similar results. Personally I have never found that clear wort ensures clear beer.
 
:off:

jwalk4 said:
Glass beads are good for blasting scale and paint off metals only.

All other glass bead uses are some hippy, mystic mumbo jumbo.
Click to expand...

Well, there's also the hollow glass beads that General Mills used to create buoyancy foam for ALVIN. Now used for making offshore oil drilling equipment neutrally buoyant. Goddamn tree-hugging hippy oil drillers. ;)
 
I'm thinking of lining my mash tun with spruce branches. That's what they used before glass beads were available. The added bonus is you can compost them with the mash, a recyclable false bottom, a renewable resource.

Was thinking I could start selling the spruce branch false bottoms, but freshness is very important, and shipping would be cost prohibitive.
 
I'm currently doing BIAB but I'm not wedded to it. My mash tun has a torpedo screen but a trick I discovered is to cover that torpedo screen with a hop sock, and tied off with a twist-tie. It hugely speeds up vorlauf, and you can rinse/clean it and use it again.

Another thing you could do is just use a Wilserbag to line your mash tun; at that point it's not materially different than BIAG, and you can squeeze wort out of the spent grain.

Finally, if one is having trouble w/ very slow or stuck sparges, adding about 8 ounces of rice hulls to the grist will help with that.
 
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