How long does first run take?

[troutab81]

First AG brew session going right now.

The first run of draining from the mash is coming out at barely a trickle from my mash tun (52 qt cooler). Is this normal? How long should it take? Should I be worried?

 

[troutab81]

First AG brew session going right now.

The first run of draining from the mash is coming out at barely a trickle from my mash tun (52 qt cooler). Is this normal? How long should it take? Should I be worried?

I have a hose on it, but not much of a siphon. I was worried my slits were too small (1/32")....

 

[troutab81]

I have a hose on it, but not much of a siphon. I was worried my slits were too small (1/32")....

20 min, i got about a half gallon of wort.

 

[Yooper]

I can completely empty my tun in about 5-7 minutes, and I don't have it completely open.

I guess you got some materials stuck in your holes, or somehow clogged up the system.

You can wait it out, or you can dump the whole works into a new container and see what the problem is. If you haven't sparged yet, I suspect it'll get even worse.

 

[troutab81]

I can completely empty my tun in about 5-7 minutes, and I don't have it completely open.

I guess you got some materials stuck in your holes, or somehow clogged up the system.

You can wait it out, or you can dump the whole works into a new container and see what the problem is. If you haven't sparged yet, I suspect it'll get even worse.

I am pretty confident that my slits in the CPVC are not wide enough to allow good flow. SHould I dump it into a bucket, drill some holes, then try again? Waiting it out seems like it would take at least 3 hrs... uhhhh

 

[Zen_Brew]

That is way too slow. As Yoop said you should be able to drain your mash tun in under 10 minutes. Some people back off the valve to slow the rate, but you should be able to get it out in under 10 minutes if you wanted barring gummy adjuncts like high levels of wheat in the grist. You may have crushed your grains to fine which can cause a stuck mash. I don't see 1/32" as a big problem as I use a copper manifold with hacksaw slits cut in it with no probs. How many slits did you cut in your PVC. I have a slit cut like every inch or so.

 

[Yooper]

Yeah, to fix it now would require you to dump the mash into another vessel, like a big bucket. See what's wrong, clear it out (fix it if you can), and pour the mash back in. Vorlauf, and try again.

A stuck mash sucks.

 

[troutab81]

Yeah, to fix it now would require you to dump the mash into another vessel, like a big bucket. See what's wrong, clear it out (fix it if you can), and pour the mash back in. Vorlauf, and try again.

A stuck mash sucks.

Indeed. Well we got about 2.5 gal out of first run. Going to sparge with a little more and see if I can get some more out.... learning process!

 

[troutab81]

Indeed. Well we got about 2.5 gal out of first run. Going to sparge with a little more and see if I can get some more out.... learning process!

I think I figured it out... its called a siphon :cross:

 

[Zen_Brew]

Stuck mash = suckage

Just some thoughts.

What was your water to grain ratio for your mash. Many use 1.25 qt water/lb of grain. Moving that up to 1.4 or 1.5 qts/lb of grain will help thin the mash.

Do you know how fine your crush was? If you did it yourself, then at what setting? If someone else did it were the husks all shredded with lots of flour? You ideally want crushed husks that are mostly in tact, or only in a couple pieces. If most of them look shredded your crush is too fine.

Was there a lot of sticky ingredients in the mash like a high wheat or oat percentage?

How did you determine your slits are 1/32". Did you use a fine cut dremmel wheel to get that fine? I'm thinking the hacksaw blade I used on my copper manifold probably left a bigger slit than that in the copper. Also re-thinking I probably cut a slit every 1/2 - 3/4" along my manifold. Remember when you're out of slits, you're out of beer.

In the short term more water, and especially rice hulls can help with stuck mashes and sparges.

 

[troutab81]

Stuck mash = suckage

Just some thoughts.

What was your water to grain ratio for your mash. Many use 1.25 qt water/lb of grain. Moving that up to 1.4 or 1.5 qts/lb of grain will help thin the mash.

Do you know how fine your crush was? If you did it yourself, then at what setting? If someone else did it were the husks all shredded with lots of flour? You ideally want crushed husks that are mostly in tact, or only in a couple pieces. If most of them look shredded your crush is too fine.

Was there a lot of sticky ingredients in the mash like a high wheat or oat percentage?

How did you determine your slits are 1/32". Did you use a fine cut dremmel wheel to get that fine? I'm thinking the hacksaw blade I used on my copper manifold probably left a bigger slit than that in the copper. Also re-thinking I probably cut a slit every 1/2 - 3/4" along my manifold. Remember when you're out of slits, you're out of beer.

In the short term more water, and especially rice hulls can help with stuck mashes and sparges.

Sorry for the delay...cleaning and excited I finally got a good flow going

Gravity reading came out at 1.070 (1.076 estimated through Beersmith), so not too worried here. Once I got the siphon rocking, I could use my valve to limit the flow.


Zen:
I went 1.25 qt/lb for the mash.

I let my HBS crush them for free for me. I transferred from the garbage bag to a bucket for easy transfer, and there wasnt a lot of flour... a good amount of husks seemed to me (first AG so take it as is).

No specialty ingredients, so should be a sticky mash... the recipe is Yoopers 60 min Dogfish Head clone

I measured the slits to be 1/32. THey were definitely half of the 1/16th mark. It was just the standard hacksaw I got.

OVERALL, I think my spacing (1/2 inch) and 1/32 slits were fine.... I just let the end of the hose out of my valve dangle 6-12 inches and splash into the brew kettle as opposed to getting a siphon going..

Next time I will ensure I get a siphon unless you guys tell me I am way off here.

 

[wilserbrewer]

.... I just let the end of the hose out of my valve dangle 6-12 inches and splash into the brew kettle as opposed to getting a siphon going..

I think you are good to go, lesson learned, lower the sparge hose to the bottom of your kettle next time.

 

[troutab81]

I think you are good to go, lesson learned, lower the sparge hose to the bottom of your kettle next time.

Sure hope that was it. Remembering to think is an easy fix.

 

[troutab81]

I think you are good to go, lesson learned, lower the sparge hose to the bottom of your kettle next time.

Is creating a siphon absolutely necessary when draining my MLT? I would prefer to keep my slits as is and hope to get a great efficiency.

Just wanted to follow iup and see if anyone can answer about creaing a siphon