Mash tun issue

[dranderson]

Hi everyone
Put together a new orange cooler mash tun this weekend and tried all grain for the first time. Added water and malts a bit at a time until I got all eleven pounds in with a slurry to stiff texture. added a little more water to keep the temp in the proper range. When we attempted to sparge almost nothing drained out. ended up scooping and pressing in hops bags to get at the wort. No clog was present in the line and or ball valve.

was it too thick and the water was stuck in in the malt?

Things went uneventful from there with boil and the hops.

thanks

 

[Coupleathree]

There is a lot of info missing there. What was your mash water volume to grain ratio? Sparge water volume?

 

[HopSong]

How much water did you add to the grain. The grain absorbs water. It appease the standard.. used loosely.. is anywhere from 1.25-2gallons of water per pound of grain. I do 1.5g/pound.

 

[johngaltsmotor]

"Slurry to stiff texture" sounds like you didn't add enough water. At the typical 1.2-1.5quart/pound the grain should be floating, not stiff like porridge.
A stuck sparge is due to particles plugging wort from draining, but it sounds like you simply did not use enough water and once the grain absorbed the typical .15qt/lb you were left with very little wort to flow. When you removed it and pressed it how much wort did you collect?
Unfortunately if you had to squeeze the grain you likely collected a lot of fine solid matter from the grains which when included in the boil will make it bitter.

 

[dranderson]

went with what the guy at the store said to do, no ratios at all. But now I see what your talking about and have researched a bit more and see how the ratios come in to play. The mash jusst simply absorbed all the water.

Thanks for your help.

Sometimes I just dive in and go for it when I should have read more

 

[johngaltsmotor]

Sometimes the best way to learn is to try it and then figure out what you did wrong. If you screw it up the first time and it's still enough fun to try it again then you're hooked ;-)

 

[dranderson]

Oh I'm hooked, I just hope my bank account holds out.

Who's John Galt?

 

[stpug]

went with what the guy at the store said to do, no ratios at all. But now I see what your talking about and have researched a bit more and see how the ratios come in to play. The mash jusst simply absorbed all the water.

Thanks for your help.

Sometimes I just dive in and go for it when I should have read more

I'll bite

What did the guy at the store tell you to do?

 

[GASoline71]

You got a false bottom or a bazooka tube in that cooler?

Gary

 

[Dave37]

How much water did you add to the grain. The grain absorbs water. It appease the standard.. used loosely.. is anywhere from 1.25-2gallons of water per pound of grain. I do 1.5g/pound.

^^^i think he means quart per lb of grain. 1.25-2 quarts per lb

 

[dranderson]

False bottom, and the guy at the store said pour warm water in until it looks like porage and stir a lot. But he did say to read how to brew book.

So Cant hold completely accountable for the mistake. No worries me and swmbo squeezed the wort out and in to the fermenter ok. Then we both just watched as it slowly cleared to a gold color.

Weird how we just sat there and watched in silence. It was like staring at a fire

 

[dranderson]

Hey GASloine 71, I used to live in Oak Harbor. Had my 21st birthday at the Harbor Light. way back in the 80s.

 

[stpug]

False bottom, and the guy at the store said pour warm water in until it looks like porage and stir a lot. But he did say to read how to brew book.

So Cant hold completely accountable for the mistake. No worries me and swmbo squeezed the wort out and in to the fermenter ok. Then we both just watched as it slowly cleared to a gold color.

Weird how we just sat there and watched in silence. It was like staring at a fire

Yeah, very likely not enough water in the mash. When I mash at 1:1 it can be thick and hard to stir but the grain will still settle under the liquid pretty quickly. Mashing at 1.25+:1 and it's very liquidy; soupy; easy to stir; like making old fashion oat meal and you've just barely added the oats to the water.

Hold on. You just said that you squeezed the wort out into the fermenter. You boiled the wort after squeezing it out of the grain, right?

 

[dranderson]

Not into the fermenter into the boil pot. boiled for 60 mins with hops. Then cooled to around 70 degrees then into the fermenter. pitched yeast and shook for oxygen. Added the air lock and is currently bubbling away.

Thanks for all the help.

 

[NickTheGreat]

Sounds like lousy advice you were given previously. Follow the good advice here on HBT and you should be golden.

Will be curious to see how this batch turns out for you

 

[GASoline71]

Hey GASloine 71, I used to live in Oak Harbor. Had my 21st birthday at the Harbor Light. way back in the 80s.

LMAO! The ol' Harbor Light is still there, and it's still a dive.

You wouldn't even recognize this town anymore. Downtown is now a one way street with a bunch of artsy fartsy junk all over the place. I guess it's good for someone. LOL.

I've been here since 1991, so we might have bumped elbows in the Harbor Light or the Oak harbor Tavern.

Gary

 

[SEndorf]

I hope I'm not stating the obvious, but this appears to be your first time using a cooler mash tun.
Assuming your water ratio was within range and nothing drained out, did you have the lid on?
This will create a vacuum and nothing will drain from the ball valve.
Happened to me the first time and took a few minutes to figure it out.

 

[dranderson]

I did remove the lid to see if that was the issue and didnt help, and yes firdt mash tun. Thanks for suggesting that though.

Gas71-I forgor about the OHT, was transfered in 87 so missed you still have a mother-in-law there though. Lol!

 

[johngaltsmotor]

Oh I'm hooked, I just hope my bank account holds out.

Who's John Galt?

Are you asking a question or making a statement, I can never tell?

 

[dranderson]

Both, It's just fun to see it written out sometimes. Very few people know what that statement means these days.

 

[FuzzeWuzze]

Just out of curiosity did your recipe have oats of any type in it?

I can see mashing super thin with oats and getting 0 out, they can clog everything up even when done at high ratios.

 

[dranderson]

yes it did have oats, but I have noticed another issue.

With the mesh screen connected in the bottom and setting flat and the cooler filled with nothing but water, it barely drains. if I lift the screen about a half inch it starts to flow nicely. This is the factory made screen for the orange round water coolers, so why would this be happening?

 

[FuzzeWuzze]

Is your drain line kinking closed when the false bottom is all the way down? I'd check for that and you may need to take it apart and trim the rubber hose line down? Not sure.

 

[stpug]

Some systems will have issues with the false bottom getting suctioned to the bottom of the MLT closing off the pickup tube. It sounds like this might be your situation, and if it happens a little bit with plain water then it will happen a lot with mash in there. Some folks solution to this has been to notch the pickup tube so that when it's pushed against the bottom there are channels in its side to allow draining. I'm not keen on this idea since it's a permanent change to the pickup tube or lock nut. I would opt for putting something under the false bottom to act as a support for the false bottom so that it can't collapse down and suction to the bottom. Anything high temp and safe would work, but you could test this theory in water with anything you have on hand to see if it helps.

 

[dranderson]

The hose is straight to the ball valve, no kinks or bends. I think it may be sucking to the bottom. propping up the screen would allow mash to get by and clog the ninety degree elbow in the center. notching would be an idea though. Thanks

 

[stpug]

The hose is straight to the ball valve, no kinks or bends. I think it may be sucking to the bottom. propping up the screen would allow mash to get by and clog the ninety degree elbow in the center. notching would be an idea though. Thanks

Just to clarify, I didn't actually mean "propping up" as much as I simply mean "supporting" the false bottom from sucking down. As long as your false bottom is working correctly, not much mash should get by and certainly not enough to clog the 90° elbow. But notching is an idea I've seen several people post about.

 

[dranderson]

Thanks for the notching idea. That's why I love HBT :rockin: