Need help identifying issue in grain crush/mashing process.

[madaconte]

Hi All,

I've been lurking here since about 2014 and am very grateful for this community and all it has taught me. It's finally time for me to begin posting to see if I can draw from someone else's experience to help me out with something.

I'm currently a Grainfather user and have run about 30 batches through it, most of which have gone well. After my first few GF batches, I upgraded to the Monster Mill 3 and have made some great batches, and got very comfortable dialing in all my gravities and volumes. I set my mill to .039 shortly after getting my MM3 and haven't touched it for a long time.

The last few batches though I've been having some big issues with mashing. The mash would be come stuck really quickly, and I'd have to stir the grains while sparging in order to get it to flow. I'd still hit my gravity, but it was a pain.

Prior to my brew this morning, I adjusted my gap to .042 thinking it would help my mash and sparge. But, it got clogged up worse than ever before. The grain didn't look too fine or floury, but I also don't have *that* much all grain experience to tell. Gray sludge formed at the top of my mash, which blocked water from flowing. I included a few pictures.

Even after I scraped it off during the sparge, it still had terrible flow and required a ton of stirring. In all, I missed my gravity by 10 points on a light beer, and it has this awful, opaque, floury appearance, and it's not a NEIPA.

For what it's worth, the grain bill was 8 lbs of Briess Pale Malt (3.5), a pound of Caramel 60 and a quarter pound of Carapils. No wheat or anything that you think would clog it.

Any advice or suggestions you have would be very much appreciated. Thank you again.

 

[balrog]

I've not seen this myself but google says it's "teig"

https://www.reddit.com/r/Homebrewin...ible_brew_day_weird_sludge_on_top_of_my_mash/

 

[Vale71]

Definitely looks like you have too much flour in your crush. How are you driving the mill? Speed is just as important as gap setting, driving the rollers too fast will tear up the grain much more and create more flour than you would get at a slower speed.

 

[dmtaylor]

Somehow you are getting too much flour in there. I'm not certain why, seems like you're doing things right. Maybe @Vale71 is right about speed of the milling.

 

[kh54s10]

I have heard of the grey sludge with certain malts. I thought it was Pilsner. It is very dense and will cause a stuck sparge or slow/stop circulation. Maybe the grain was mixed up in your order?

Rice hulls would help. I use a handful or two when I am concerned. (not with Grainfather)

Check the amount of flour you are getting, mills do slip sometimes. Or maybe that batch of grain just requires something different.

You could also try conditioning the malt. Spray the grains and stir until they are all slightly damp then mill them. This will help keep the hulls from shredding.

 

[kevin58]

Rule of thumb for grain crush is to have cracked kernels but intact husks. I go with as small a gap as I can before the husks start getting torn apart.