Ss infussion and stuck mash

[Redtab78]

So i have brewed 3 times now with my new SS infussion, outfitted with a fly sparge set up, and all 3 times i have gotten a stuck mash. I use 2 pumps, one coming from HLT to the sparge arm and one from the infussion to the kettle, and adjust my valve so there is an even flo in and back out, but after a few seconds of vorlauf and runnings into the kettle, the out flow from the mash tun slows drastically to which i have to shut off the fly sparge to restir the mash vorlauf again, and then start the process all over...

On my 3rd batch i even threw in a 1# addition of rice hulls thinking maybe i am crushing the grains to fine but still got the same issue. All 3 grain bills were fairly simple 9-10# pale malts with less than 2# specialty malt, no oats, no additional adjucts.

Just wondering if anyone else is seeing a similar loss of out flow? Is it a false bottom space issue maybe?

 

[Smellyglove]

It's more about process than anything. I'm using the same kettle and I only get stuck during recirculation if the flow is too high.

Grain crush and/or flow is all you need to adjust. if it's a stuck mash.

Do you use a pump to recirculate during the mashing? If not, then you're probably drying to drain to fast, is my guess.

And are you 100% positive it's a stuck mash? Have you tried dialing up the flow when it slows down? You're saying a few seconds. It might be that if you haven't recirculated earlier you have air in the hose, and it will sort of blurp out with what seems to be a high pressure, just to slow down after a second or two.

 

[Redtab78]

no, I am not 100% sure, it is a draining issues I am certain. As the outflow slows or stops all together comming out of the mash tun, I look to see and there is well over 1" of water on top of the grain bed, so it is not like I am drying out the grain as there is plenty of water in there, it just doesnt flow very well out of the bottom. Maybe i should bypass the pump comming out of the mash tun altogether and just free flow from the mash tun into the kettle.

When I used my cooler for a mash tun, I never had this issue. I was thinking about a way to lift the false bottom up a little higher to get a little more head space in there, as it feel likes maybe with the weight of the grain sitting on it, that it may be sort of suffocating itself and only pulling the wort from just where the drain is in the center maybe? I dont know, but if I am in the middle of getting the runnings and stop the pump then the flow stops all together and I have to stir the mash again, and get the vorlauf going again, then I can resume getting the runnings.

The pump I am using is the Mark II, and the out flow valve is only about 15% open

 

[jekeane]

Your crush being to fine is most likely the culprit. Are you using your pump to recirculate or vorlauf? If you are getting to much flour or not enough intact husks you can set a grain bed like concrete. In the infusion the silicone gasket on the false bottom stops side channeling so if you really set that bed with a floury crush it could easily get stuck.

This is all just a educated guess as I have only used my friends ss stuff and I use blichmann gear. But I do know that the mill they use is gapped at .045 which is much lager than the common.039 credit card with a lot of people use.

 

[Redtab78]

I just went and checked, I am using a .032 gap, which is how I had my mill set when I was using my cooler, I will try and widen it up maybe another .010 to get to .042 and see how that does. If I recall though, I had set it to .032 due to the amount of uncrushed grains I was seeing with the larger gap. Although I did kind of suspect that my crush was a tad too fine, but thats why I added in another # of rice hulls on my last brew to see if it made a difference.