Tarheel4985
Well-Known Member
So last night was our second all-grain batch. We made a ton of mistakes, including jumping to 10 gallons, trouble with keeping mash temperature constant, and the biggest problem, too fine a crush.
For the crush we used a Barley Crusher on its inaugural run with the factory setting, so I didn't think twice about it. But after reading up more about crushing grain, there was a lot of flour in ours. Also, we were doing a 10 gallon batch so we had some 20 lbs of grain.
As far as equipment goes, we are using 2 converted kegs, one with a false bottom for the MLT and the other we use as both the HLT and boil kettle. We are also limited to 1 burner, so there is a lot of moving and switching of full kegs. Last night definitely made a case for why we needed a brew stand, or at the least another keg and burner.
Anyways, we had some issues keeping our mash steady at 154. We had to continually turn the burner on and off. After the mash, we tried vorlaufing but even after 2 or 3 quarts the wort still wasn't clear and it started to drain a lot slower. Finally, after vorlaufing a gallon, we had a stuck sparge. We tried a lot of different methods but finally resorted to stirring the mash. We were able to get a decent drain for short periods of time, but it never really cleared up.
After realizing the batch was already in danger of being dumped, we decided just to drain what we could, continue with the sparge, and deal with the consequences later (hazy beer, etc.). We continued to deal with clogging on both sparges and nearly everything we collected was hazy. But we collected about 11 gallons and continued with the boil and actually ended up overshooting our OG (another factor I attribute to the fine crush).
All this is to say that I now have about 8.5-9 gallons fermenting that is almost opaque. We got a decent cold break (using an IC) and then ran the wort through a strainer covered with mesh to try and filter even more of the junk out, but it was still very hazy. I'm planning to use a secondary and possibly even a tertiary, but is there anything else I can do to make the beer clearer? Should I use any fining agents after fermentation?
Also, for those using the Barley Crusher, were you successful using the factory settings on the roller gap? Maybe somehow mine was changed from the factory setting, but the crush was incredibly fine and I imagine others using this setting would also experience stuck sparges.
For the crush we used a Barley Crusher on its inaugural run with the factory setting, so I didn't think twice about it. But after reading up more about crushing grain, there was a lot of flour in ours. Also, we were doing a 10 gallon batch so we had some 20 lbs of grain.
As far as equipment goes, we are using 2 converted kegs, one with a false bottom for the MLT and the other we use as both the HLT and boil kettle. We are also limited to 1 burner, so there is a lot of moving and switching of full kegs. Last night definitely made a case for why we needed a brew stand, or at the least another keg and burner.
Anyways, we had some issues keeping our mash steady at 154. We had to continually turn the burner on and off. After the mash, we tried vorlaufing but even after 2 or 3 quarts the wort still wasn't clear and it started to drain a lot slower. Finally, after vorlaufing a gallon, we had a stuck sparge. We tried a lot of different methods but finally resorted to stirring the mash. We were able to get a decent drain for short periods of time, but it never really cleared up.
After realizing the batch was already in danger of being dumped, we decided just to drain what we could, continue with the sparge, and deal with the consequences later (hazy beer, etc.). We continued to deal with clogging on both sparges and nearly everything we collected was hazy. But we collected about 11 gallons and continued with the boil and actually ended up overshooting our OG (another factor I attribute to the fine crush).
All this is to say that I now have about 8.5-9 gallons fermenting that is almost opaque. We got a decent cold break (using an IC) and then ran the wort through a strainer covered with mesh to try and filter even more of the junk out, but it was still very hazy. I'm planning to use a secondary and possibly even a tertiary, but is there anything else I can do to make the beer clearer? Should I use any fining agents after fermentation?
Also, for those using the Barley Crusher, were you successful using the factory settings on the roller gap? Maybe somehow mine was changed from the factory setting, but the crush was incredibly fine and I imagine others using this setting would also experience stuck sparges.