Grain again at the end of the runnings

Hi All,

What would cause this? I have a 10G rubbermaid round cooler with a SS FB for my MLT. I have had this happen the last two brewing sessions. I go through the mash, then vorlauf till clear, then as I get toward the end of the run off I get grain back in the runnings after it had flowed clear for most of the run off. I thought that I was getting grain arond the side of the FB so I slit a small diameter hose and placed that around the edge of the FB. I thought that would help, but I got grain in the end of the run off once again. Any ideas?

Thanks,

Mike

 

I have noticed that at the end of the runoff, if you have a fair amount of hose attached it will bubble and cause a suction. How long is your hose on the MLT?

 

Sorry, slow on the response.

I do occasionally see bubbling in the hose like you described. Yes, the hose is relatively long. I like to make sure it reaches the bottom of the boiler in order to minimize splashing and aeration (probably doesn't matter between the mash and the boil). So, just shortening the hose would help this situation?

Thanks,

Mike

 

Im not sure what is causing the grain to go through the FB. It may help to try a shorter hose.

 

I had another thought. I considered tying a small grain bag, like a hops addition bag, on the outlet of the hose to capture the small additonal amount of grain that shows up late in the runnings. The amount is small enough that I don't think it will stop the siphon.

Has anyone tried this? Any concerns?

 

I had the same thing happen when I switched from the cooler MLT with a SS braid to my keggle with a FB. I ended up placing a kitchen sink screen over the drain under my FB, but that might not be feasible for a lot of FB set-ups.

I drained through a paint strainer bag once when I had a stuck mash and was having issues being able to vorlauf. It caught the larger particles but I still had a somewhat cloudier than normal wort.