Humbling brew day..

Coming up on my year brewversary and probably 40-50 batches in, only 5 extract batches.

Things have been going very well, smooth brew days, consistent results, repeatable process, ect.


Well last night things did not go smoothly and it will surely make me appreciate the brew days that are "boring."

Brewed a 1098 RIS last night...and not only did I have a stuck sparge, I had a stuck first runnings.

I have(had) a converted cooler MLT, with a hot water tank supply braid. I had been noticing slower runoffs lately and knew that I needed to move to a bazooka screen or false bottom. In fact I had a bazooka in my basket at the brew store 2 weeks ago and put it back.


So I open the valve on my MLT after the mash and....nothing. Apparently 21 pounds of grain and 6 gallons of water was too much for my braid to handle..


Luckily I was brewing with a friend, after pouring the mash to my brew kettle and back 3 times and after throwing the stupid braid across the street We finally arrived at a fix. I used an old steeping bag from my extract days to line the tun and a strainer to rest over the nipple.


Anyways, ended up increasing the sparge, boiling longer and hit 1090 which isnt terrible given the situation.


Here is the take away..DO NOT USE A BRAID for your MLT, even if its the "beefier" hot water supply hose. Its a PITA to get the rubber out of the middle, and its really not any cheaper than a bazooka screen.

 

Even cheaper is a cpvc manifold with some slits cut in the bottom of it. It stands up to any grain and I don't worry about kinking it if I stir my mash.

 

OP, I feel your pain. I did an annotated brew-day the other day, and the bazooka tube fell off! (The screen came out of the collar that screws onto the valve). So something always can, and sometimes will, go wrong.

 

I switched from the braid to a cpvc manifold because if this same problem about a month ago. Was having slower runoffs and then boom...nothing. Had to pour through a straining bag and essentially turned into a hybrid BIAB day. Went to Lowes that night and bought some materials and have been happy ever sense.

 

Yeah, I'm leaning away from the manifold because I have enough **** to disassemble and clean at the end of brew day. Plus I batch sparge so channeling is less of a concern.

 

Snake a stainless steel spring down the stainless braided tube...

Cheers!

 

Cleaning out the manifold is really easy, takes me all of about 2 minutes.

 

Am I the only one who saw 40-50 batches on ONE YEAR? I love to brew, but where are you putting all this beer? That's like 6 beers a day! Gotta admire the passion though, brew on, good sir, brew on.