Concerned with mash water retention

[Tim H]

Hey guys,

ive been brewing all grain for the last 6 months, mostly DIPAs and such with straight grain bills. Tonight I decided to try a NEIPA recipe with 2+ lb oats. To my surprise, there is soooooo much water retention in mash, and my sparge went to **** compared to my usual routine.

is this normal? Do you need to heavily compensate for water loss? Usually when I taste the spent grain, there isn’t much sugar left. This batch was rather sweet (meaning it just didn’t get the right efficiency)

I am just scratching my head here

 

[DatsyukianDeke]

I haven't brewed NEIPA yet but isn't 2+ lbs of oats a lot? I wonder if that had anything to do with it.

As I look at your recipe, I doubt the 2+ lbs of wheat did you any favors, either. Rice hulls might have helped loosen things up a touch and given you better drainage. Just a thought, though.

 

[Tim H]

I haven't brewed NEIPA yet but isn't 2+ lbs of oats a lot? I wonder if that had anything to do with it.

As I look at your recipe, I doubt the 2+ lbs of wheat did you any favors, either.

The local brewery this recipe supposedly came from (can’t verify if it’s an actual clone) has just super dense beers unlike most I’ve drank before. They taste great, I just want to understand how to handle oats and wheat in the future.

 

[Jag75]

I use the Gf as well. I use 1# oats , 1# white wheat and 1# flaked wheat in my NEIPA . I believe it's a grain bill of 16#. I haven't had an issue with it being too much absorbtion. I cant tell but do you have rice hulls in there ?

Reason I'm asking is it looks like your grain basket is sitting in a pot and not draining very well. Was that what you meant by poopy sparge ?

 

[Tim H]

I use the Gf as well. I use 1# oats , 1# white wheat and 1# flaked wheat in my NEIPA . I believe it's a grain bill of 16#. I haven't had an issue with it being too much absorbtion. I cant tell but do you have rice hulls in there ?

No rice hulls. That picture is after I did a 60 minute sparge. I started with 6.5 gallons of water and ended up with less than 4.75.

 

[Jag75]

No rice hulls. That picture is after I did a 60 minute sparge. I started with 6.5 gallons of water and ended up with less than 4.75.

Ok that's why . Rice hulls are a must when brewing this style .

 

[Tim H]

Ah. Ok. I stirred that grain bill to hell and back while trying to sparge. Even with the beating of its lifetime, it didn’t do anything.

 

[Tim H]

Ok that's why . Rice hulls are a must when brewing this style .

Also yes, after the 60 minute regular sparge, I pulled it out and put in in a pot to collect any extra runoff.

 

[murphyslaw]

Ok that's why . Rice hulls are a must when brewing this style .

+1

 

[Tim H]

So are rice hulls that critical? I’m just shocked.... my grain crush does a great job leaving the hulls in tact to help sparge. Guess it’s time to buy that **** in bulk!

 

[Jag75]

So are rice hulls that critical? I’m just shocked.... my grain crush does a great job leaving the hulls in tact to help sparge. Guess it’s time to buy that poopy in bulk!

When using oats and stuff like that it goops up so the rice hulls help with the draining .

 

[jschein]

For that grain bill of almost 17lbs the Grainfather calculator shows you need to start with 5.55gals for the mash and 2.61gals for the sparge . I have found the calculator very accurate. And rice hulls are a must with that much oats.

 

[Tim H]

Thanks for the responses guys

 

[kh54s10]

I'm sure it is too late now, but get something to push down on the grainbed and squeeze out the wort. Next time - rice hulls.

 

[Tim H]

I'm sure it is too late now, but get something to push down on the grainbed and squeeze out the wort. Next time - rice hulls.

Haha yup- she’s bubbling away now... I’ll be interested to see how it turns out.