First brewing disaster...well kinda

[Mk010101]

My first "real" disaster in brewing came this weekend. Actually, it turned out ok and could have been worse.

Started everything normal; crushed grains; heated infusion water; added to mash tun; add grains; stir (with NEW wooden mash paddle that I made the previous week); wait an hour, all is well. Open spigot for vorlauf and a trickle comes out. and I mean a trickle! Stir the mash once again, maybe something is stuck to my braid? Open spigot again...uh oh...a trickle!

Now here's where it could have been a major disaster. I get a great idea of using a large mesh bag to separate the grains from the wort but I think I can just pour 5 gallons (11lbs of grain!) of wort holding onto the grain bag. Not too swift--I forgot to stop and ponder--I had to be in a hurry! Anyway, I started to pour when hot wort and grains spilled out all over the floor. I stopped quick, of course. I eventually took the bag out and had a helper hold it while I (smartly!) used a measuring cup and scooped the grains from the mash tun to the bag above the brew kettle. Eventually I ended up pouring the sparge water over the grains and up to the desired boil volume.

Ended up hitting my OG exactly where I wanted to, but with 1/2 gallon less wort in the fermenting bucket. Not so bad, but if I took a minute to THINK before moving so quick initially I might have not lost much at all.

So why a trickle? When I finally finished dumping the wort from the mash tun, the braid looked like it was strangled to death! It was completely twisted so much that it would let anything through. Wow! I guess I was a bit aggressive with my new mash paddle. Funny thing is, it never happened to me before in almost 20 batches made with this same braid.

So, off to do some research for a different modification to the mash tun. Maybe a copper thingy or false bottom? Something more sturdy, that's for sure.

Thanks for reading -- just needed to vent a bit on my stupidity!

On the flip side, used Nottingham yeast and in 30 hours it is practically finished!

 

[Dynachrome]

What size and shape is your mash tun and how large is your paddle?

....got pics?

 

[Town9]

My thought is that your SS braid may have collapsed in the mash. I think this can happen after awhile if you don't have anything supporting it. I just took a piece of vinyl tubing, notched it with a scissors on either side every 1/4" or so, and then stuck that inside my braid so that it keeps its form under the weight of the mash. It has been working for me for awhile now...

 

[Mk010101]

no pics, sorry. Sometime I will take pics and share. My paddle is 5" across at the bottom and 30" long. Made it out of a nice piece of maple. I really like it a lot (now that I have used it on some more beers.) Thinking of making a smaller one too.

As to the collapse of the SS braid, it is very possible that it collapsed, and we helped that along with moving it around during stirring. I am not sure why it did it now, but maybe you are right and it was just a matter of time. I used it on probably 10-12 brews in a 3 gallon cooler. I then moved it to a 5 gallon cooler (round) and probably did 5 brews with it. This was my first brew of fall with April as the last time I brewed. So, who knows?

The key is I've moved on. Now utilizing a 10 gallon rubbermaid cooler and a copper manifold. I am not completely done with the manifold and want to add a few more parts to it. It is basically a square manifold that has slits in it 2 sides. It did a fairly good job of draining my last two brews, but it also went a LOT slower than my SS braid. However, other things might have caused this too: (1) not big enough manifold--needs more pipes and slits (stated above) and (2) tighter crush (not exactly sure the crush, but I do know it is under 0.035". However, I conditioned the malt (that was great!) and my efficiency which was always around 70% jumped to 82-85%. Higher than I expected, but fine by me. I try to do no sparging, but can only do that one a smaller beer.

When I used my new 10 gallon tun, I missed my dough in temps pretty bad. I guess I set up brewsmith wrong for the 10 gallon tun. I never had this problem with the 5 or 3 gallon tun. I also lost 3-4 degrees in one hour, which is very disappointing. I will do some recalculating and brewing more to see if that continues.

 

[Dgonza9]

I suggest a copper manifold with a bag over it. Haven't had any problems since I went to this solution. I'd solder the manifold together. Mine came apart once and totally ruined the brew day. With the bag over the manifold, no grains get in so you can easily rinse clean.

 

[Town9]

I use the rubbermaid 10 gal cooler and have had pretty good success with dough in lately, but where I could see issues arising is if you don't preheat the mash tun and if the grain is not the temp I input into beersmith.

I'm sure you already do this, but if not, preheating the mash tun by putting your strike water in (a couple degrees hotter than your strike temp) the MLT and letting it sit for 10 mins makes all the difference. After the 10 mins I just throw in the grain, mix it up really well, and almost always hit the temp within a degree or so.

The other issue I see is if the grain is a lot warmer or cooler than what is input into beersmith, which can mess with your temps.

Just my two cents...someday I'll probably switch to a manifold, but the braid has been working for me so far, knock on wood...(cue disaster)

 

[JRems]

If you go with a manifold make the corners so they touch the sides of the mlt. This way when you stir it can never fall apart since the manifold can't move around.

 

[Mk010101]

Thanks for the info about preheating the mash tun. I did preheat, but not enough, that I know. I will give this method a try, as I never had to do this on my smaller coolers. Another thing in my notes is to double check the calibration of my thermometers. I think they are pretty accurate, but it's probably a good idea to check them again.

As to the manifold, the one I built for the 10 gal MLT is still "loose." I made it a point not to hit it when stirring, but like you said, JRems, by making it snug to the sides then no worries about it.

Thanks all for suggestions, etc. Looking forward to the next brew day now (should have the MLT manifold all done and the new stir-plate build completed!)