So I've been brewing something like 8.5 years. I've made pumpkin ales without ricehulls early on so I'm totally familiar with a stuck or slow runoff/sparge, but with those it was always just a very slow runoff. This was 99% stuck with a dribble. I was doing a beer with 8.5lbs Franco-Belges Vienna malt as the base malt. Only had 2.5lbs of other malt - Briess crystal and smoked malt. I immediately noticed when I received the package from NB that the Franco-Belges Vienna Malt looked noticeably grey. Today I observed it out of the bag and yeah it was very grey and kicked up way more grain dust then other malts usually do. I also noticed when milling the grain the drill worked harder, a little bit like when milling wheat but not that hard. Anyhow, after the hour mash the runoff stuck very shortly after starting the drain to vorlauf. Kept trying, stirred it up again a few times, blew back into the tubing etc. Each time it would run shortly then come to a complete dribble. Would've taken many hours to drain at that rate. So I transfered the mash from my Ss Mash Tun (which I love and haven't had any issues with) to my previous rubbermaid tun with bazooka tube. Same thing happened! Eventually my friend and I had to give up and dump the mash. He also noted that when stirring and scraping along the bottom where the bazooka tube is that it was cementing up.
Looking at NB's site their pic of the malt looks like other heatlthy malts that are golden colored. I took some pics but they don't really show the grey as much as in person but they are below. I'm going to contact NB and see if perhaps they will reimburse for the lost malts, luckily the expensive stuff like the hops and yeast weren't used so if they don't not a major loss.
Long story now over - does grey colored malt typically indicate old dried out malt that when milled can lead to a cementing like affect in the mash? Like I said, this was way worse than even having a few pounds of Libby's Pumpkin in the mash!
Rev.
Looking at NB's site their pic of the malt looks like other heatlthy malts that are golden colored. I took some pics but they don't really show the grey as much as in person but they are below. I'm going to contact NB and see if perhaps they will reimburse for the lost malts, luckily the expensive stuff like the hops and yeast weren't used so if they don't not a major loss.
Long story now over - does grey colored malt typically indicate old dried out malt that when milled can lead to a cementing like affect in the mash? Like I said, this was way worse than even having a few pounds of Libby's Pumpkin in the mash!
Rev.
