Lousy Brew Day, Need Advice

[Nehoc]

Ok, so I took a shot at my second all grain batch this Sunday. First, the recipe:

9 lbs German Pilsner
2 lbs Marzen
1.5 lbs CaraPils

Second, the equipment. 5 gallon Igloo round cooler, with a B3 stainless steel false bottom and stainless ball valve.

Third, the method. Batch sparge, dough in at 158 degrees, hold at 153 for 60 minutes, stirring every 20 minutes. Recirc and run out the first runnings, then lauter at 170, give it a good stir, let it sit for 10 minutes, and run off.

Finally, the experience.

I doughed in at 158 with 4.25 gallons of water, let it rest at 153, stirring every 20 minutes. Was able to run off the mash to about 2.5 gallons. I then added another 4 gallons of sparge water at 173, gave it a good stir, let it rest at 170 for 10 minutes, and then slowly opened the valve. Instantly, my sparge was at a very VERY low trickle. Like dripping into my kettle. I let it sit like that for about 10 minutes, and then I blew some air up through the tube to try and clear it. No improvement. I restirred, let it settle again, and the same thing. I could get about a pint to start the recirc, and then it just died. Tried restirring twice more, same issue. I pulled all the mash out, cleaned the false bottom, and readded/restirred everything again. Same problem...

I finally had to pull everything out and strain through a mesh strainer I had on hand, finally collecting about 5.5 gallons for the boil. But it was a cloudy cloudy mess. I boiled, hopped, added whirlfloc, skimmed, and added a some filtered water to my fermenter to get me to 5 gallons. My OG was 1.055, which isn't bad but not the 1.065 I wanted for this batch. I did have to add some DME I had on hand and some of the honey I'd been holding onto for bottle conditioning to get to 1.055 though.

Everythings fermenting away quite nicely, and I'm sure that alot of the junk that got into my kettle after the straining will drop out with some lagering, but still, what can I do to avoid these stuck sparges? I got the same thing on my first batch, although it did clear up after I pulled everything out and put it all back in.

Any assistance would be much obliged.

Nehoc

 

[grnich]

Put some rice hulls, 1/2 pound to a pound, in the mash. Either that or get a SS braid. I've never had anything less than a gusher, even with 50% huskless wheat in the mash.

 

[Lil' Sparky]

It sounds like your false bottom floated up and let some grain by, which then proceeded to clog your pickup/valve. I had this happen with my false bottom in my keg until I figured out a way to secure it tightly against the bottom with a hose clamp.

For your setup I would look into a mash pad to put on top of your false bottom. I think they sell these or you can use a white pad designed for floor buffers (someone should corroborate that!). Someone here has posted pics of his MLT with that setup in the past and it solved his problems.

If that doesn't work, you might want to think about just going to a stainless steel braid instead.

 

[Got Trub?]

Was it working fine for your first batch? Was there a change in how your grain was crushed? In the absence of large amounts of adjuncts a stuck sparge is pretty uncommon and should have been remedied by the things you did.

 

[jammer]

I had a similar experience with my first AG attempt. What i did to fix it was to add more water and not stir. Basically what i have come to realize is that once i dough in, i never stir again. Even for mash out and sparge. I figure every time that i add more water, it stirs things up a bit. I dont have a false bottom so this may be different than me. Try once with only stirring during mash in, then leave it alone.

I may be making a mistake, if i am someone let me know. But not stirring has eliminated stuck sparges for me and adding extra water when they do happen seems to fix them.

good luck.

 

[jammer]

PS, check your grind as your number one problem though. Maybe go rougher and take the efficiency hit untill you get things under your belt.

 

[ajf]

When you start your dough in, you need to add sufficient foundation water to get a couple of inches or so above the highest point in the outlet from your false bottom/spigot.
Then you need to drain a bit of water out of the spigot, ensuring the outlet it fully flooded with water. Then you can add your grains and remaining sparge water
If you fail to do this, you can get an air-lock which will produce the symptoms you describe.
If you do get an air-lock, the worst thing you can do is to force air into the system.
Backflushing with water will displace the air, and get everything working properly again.
The same principle applies to those who use braids, and complain that the braid floats. Stainless steel is much denser that water, and cannot possibly float unless it is filled with air.
Flooding everything with water will prevent the braid from floating.

-a.

 

[Nehoc]

Thank you all for the great tips! I'm going to give it another go this weekend with another all malt recipe.

Thanks again everyone!

 

[Bobby_M]

Good advice AJF. In fact, if you put a little pinch clamp on the end of your MLT outlet hose (you do have some hose on there right?), you can let it fill with water to help pull a hard siphon right from go. If you don't use any hose on your spigot, that's another reason you're not getting a quick start. You need a good foot or so of drop down to your receiving vessel to pull a nice siphon.

 

[Nehoc]

Just a quick update. I brewed a schwartzebier/brussels black ale clone this weekend, and made two changes to my equipment/process before i started.

The changes were I replaced the vinyl tubing on my false bottom with reinforced vinyl tubing. Turns out the regular clear vinyl tubing was pinching when it got hot (of course it was, but I'm a little slow sometimes). The second thing I did was make sure I had foundation water and a completely full valve and hose before I doughed in.

Absolutely FLAWLESS mash and sparge, flowed perfectly, and I actually went over on my OG target, and had to add a little water after the boil to bring the schwartzebier into range.

Thanks again to everyone for the advice. I'm all grain hooked now.

 

[Foreigner]

I have found that sticking the long metal part of my brewing thermometer into the stuck runoff hole helps a little. It clogs up again, but gives you a few minutes of good flow, then stick it again