Problems with wheat in Mash & Boil

[Tidwellc]

So I bought a Brewer's Edge Mash and Boil a while back, have done about 6 batches with it so far. I've got it pretty dialed in and it usually works pretty well and I'm getting decent efficiency out of it.

Last batch I did was the first one I did with wheat malt on this system and it was a nightmare. The wheat blew up and clogged up the false bottom completely, causing the pump to continuously break suction and start cavitating (also, I'm using my own external pump to recirculate. I did not buy the model with the integral pump). Me and my buddy helping me on brew day had to NON-STOP scrape the bottom of the mash bucket to lift the grain off the screen and allow a little wort through, which would almost immediately reclog and require another hard scrape. We took turns doing this for almost the entire mash just so the wort would keep moving. We didn't end up getting a very good conversion and the fermentation stalled out around 1.036.

I should also note that I've gotten into the habit of adding rice hulls to every batch on this system, it doesn't hurt and it always seems to help everything flow better. I had about a pound of rice hulls in this batch.

Has anyone else had these issues on this or other similar systems? This has always been a great recipe for me and I didn't have this issue on my old setup (igloo cooler converted to mash tun) that I no longer have. Is the answer just a **** ton of rice hulls?

 

[RM-MN]

In my opinion the answer it to forget recirculation. Even the people who do BIAB have trouble when they recirculate as it tend to pull the material that clogs things up right to the worst place.

 

[Coastalbrew]

I had a similar problem on my first batch with my M&B. I started using a biab bag inside the mash pipe and haven't had a problem since.

Cheers!

 

[Tidwellc]

I had a similar problem on my first batch with my M&B. I started using a biab bag inside the mash pipe and haven't had a problem since.

Cheers!

Interesting, I would have thought that the bag would just create further clogging since the wort has even more resistance to flow, but I guess it makes sense that the bag would keep particles out of the screen. Definitely going to try this on my next batch.

 

[Tidwellc]

In my opinion the answer it to forget recirculation. Even the people who do BIAB have trouble when they recirculate as it tend to pull the material that clogs things up right to the worst place.

Unfortunately, I think the M&B system has issues with bad temperature gradients when you don't recirculate. I haven't had any issues with regular barley malt and hulls, just with the wheat.

 

[Coastalbrew]

Unfortunately, I think the M&B system has issues with bad temperature gradients when you don't recirculate. I haven't had any issues with regular barley malt and hulls, just with the wheat.

I've heard allot of people say this, and I can understand the confusion if all you do is watch the read out on the display, which does seeing by 5-6*. However, if you put a thermometer inside your grain bed, I think you will find that the temp of the grain bed is rock solid for the entire mash.

I do manual recirculation with my M&B and recirculate about a gallon every 15 minutes and stir thoroughly. I keep a thermometer in the grain bed and my temp drops 1* in a 1 hour mash. I do keep the lid on during the mash and insert the thermometer through the small hole in the lid. Works great.

Cheers!

 

[Alex4mula]

I've heard allot of people say this, and I can understand the confusion if all you do is watch the read out on the display, which does seeing by 5-6*. However, if you put a thermometer inside your grain bed, I think you will find that the temp of the grain bed is rock solid for the entire mash.

I do manual recirculation with my M&B and recirculate about a gallon every 15 minutes and stir thoroughly. I keep a thermometer in the grain bed and my temp drops 1* in a 1 hour mash. I do keep the lid on during the mash and insert the thermometer through the small hole in the lid. Works great.

Cheers!

This. Also never had problems with recirculation on regular non-wheat recipes. I have been wanting to do a wheat beer but for some reason, I kind of lost the craving for them so I don't want to experiment with a brew of wheat seeing these issues. But someday I'll try a Blue Moon recipe I have.