Rice Hulls... HOW TO USE??

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weird.

maybe try pumping backwards for a second before you start running off?

Problem is, it is a HERMS, it has to pump for 60 minutes mashing, then 20 minutes for mash out... it would only do so for 20 minutes before sticking last week.

The hulls I am sure will solve the problem, but I am not sure what the reason is for the recent stickyness... my crushes have been good, not too fine, and measured with feelers each time I crush.

I have been using higher quality imported malts recently from my bulk purchase, that is the ONLY thing that has changed.
 
do you have a malt report for them?

try conditioning the malts. spray a couple ounces of water in a fine mist a little at a time and mix em up. works very well. I was surprised how much more intact the hulls are. its crazy.
 
I keep hearing about the success of conditioning malt... I may have to try it.

So you can just take an atomizer bottle and mist the grain, then mill... ?
 
put your grains in a bucket, or other container large enough.

take a spray bottle. put water in it. I found that the one I use sprays 1.5oz of water in about 44 sprays. its a very fine mist.

spray a few times over the grains.

mix em up real good.

repeat until water limit has been reached (1.5oz for 11lbs roughly)

they should feel slightly leathery.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/wiki/index.php/Malt_Conditioning
 
Yah, I just read the wiki, thanks...

It states 3oz for a 11lb grist though, is that right.
 
I may give this a shot then... but now I have all these rice hulls too LOL
 
I do 2% by weight so:
Converting # to ounces: 11# *16 oz/# = 176 oz
176 oz * .02 = 3.5 oz
So 3.5 oz water is what I'd use for 11# grain

I used to use the spray bottle but now I just weigh it in a mason jar. Add a little water-mix it in-add a little water-mix it in-etc. You don't really need the spray bottle imo. When you look at it, it may not (probably won't) look crushed enough.
 
I am on the road now, I will test it when I get home.

I could tighten to say .030". I have an extra spray bottle and I can use that, no biggie... this is interesting.
 
If you use the spray bottle just put your scale right there and weigh the bottle as you spray. My scale goes negative so I used to just tare out the full spray bottle and spray until I hit negative 3.5 oz.
 
Cant I just weigh the correct amount into the bottle?
 
Sure, but for me it's just easier to put some water in and weigh it as I spray. My sprayer doesn't get every last drop in the container anyway. And at the time, I assumed I'd continue conditioning my malt with the sprayer so it was much easier to just fill it once and weigh it as I went. Minor thing anyway, just passing along something I found a tiny bit easier.
 
Question, how many hulls would I need to let a typical 10lb mash flow nice and free?

Wouldnt I have to add these to my "grain" bill in ProMash so that I can account for the thermal mass so that I can get the correct strike temp?

Along those same lines... wouldnt I have to account for thier water absorption?
Coming into this late, but skimming the posts I didn't see my rice hull method.

Toward the end of the mash, I rinsing the hulls and put them into a pot at a ratio of 1/2lb to 2qts of water and bring it to a near boil. This mixture is used as a mash-out infusion. Dump in as much as you need to reach mash-lout temperature and stir really well. The hulls make the mash-out infusion much more efficient.

Pol, you don't need the thermal advantage from this, but by adding them at the end you don't have to worry about compensating for them during the mash.
 
The whole thing is weird. I still sit here thinking SOMETHING has changed. a system does not start behaving differently unless a variable has been introduced. And in a system as repeatable as yours, that has to be a significant variable.

The malt changed. But is there something stuck in a valve, impeller, somewhere?

I hate to be a pessimist, but it would make more sense to me if next time you used the rice hulls and still had the same problem.

Your crush is beautiful, I see no reason why you would have problems with it now.

I have no solutions to offer... just saying I am confused and eager to see how this pans out and learn something.
 
Coming into this late, but skimming the posts I didn't see my rice hull method.

Toward the end of the mash, I rinsing the hulls and put them into a pot at a ratio of 1/2lb to 2qts of water and bring it to a near boil. This mixture is used as a mash-out infusion. Dump in as much as you need to reach mash-lout temperature and stir really well. The hulls make the mash-out infusion much more efficient.

Pol, you don't need the thermal advantage from this, but by adding them at the end you don't have to worry about compensating for them during the mash.

Problem is, I run a HERMS, and I need the grain bed to set up and be free flowing during the mash.
 
The whole thing is weird. I still sit here thinking SOMETHING has changed. a system does not start behaving differently unless a variable has been introduced. And in a system as repeatable as yours, that has to be a significant variable.

The malt changed. But is there something stuck in a valve, impeller, somewhere?

I hate to be a pessimist, but it would make more sense to me if next time you used the rice hulls and still had the same problem.

Your crush is beautiful, I see no reason why you would have problems with it now.

I have no solutions to offer... just saying I am confused and eager to see how this pans out and learn something.


Well, it is odd. But you of all people know how anal I am about the process. This being said... nothing has changed, I run the HERMS exactly as I have in the past.

Also, after about 20 minutes of recirculating it would get stuck... Id break up the grain bed and it would flow great for about 20 minutes again. This was while running the pump.

THEN I sparged, and guess what... after about 20 minutes, it stuck again. It took me 45 minutes to run off 7.5 gallons, so I drain pretty slow. But still... it stuck. Everything is clear... I used the pump for the closed system cooling and it flowed excellent, as usual.

Dont know what it is, my crush is good... I pay very close attention to all of the details... it is odd, but I cannot afford to have stuck runoffs when using this HERMS.

I will probably fgo ahead and condition my malt, crush a little finer (after running a test on the proper gap) and use hulls. This way I can crush finer, keep the husks intact and loosen the mash.
 
Okay, so I am going to start using rice hulls. Although my system does not get stuck often, when it does, it makes life hard when using a system that lives on being able to recirc.

So, I am going to start using some rice hulls so that I can whack the valves open and let it scream.

Question, how many hulls would I need to let a typical 10lb mash flow nice and free?

Wouldnt I have to add these to my "grain" bill in ProMash so that I can account for the thermal mass so that I can get the correct strike temp?

Along those same lines... wouldnt I have to account for thier water absorption?

Just making sure. I have created Rice Hulls as an ingredient in ProMash so that I can add them to the grain bill so that they can be accounted for in the strike temp, strike volume and water absorption.... RIGHT?

Pol,

I haven't read the thread but depending on how much wheat or oats you use and your system will dictate how much hulls you will need. 1/2 to a pound usually does well on my setups when using a lot of wheat (70+%) or oatmeal or corn grits. When using a finer crush will make it more important to use them with the herms. Starting and stopping the pump multiple times during a brew session can compact the grainbed somewhat to begin with.

In Promash you enter them in as a grain and just zero out the yield. They absorb about the same as grain does so that works well. otherwise either pre-soak them or figure in 1/10 of a gallon per pound for absorbsion.
 
Yeah, I never stop my pump once I start to recirc. On my last two brews I had no wheat, no oats... but plenty of sticking. It is all very odd.

Mid summer I brewed a 70% wheat Hefe and had no sticking, no hulls, no problems.

I will definately use the hulls in my next brew day, brewcast on the 4th! It will be interesting to see how it goes. I entered the hulls into ProMash as 0 yield and will treat them as a grain, thanks.
 
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