Robobrew stuck sparge

Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum

Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

SMOKEU

Well-Known Member
Joined
May 27, 2009
Messages
370
Reaction score
23
Location
NZ
For the first time since having my Roborew 3.1, I've got a stuck sparge. It was meant to be a 1.063 OG all grain red rye IPA kit. Usually a sparge only takes 15 minutes to sparge but it's been 4 hours so far and there are only slow drips of wort coming out. It has only managed to get maybe 1/4 of the sparge water through so far after all this time.

I've stirred it a lot and that hasn't helped at all. Is there anything else I can do to help it?

Even sticking my arm right down and scraping the bottom doesn't make it drain faster. I don't feel any real stickiness either to suggest that it's formed a "glue" to block it.

I know I need oat/rice hulls next time as this was milled quite fine but I've mashed similar grain before and it sparged reasonably fast.
 
Last edited:
For the first time since having my Roborew 3.1, I've got a stuck sparge. It was meant to be a 1.063 OG all grain red rye IPA kit. Usually a sparge only takes 15 minutes to sparge but it's been 4 hours so far and there are only slow drips of wort coming out. It has only managed to get maybe 1/4 of the sparge water through so far after all this time.

I've stirred it a lot and that hasn't helped at all. Is there anything else I can do to help it?

Even sticking my arm right down and scraping the bottom doesn't make it drain faster. I don't feel any real stickiness either to suggest that it's formed a "glue" to block it.

I know I need oat/rice hulls next time as this was milled quite fine but I've mashed similar grain before and it sparged reasonably fast.
I am in the middle of my first brew with my Brewzilla and I’m experiencing a similar issue. I’ve been sparging for an hour already and it’s a pretty slow trickle out the bottom. I think I’m making better time than 4 hrs but looking like I may be closer to 2.
 
I have a similar unit and have done some rye stuff in it. I used a TON of rice halls (like a pound) on my rye saison. The saison has about 20% rye in the grist. Maybe overkill on the hulls, but it did maintain a decent flow.

I also did not stir the mash often. I speculate that stirring the mash would create more gluten, so if it starts to slow down, I would not touch it anymore.

I know that is not exactly helpful right now......I’ll be interested to follow this thread because it’ll surely happen to me also (considering how much I admire rye in my beer).


How much rye is in your grist? My only advice right now is patience, tons of patience.
 
I have a similar unit and have done some rye stuff in it. I used a TON of rice halls (like a pound) on my rye saison. The saison has about 20% rye in the grist. Maybe overkill on the hulls, but it did maintain a decent flow.

I also did not stir the mash often. I speculate that stirring the mash would create more gluten, so if it starts to slow down, I would not touch it anymore.

I know that is not exactly helpful right now......I’ll be interested to follow this thread because it’ll surely happen to me also (considering how much I admire rye in my beer).


How much rye is in your grist? My only advice right now is patience, tons of patience.
Ok. Maybe I was just wrong in thinking a really slow sparge could be bad news. I may have caused more harm by stirring it up to get it moving then.
 
I gave up on my robobrew malt pipe alone... anything that had more than a minimal amount of wheat/rye/oats/spelt just got stuck. I still use it without the pipe in the center, but I use a BIAB bag inside the malt pipe and I add a couple handfuls of rice hulls per batch. Probably don't need the rice hulls with the bag, but it is routine by now.
 
I’ve done over 20 batches in my 35L Robobrew, and had a stuck sparge for the first time last week. It was after I tried to grind my grain a little finer. I did what you did and tried stirring, etc. In my case, the cooler I use for a HLT formerly was my mash tun, and has a screen in it. So, I pulled out the malt pipe, and dumped the all mash into the cooler. Then drained from there. Seemed to end up ok.
 
@SMOKEU & @KFurk

How did the rest of your brew day turn out? Was the batch cable to proceed? Did you take any additional actions?

thanks for sharing any knowledge!
 
Back
Top