bigred
Well-Known Member
So I just finished brewing my first AG and it was fairly frustrating. I have a 48 qt. coleman cooler as my MLT. I did the ball valve conversion with stainless steel braid, and rubber hose inside it with notches. I added my water, and then added grain...hit the temp right on so I was happy. I opened it up half way through to stir and the temp had only gone down 1 degree. I thought I was right on track until I went to do my first run and the wort flowed for about 3 seconds and then continued to just "dribble". I thought, ok stuck sparge, so I stir around the SS braided hose, but there was no grain stuck in it. So I jam a long wooden toothpick threw the ball valve and it flows a small, small amount and then back to a dribble. I'm getting really pissed now. After doing everything I could think of it just would not flow. So I proceed to scooping the wort out with a pitcher and straining the grains out with cheesecloth. I also did this for the sparge. In the end the beer is in the carboy and I think it should turn out ok, I overshot my OG of 1.070 at 1.075.
So after I'm all done and cleaning up, I keep jaming the tooth pick through the ball valve and eventually it starts to let water flow threw(which it didn't let the wort flow threw). So I decide to go get some of the spent grains and try a practice mash with spent grains. It worked better, but the whole time I wanted any wort to come out I had to be stirring the mash ALOT, or moving around the SS braided hose.
My question is, has anyone else had this problem, and how can I get my system to flow better, and not get so much grain threw my filter?
Thanks a lot for any help
So after I'm all done and cleaning up, I keep jaming the tooth pick through the ball valve and eventually it starts to let water flow threw(which it didn't let the wort flow threw). So I decide to go get some of the spent grains and try a practice mash with spent grains. It worked better, but the whole time I wanted any wort to come out I had to be stirring the mash ALOT, or moving around the SS braided hose.
My question is, has anyone else had this problem, and how can I get my system to flow better, and not get so much grain threw my filter?
Thanks a lot for any help