Slow 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.

hopmadness

Well-Known Member
Joined
Aug 3, 2008
Messages
59
Reaction score
1
Location
Rochester MN (from Detroit)
Brewed last night and it took me forever to sparge. At first I thought I had a stuck sparge. Then I was able to get some small amount of fluid to drain very slowly. Wow....was up until 6 am waiting for the sparge to finish. I use a false bottom and I'm now thinking about changing the set up. I've brewed twice with it now.....both times were a disaster. Any suggestions??? I simply can't devote that much time on brew day......seems like I was doing better with multiple grain bags (partial mashing).:(
 
I would call that a stuck mash, even though you were getting some liquid. What type of false bottom do you have? Are you crushing your own grain or is your LHBS doing it for you? What style are you making?

Your sparge sholud be done slowly unless you are batch sparging, but all night is ridiculous. Give us more details and maybe we can help you figure out the problem.
 
It happened first with a nut brown and last night with a red. I use the mill at the LHBS. The false bottom is the circular stainless false bottom that fits in an igloo cooler. See pic below.
Photo_36.jpg
 
You may have been draining too fast. With false bottoms, letting it run full tilt at the beginning can compress the grainbed and produce the results you experienced. I never open the 3/8 tube coming out of my lauder tun more than halfway (learned the hard way). Slow and steady is what you are after.

If you do get stuck, you can shut of the flow and stir the grain bed up and then start slowly draining and recirculating it to reform the bed.
 
or avoid all frustration and cheat... order a big mesh bag (like this jumbo mesh bag from Austin Brew Supply Austin Homebrew Supply) and just pull up on the bag to restart a stuck sparge...

bear in mind I am more of a results focused guy than a technique. The french HATE me.
 
+1 to what Mutilated1 said. You want to float the grain in instead of adding water to your grain. Other than that and the possibility that you are draining too fast, although I used to batch sparge with false bottom and would whack it wide open all the time without problems, your system looks fine. Another possibility, though I doubt it, is that you are crushing too fine and not leaving enough of the husk behind. Like I say that is probably not the problem but you may want to check it out none the less. If you continue to have trouble you may want to change to a SS braided hose and see how that works for you. Good luck.
 
It looks to me like you have a mismatch between your false bottom and the MLT.

The false bottom should cover the entire bottom of the MLT like this
Picture22.jpg


-a.
 
Hard to say. even if you do have a mismatch, that shouldn't matter a ton, unless grain is getting under the bottom of the false bottom and clogging your drainpipe. I'm assuming you've done test runs with just water and it came it out fine?
 
If I interpreted the orginal picture correctly, the FB is attached to the outlet by a piece of hose about 2 inches long. That wouldn't be long enough to allow the rim of the false bottom to rest on the bottom of the cooler. This would let grain get under the bottom.

-a.
 
Back
Top