Some Beginners Questions

[rkohman]

Hello,

I've now done 55 Gallons of beer, (in the last 2 months or so,).... and I have a few questions I was hoping some of you pros can help me with.

1. My most recent purchase has been a mash tun with a false bottom. Previously I was using a mash tun with a bazooka screen. I have used the false bottom mash tun the last 2 brews. The first time I used it I ended up with a stuck sparge and had to more a less scoop and strain into the boil kettle. I read what I could about this and for the last batch I used rice hulls, opened the tap slowly... and nothing at all came out. Previous to mashing I made sure that liquid was flowing freely through the valve. Is there anything else I can do to avoid this? What am I doing wrong?

2. I have noticed with a few batches I get an excessive of what I assume is protein in the boil. They are little rubbery particles that boil up. I have a bazzoka screen in my boil kettle because I am running the wort through a plate chiller to cool and these particles seem to jam up the plate chiller... but they also bung up the bazooka screen. Real pain in the buttocks. I know that a whirlpool will help avoid some of that.... but I'm a one man rig and to keep a whirlpool going while I am holding a plate chiller, the hose, tipping the boil kettle and yelling at the neighbourhood kids is impossible. Is there anyway to just avoidthe excessive protien, (or whatever those slippery jerk are,) from the get go?

Any insight would be appreciated.

Cheers
Richard

 

[madscientist451]

I use a round cooler for my mash tun and put a BIAB bag in it. If my runnings get stuck
I can pull up on the bag a little bit and it frees everything up. Thus would be a pretty cheap thing for you to try.
The excessive protein in the boil is a mystery to me, did you notice this when you used
the bazooka screen in your mash tun? Could the false bottom be letting more of that material out?
A whirlpool can be done with just a spoon. After flameout, get the whirlpool going with
a spoon then let it sit. Pro brewers I've heard on podcasts say they whirlpool for
20-30 minutes or more before they go to the chiller.
The wort will cool during the whirlpool and the trub will settle out when the whirlpool stops. But you have to give it some time.
You could get an imersion chiller and pre chill the wort before the plate chiller.
The pre-chilling would get some of that material to drop out.

I don't have a plate chiller and haven't experienced the problems you have so my comments aren't worth much.

 

[madscientist451]

I use a round cooler for my mash tun and put a BIAB bag in it. If my runnings get stuck
I can pull up on the bag a little bit and it frees everything up. Thus would be a pretty cheap thing for you to try.
The excessive protein in the boil is a mystery to me, did you notice this when you used
the bazooka screen in your mash tun? Could the false bottom be letting more of that material out?
A whirlpool can be done with just a spoon. After flameout, get the whirlpool going with
a spoon then let it sit. Pro brewers I've heard on podcasts say they whirlpool for
20-30 minutes or more before they go to the chiller.
The wort will cool during the whirlpool and the trub will settle out when the whirlpool stops. But you have to give it some time.
You could get an imersion chiller and pre chill the wort before the plate chiller.
The pre-chilling would get some of that material to drop out.

I don't have a plate chiller and haven't experienced the problems you have so my comments aren't worth much.