Stuck recirculation BM’s Cream of 3 Crops

[Niatras]

Recently brewed BM’s Cream of 3 Crops and got a stuck recirculation on the Anvil Foundry 10.5.

6#’s 2 row
2#’s flaked corn
.5#’s flaked rice (Minute Rice)
5oz Acidulated

I conditioned the grain and milled on top of the adjuncts. Then mashed in and stirred. Sat for 10 minutes and then started recirculating. Within minutes, mash was stuck. Stop recirculating and proceeded ro mash.

Strike water was 2 gallons short of full volume. I’ve had good results holding back 2 gallons for sparge. Strike temp 146 held for 45 minutes then stepped to 154 for 30 minutes and finally a 15 minute mash out at 168.

I did stir every 10 minutes but quit raising malt basket because I wasn’t getting any drainage. Raising the basket the first time is how I realized that the mash was stuck.

Proceeded to finish the mash and got better than predicted efficiency.

Now I had a malt basket that would not drain. I don’t know if it was the corn or rice or a combination of both. I did use 4 handfuls of rice hulls pre boiled, strained and toss in strike water first. First time with a stuck mash.

When mash was completed, I pulled basket and hung to drip. This didn’t take long since it was that stuck. I then put the basket In an old fermentation bucket then poured into my old 10 gallon igloo cooler mash tun with a false bottom. Finished the brew day old school. Vorlauf, sparge and runoff went great.

The false bottom on the old tun has the small perforated holes while the bottom disk of malt basket has the round knockouts like on an electrical outlet. After cleaning malt basket, I did notice that I had it in the opposite way than I normally do. Don’t know if that was the issue or not.

I’m thinking next time I brew this, I hear it is a great beer, I’ll put the grains and rice hulls in first and recirculate for 10 minutes to create a good bed then add the adjuncts on top and only stirring the top half.

I tried recirculating at the same rate is I normally do.

Any input would be appreciated. Sorry being so long, but wanted to add as much detail as possible.

 

[BeerNsteadofH2O]

Do you mill your own grains or does the supplier do it, I'm thinking it's the grind/crush, I know the only time I have issues is whenver I get the grains from( I don't have a mill YET) a different supplier and the crush is fine, in that case, I add a 1/2 lb. Of rice hulls and have no issues.

 

[Niatras]

I grind my own. I condition them so the husk are completely intact.

 

[rburrelli]

Does Minute Rice make a flaked rice? Or did you just add rice kernels?

 

[Niatras]

The recipe called for flaked rice. I substituted the flaked rice with Minute Rice. Minute Rice is is already gelatinized. I think I’m fine there as far as conversion.

I was just wondering what caused the stuck mash recirculation. The flaked corn, the Minute Rice or the tight perforated disk on the Foundry malt pipe.

 

[BeerNsteadofH2O]

I think the minute rice is your problem, rice in that form absorbs 3
X its weight in water .the swelling of the kernels would be a problem in my eyes..flaked rice is a whole different animal.

 

[Niatras]

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/threads/cream-of-three-crops-cream-ale.66503/post-684503
Appreciate the reply. I did come up .1 gallons shy on my finale volume. Not much but also it was only a half pound of Minute Rice. I reread the recipe. The following is from Biermuncher post #1.

“The grain bill is cheap and in this case, you can use Minute Rice instead of flaked rice.”

Also from post #9 responding to the question of milling the flaked corn and rice…

“Just toss it in. I usually add it last to keep the mucky stuff at the top of the tun. Doesn't really matter probably since I use a big scoop of rice hulls in all my recipes.”

This is where I think I made my mistake. I stirred it all together really well. As I said in my initial post, I think not disturbing the bottom layer after the bed is set is the way to go.

Most of the stuff I’ve been reading has more concerns about the flaked corn being sticky.

I’d like to read the whole thread started by BierMuncher, but geez, 102 pages!!!

 

[mashdar]

When you stirred, did you break up the whole bed? And still stuck? Or did it just clog up after each stir?

edit: imo if there are any clods early in the mash I'm not shy about making a mess of the whole grain bed. The AIO baskets with removable bottom need some care to not lift the bottom, but I imagine you know that.

 

[Niatras]

Mashdar, here’s what I did.

The first time I raised the malt pipe, I noticed it wasn’t draining. I do this to mix the water on the outside of the pipe with water inside the pipe. I then stirred the top 2/3 of the malt and then raised the pipe again. Still did not drain. I then stirred all grains all the way to the bottom of the pipe. Scraping the bottom of the pipe. Still no drainage. I finished the mash without recirculating.

When I inspected the false bottom when cleaning, I couldn’t tell what was plugging the false bottom.

 

[rburrelli]

Have you checked out your pump to be sure it is working properly? All the other factors involved seem to not be real problem issues.

The thickness of your mash should have been really loose based upon what you have stated. But unless you absorbed ALL of the mash water (unlikely), I am baffled.

 

[Niatras]

The pump was working fine. Low flow. I don’t think it was the rice. I’ve used rice before. I’ve never used used flaked corn. I’ve read that corn can be sticky but once I dumped the malt pipe into my old cooler tun, I was able to get flow. I’m going to chalk it up to the corn as being sticky. Of course once in the tun, the heat was at 168 and the mash was more viscous.