Too much flour in the grist. Brew day ruined.

Electric Brewer · Jan 28, 2021

I'm not quite sure what I did ,but I did one thing differently. I tried to foolishly get better efficiency and I grinded my grain twice. Made a lot or flour. My electric kettle didn't like it. The Anvil gave me an E3 error. It baked a cake at the bottom. Have to empty and wash. Then I saw the grist. So much flour.

Tried to remove most of it but at boil time, another cake was baked and another E3.

Had to cancel the brew.

Could it also be how I stored my grain? I just remove the air from the bag and roll it tight. Last week's brew was perfect though...

Recipe
5# malted wheat
2# pilsner
6# flaked wheat

Anyone knows what the hell went wrong?

day_trippr · Jan 28, 2021

Whoa! And, nice! :rock:

Wait - what were we talking about?

Noob_Brewer · Jan 28, 2021

based on the amount of husk material in the kettle, I am assuming you used the malt-pipe but not a bag inside the malt-pipe. If not using a bag when milling fine, I think you are asking for trouble. I mill at 0.030", get a good bit of flour, but I use a wilser bag inside the malt-pipe or the bag with no malt-pipe at all. Never got an E3 message in over 30 brews. Ive gotten a little scorch on the element but no where near as close as to what you are showing. If not using a bag, Id mill courser (around 0.036 or above) and be careful not to have all those husks/grains escaping the malt-pipe. Hope this helps.

edit: thats a lot of darn wheat. Was last weeks grist the same or different grains?

Electric Brewer · Jan 28, 2021

Noob_Brewer said:
based on the amount of husk material in the kettle, I am assuming you used the malt-pipe but not a bag inside the malt-pipe. If not using a bag when milling fine, I think you are asking for trouble. I mill at 0.030", get a good bit of flour, but I use a wilser bag inside the malt-pipe or the bag with no malt-pipe at all. Never got an E3 message in over 30 brews. Ive gotten a little scorch on the element but no where near as close as to what you are showing. If not using a bag, Id mill courser (around 0.036 or above) and be careful not to have all those husks/grains escaping the malt-pipe. Hope this helps.

I did grind twice at .030. Last 5 brews were grinded with the same gap but only once. And I didn't had any trouble. I'll try .036 next time. I suddenly care less about efficiency now.

MicroMickey · Jan 29, 2021

Why grind twice? I started brewing 30 years ago and used a Corona grain mill. Not the best but it worked just fine. I still use it to crush raw wheat. I updated to a roller mill and have never run the grist through twice.
You should consider throwing a double hands full of rice hulls in with the grist to avoid these flour related problems. The Belgians used a mash regimen called "turbid mashing".