vorlauf stays cloudy

[nootay]

ive recently switched from double batch sparging to single batch sparging. with a 1 year old, time is quite valuable. anyways, my recipe called for 5.5 gallons of sparge water. i vorlaufed atleast 4 gallons worth and it was still cloudy. this is the first time ive had this happen. i finally said enough was enough and ran it off in to the boil kettle. during the hot break i also noticed the foam seemed to be much more dense than normal. related?

i vorlauf in to a one gallon container. normally one gallon is enough. this time i would vorlauf 1 gallon, then choverange my fermenter while dumping the first gallon back in. after the first gallon was put back in i start vorlaufing back in to my one gallon container and so on. i would never shut the valve off, it was running the entire time. im thinking that with over 5 gallons of sparge water, i should probably be pulling off a few gallons before pouring back in to thoroughly compress the grain bed.

thoughts?

as a side question, im in the process of creating a 3 keg single tier solution with 2 pumps. how do you do the vorlauf with pumps? do you vorlauf through the pumps? or do it as i am now? ive also heard of people that continuously circulate throughout the mash, is that true?

 

[bruin_ale]

Can't comment on your problem now, but I have a 2 tier single pump system so I'll answer the one about the vorlauf. One of the nicest things about having a pump is being able to vorlauf through it. Granted, I have a HERMS so I circulate through that during the mash, but during the sparge I'm no longer using the HERMS coil - so I vorlauf each batch sparge infusion through the pump - that is, I take the output of the mash through the pump and back through into the mash-tun inlet.

 

[Yooper]

I never ever have to vorlauf more than a quart or two. If the wort was cloudy the whole time, I wonder what was causing the haze. One would be if you didn't get full conversion, then you could have a starch haze. Another might be related to protein content of the grain. Wheat, for example, seems to never really get clear during vorlaufing.

 

[mlg5039]

What kind of manifold/braid/false bottom setup are you running in your MLT?

Also, how fine is your crush?

 

[nootay]

bruin_ale - thanks that makes sense. i do have a question for you. with the two tier setup, how do you transfer the chilled wort from boil kettle to fermenter? are you whirlpooling then transferring with the pump?

yoop - ive never had this problem before. it was a full 60 minute mash. i used to do starch tests but never had one fail so i quit doing them. i didnt have time to do a preboil gravity check, and havent taken the OG yet, so i guess if the OG is real low, that will answer the conversion question. the grist didnt have any wheat in it. it was 80% pale malt, 5% carapils, 10% vienna, 5% munich.

mlg5039 - i use a barley crusher at the default setting. never had an issue like this before. i may have run the drill a bit faster today, but it was far from wide open. i use a SS braid like they use for toilets. i guess its possible the braid has an issue. i didnt notice anything when cleaning out the mash tun though.

thanks for the responses

 

[nootay]

just checked OG, it was dead on

 

[bruin_ale]

bruin_ale - thanks that makes sense. i do have a question for you. with the two tier setup, how do you transfer the chilled wort from boil kettle to fermenter? are you whirlpooling then transferring with the pump?

There are a couple ways to do a 2 tier. In my case, my HLT and MLT are on the same tier, then a step down from there to the BK. The BK drain is still just above the height of a carboy, so I could gravity drain from there if I wanted to. But I use the pump and a plate chiller to get the chilled wort to the fermentor.

 

[Homercidal]

Sherlock Holmes, where are you?

 

[jfowler1]

Personally, my concept of clear wort changed dramatically once I added a pump to recirculate for me.

Pre-pump, I would vorlauf a couple quarts, and be happy once I was no longer getting little pieces of grain in my pyrex pitcher. The wort was not chunky, but it was cloudy.

Post-pump, I vorlauf during a ten minute mash-out (I just top off the mash with 2-4 quarts of boiling water, then stir to incorporate, then turn on the pump to set a grain bed) and the wort really looks crystal clear somewhere around the 7-8 minute mark.

The hook to a good vorlauf with a pump is to treat the whole circuit as a giant ball valve, and you control flow rate at the output of the pump. Unlike when you drain the mash to the kettle, the valve on the MLT needs to be completely open during the vorlauf en route to the pump. I promise, you will not compact the grain bed, because wort will only flow out of the tun as fast as you allow it to be ejected from the pump. However, you will create choking problems at the pump if you restrict wort on the input side. So to be clear, valve on MLT = fully open, valve on input to pump = fully open, valve on output of pump = partially open. YMMV, but that approach has worked great for me.

I am not sure it is really a benefit to get the wort to that point of crystal clear, but it is how I have been rolling for about a year now. On the flip side, on one of the most recent episodes (webisodes?) of Brewing TV, Jeremy King talked about how he does zero vorlauf, and gave some reasons for his approach - something about removing neccessary lipids.

So IOW, I wouldn't fret too much about it, but if it is crystal clear wort you are after, a quality grainbed and just a bit more time may be required to get you there.

 

[adam01]

Is there a beer taste clarity difference with a crystal clear vorlaugh ?

 

[Northcalais40]

You do need to start the vorlauf at a trickle to get clarity, then turn it up. If you go wide open from jump, the wort won't clear, usually.

So, like, open it 1/4 of the way then let it get clear (after a quart or 2) then you shuld be able to open it more.

Please ignore if this is not your problem. The cloudyness won't hurt BTW.