I brewed a wit this past Friday and boy did I ever have a stuck sparge. It took 90 minutes to sparge with the ball valve completely open!
Here is the recipe:
4 lbs Belgian 2-row Pilsner malt
3 lbs Belgian wheat malt
2 lbs Flaked wheat
8 oz Belgian aromatic malt
4 oz Flaked oats
16 oz Rice Hulls
Mash thickness 1.50 q and my mash temp was 150* for 90 minutes with a mashout to raise the temp to 170* for an additional 15 minutes.
By looking at this can anyone determine how or why this turned to a gelantized mess and how it can be avoided going forward? It was frustrating to say the least…
ugh… I had a similar nightmare. I ended up swearing and doing unholy things to get anything to drain. Very grainy icky cloudy pale ale is in the fermenter now.
I believe I’ve worn out my water supply line in my batch sparge cooler. I think it just compressed too much. I’m going to replace it with one, and put a spring inside it to keep it rigidly open to see if that makes a difference.
[quote=“uberculture”]ugh… I had a similar nightmare. I ended up swearing and doing unholy things to get anything to drain. Very grainy icky cloudy pale ale is in the fermenter now.
I believe I’ve worn out my water supply line in my batch sparge cooler. I think it just compressed too much. I’m going to replace it with one, and put a spring inside it to keep it rigidly open to see if that makes a difference.[/quote]
Maybe try a bazooka screen instead? They are more rigid and shouldn’t compress. (At least mine never has.)
“Surprised that happened with the rice hulls in there. Did you try stirring it up, vorlauf again, and then see if it ran any better?”
I did stir it back up and let it settle for another 15 minutes. Then I blew O2 (originally I typed CO2) in via a compressor. Then I tried pushing a plastic stick in. Nothing wanted to get this going.
The only thing I can think of is that I disassembled my mash tun after my previous brew and I am not have tightened my nut enough on the false bottom and it compacted my grain bed too much.
[quote=“uberculture”]ugh… I had a similar nightmare. I ended up swearing and doing unholy things to get anything to drain. Very grainy icky cloudy pale ale is in the fermenter now.
I believe I’ve worn out my water supply line in my batch sparge cooler. I think it just compressed too much. I’m going to replace it with one, and put a spring inside it to keep it rigidly open to see if that makes a difference.[/quote]
Get this one and you won’t need anything inside. I’ve used it for 17 years and 483 batches and never had a stuck runoff.
[quote=“Denny”][quote=“uberculture”]ugh… I had a similar nightmare. I ended up swearing and doing unholy things to get anything to drain. Very grainy icky cloudy pale ale is in the fermenter now.
I believe I’ve worn out my water supply line in my batch sparge cooler. I think it just compressed too much. I’m going to replace it with one, and put a spring inside it to keep it rigidly open to see if that makes a difference.[/quote]
Get this one and you won’t need anything inside. I’ve used it for 17 years and 483 batches and never had a stuck runoff.
Lasco brand (part number 10-0121 or 10-0321)[/quote]
Either way, I’m just going to throw in a stainless steel compression spring. Cheap peace of mind, anyway.
I thought of another thing and I am not too sure if this would have impacted my sprage, but who knows?
After my last brew (2 brews ago) I disassembled my mass tun and thoroughly cleaned it. It is a 10 gallon round cooler with a false that takes up the entire diameter of the cooler.
When I reassembled the false bottom, I tightened the nut all the way down. Meaning the false bottom was firmly against the bottom of the cooler. When I got to thinking, I should have had the nut all the way up to allow a free floating false bottom. My system was calibrated for this at least so I know my systems “dead space”.
Does this seem like it could have caused my problems? Or is it more than likely my grain bill with the flaked wheat and oats?
