Brew day fail

[Fat Bastard]

Hey Truman, this exact thing happened to me on my last brewday. Are you changing your configuration from recirc. to sparge by shutting off the pump and swapping hoses around? Did you notice bubbles and/or grain rising from the bed as you did this? Were you running the little brown pump flat out? I did/saw all this and the result was a small amount of grain come through into the kettle, mostly chunks of grain and the occasional spile, no husk or anything.

Anyway, I think it's a function of a higher than normal liquor/grist ratio, smaller grain bills springing back when the suction comes off or a combination of both, This was with a 5kg bill 25l batch. I note that it did not occur with a 9kg bill I did the other week.If anyone has seen something similar, I'd like to hear how you prevent it.

And for what it's worth, I've boiled up a far more grain that what you got when I was experimenting with a mesh screen instead of a bag, and noted no ill effect on the beer.

Cheers,

FB

 

[Truman42]

Hi FB..No my HLT is above my MLT so at mash out I just switch my 3 way valve over and start pumping into the kettle. Then I drain my sparge water from my HLT into my mash tun and do a batch sparge. The particles were all quite small so Im guessing they just happened to get through the holes in the false bottom. At least i know for next time not to worry about it.

Cheers

 

[Fat Bastard]

So you switch your pump from recirc. to sparge then open the valve to drain the kettle. This makes sense to me, because you're still momentarily killing the suction on the FB, which allows the grain bed to lift slightly and allow some crud through. Like you, my bits were very small, and would have easily fitted through the holes in the FB, if they weren't caught up in the grain bed, which they obviously were, as I only got the bits coming through after I killed the pump to switch the hoses around. From the sounds of it, I don't think 3 way valves will stop the problem either. Perhaps a slightly coarser grind on the grain might help, as this was my first brew with my mill and I got over 90% efficiency (without counting loss to trub etc)

 

[Truman42]

90% shit that's good. I haven't used my mill yet still buying cussed grains but the best I can ever get is 70%.
Do you double batch sparge or single?

 

[mjp]

I use a big marine esky as a mash tun with the bung replaced with a simple tap, I always get grain thru the tap. I use a sieve while draining to kettle but line it with boiled filter wool. No extra grist in the boil.

 

[Fat Bastard]

90% shit that's good. I haven't used my mill yet still buying cussed grains but the best I can ever get is 70%.
Do you double batch sparge or single?

 

[Fat Bastard]

90% shit that's good. I haven't used my mill yet still buying cussed grains but the best I can ever get is 70%.
Do you double batch sparge or single?

I fly sparge, but I think the single biggest improvement to efficiency was from mucking about with water chemistry via the ez water spreadsheet. I have never got below 73% though, and of course efficiency drops off with an increase in grain bill size. One day I will plot a curve of efficiency vs grain bill to avoid underestimating efficiency and ending up with 6.5% pale ales!
Are you setting your losses to zero in Brewmate to calculate your efficiencies?

 

[Truman42]

I use Ez water calc but dont set my losses to zero in brewmate. How does this calculate your efficiences properly? i have evap rate set at 12 % which is accurate and my losses to trub and chiller set at 3 litres.

 

[Fat Bastard]

Your losses to trub will vary with your hop and grain bills, although the system losses will stay the same. Setting the losses to zero lets you compare apples to apples so to speak.