Dedicated Grainfather Guide, Problems and Solutions Thread

[chopdog]

Nar, just pushed it until the plate was covered with liquid. Cheers

 

[chopdog]

I reckon I have a stuck sparge!! It's taking so long, 30 mins to put 5l thru. Any ideas??????

 

[HBHB]

Not much you can do now unless you either wait it out or try to break the grain bed up a bit. What was the grain bill and mash steps?

 

[chopdog]

Simple apa, 5kg pale
500g wheat
Mashed in 66 deg, 60mins

 

[chopdog]

I ended up lifting the top plate, loosening up the grain bed. Put the top plate back on and rest of sparge went well. I know I'll prolly have a cloudier wort but I can live with that.

 

[acarey]

Dunno. I've had slow sparges but not that slow. You could put some pressure on the top plate to squeeze some wort out. Probably not best practice though and will compact it further making the problem worse. Typically I do that if i'm almost at pre boil volume and just need a bit more. Not sure what you should do.

Maybe just put the rest of the water in on top and use the small element to bring it to the boil slowly as it drains through at a glacial pace. It heats up at about 1 degree per 3 and half (ish) minutes in my experience.

Good luck.


edit : whoops, didn't see your post above. As you were. Nothing to see here h34r:

 

[chopdog]

Ended up with 26l after sparge. You guys obviously use a refractometre to take your readings? Had to scoop some out with a jug for hydrometer! Not a fan!

 

[acarey]

Ended up with 26l after sparge. You guys obviously use a refractometre to take your readings? Had to scoop some out with a jug for hydrometer! Not a fan!

Yeah, get one. It'll change your life. Around $36 for keg king when I got mine I think. You won't regret getting one thats for sure.

 

[chopdog]

Yeah I'll order one tonight. Never really felt the need for one until now

 

[meathead]

Simple apa, 5kg pale
500g wheat
Mashed in 66 deg, 60mins

Its always wheat
Chuck in a handful of rice hulls

 

[chopdog]

Just had a HOLY **** moment!!!!!! I just mashed in and forgot to flick the switch to mash. Checked temp 10 mins later and it was at75!!!!!!!! Should I just dump it now and cut my loses??? I added 2l of cold water from the fridge but only dropped 3degs

 

[chopdog]

Once I turned the pump on it's dropped to 67, which is my mash temp. Should I extend the mash to 90mins?

 

[meathead]

Brewed a DSGA today
Not as fine a crush as last time and used 2 extra litres of mash water and therefor 2 less litres of sparge water
Sparge ran well, SG 1047

Used the wort chiller for the first time
Ran it for 5 mins to sterilise
Turned the valve back about half way
Wort was still pretty warm, hot day in Melb probably doesn't help
Just wondering what is the best way to use the chiller

 

[postmaster]

I run the tap water through a pre chill set up 1st. Its like a large 16 litre bottle in which I put 8 meters of copper tubing and kept filled with water. Which I chill in in the fridge before I brew.
I use about 25 litres of water to chill 26 litre to approximately 30 deg. I keep the hot water for cleaning. (just need to get the flow ratio right for the wort and water).

 

[meathead]

Seems like a lot of fecking around, must be a better way

 

[slcmorro]

Or you could just recirculate the wort from the chiller back into the GF for 10 mins. That'll do it

 

[slcmorro]

Remember, the cooling rate will drop exponentially the closer the wort temp gets to the tap temp. If you're dragging 28c water out of your tap, you will *NOT* get lower than realistically 30c unless you recirc for a long time, or do something to lower the input water temp.

 

[meathead]

30 would have been fine
It's been 5 hours now in the fridge and it's still 27

 

[slcmorro]

Did you recirculate back into the unit for 10 mins before transferring into the FV really slowly? Should take 20 mins total to get it down to within 5c of tap water temp really, using this method.

What temp would you say your tap water came out at roughly?

 

[meathead]

Tap water 26
Maybe not 10 mins recirc but def 5
Perhaps 10 recirc and even slower fermenter fill next time