Stuck Sparge %*%#

[Back Yard Brewer]

You know what its like. The previous day you meticulously set up your AG gear. You wake up in the morning get the water hot,you dough in, you sit back and wait for the water a grains to convert then away you go doing your sparge. All of a sudden the flow stops and BANG!! you have a F%@%*ing stuck sparge. This happened to me this morning. My 4th AG and first stuck sparge. I have done a quick search and could not find an answer to the stuck sparge. Any info on how to avoid it and how you can fix it when it does happen would be of help!! I ended up emptyimg my tun to clear it, again what a pain in the %&%$@*g arse. As you may be aware I was a little frustrated. All is well now and the boild is now happening. Oh btw I underlett when doughing in and I do the batch sparge routine. I find I have achieved better efficiency.


BYB

 

[mika]

Stuck sparges can be down to many things, bad luck being one of them. If the crush is too fine it may clog up and result in a stuck sparge. I batch sparge but never crack the tap open fully for fear of compacting the grain bed and sticking it all. Still I run off in ~5mins. I've heard someone say that for the most part homebrewers don't run off quick enough, but not sure about that.
To clear I think a lot of people get in there with the mash paddle and stir like crazy. Means you need to re-circ, but then you should be able to get on with the job.

What manifold you using ?

 

[oldbugman]

you can try stirring up the grain bed, letting it setting and recirculating your run offs again.






some others have blow up the hose to unstick it.

 

[domonsura]

You know what its like. The previous day you meticulously set up your AG gear. You wake up in the morning get the water hot,you dough in, you sit back and wait for the water a grains to convert then away you go doing your sparge. All of a sudden the flow stops and BANG!! you have a F%@%*ing stuck sparge. This happened to me this morning. My 4th AG and first stuck sparge. I have done a quick search and could not find an answer to the stuck sparge. Any info on how to avoid it and how you can fix it when it does happen would be of help!! I ended up emptyimg my tun to clear it, again what a pain in the %&%$@*g arse. As you may be aware I was a little frustrated. All is well now and the boild is now happening. Oh btw I underlett when doughing in and I do the batch sparge routine. I find I have achieved better efficiency.
BYB

They're not much fun when they happen are they? A couple of questions for you.

What sort of mashtun, & manifold/false bottom do you have? Did you figure out if it was compacting of the grain bed, or had grain made it through into the wrong place and blocked an outlet up?

What was the grist made up of, and how fine was the grind?

There a couple of things you can do depending on what exactly has caused the issue in the first place. Let us know, I'm sure there will be solutions for you.

 

[Back Yard Brewer]

They're not much fun when they happen are they? A couple of questions for you.

What sort of mashtun, & manifold/false bottom do you have? Did you figure out if it was compacting of the grain bed, or had grain made it through into the wrong place and blocked an outlet up?

What was the grist made up of, and how fine was the grind?

There a couple of things you can do depending on what exactly has caused the issue in the first place. Let us know, I'm sure there will be solutions for you.

Round 15ltr daddy cool with round 10" false bottom. From what I saw it seemed to have compacted on the bottom. Grain consisted of 4.5kg of marris Otter, 420g crystal malt, 100g dark crystal,160g torrified wheat. I had all the grain pre-cracked from my local HBS. I actually had two seperate ones made up. One I made about 6 weeks ago with no problems.

BYB

 

[devo]

I hear ya, that's one of the main reasons I put my tun outlet on the bottom with no bends/right angles so that in the case of a stuck sparge I could easily clear the obstruction with a thin rod.

 

[Jazzafish]

Happen from time to time...

I had one threatening to get stuck yesterday... very slow run off. I just blow back up the tube to clear the obstruction, stirr and let settle, then recirculate and continue from there.

 

[TidalPete]

I batch sparge but never crack the tap open fully for fear of compacting the grain bed and sticking it all. Still I run off in ~5mins.

I am very interested in this mika. If you batch sparge & run off in 5 minutes (sounds fast to me??), what kind of efficiency do you get?

:beer:

 

[Back Yard Brewer]

Happen from time to time...

I had one threatening to get stuck yesterday... very slow run off. I just blow back up the tube to clear the obstruction, stirr and let settle, then recirculate and continue from there.

Yes tried that one, I blew back and it still didnt come "unstuck" B%*%#rd of a thing it was. Yes I am still trying to get on with my life and get over it. :angry:

BYB

 

[Batz]

I am very interested in this mika. If you batch sparge & run off in 5 minutes (sounds fast to me??), what kind of efficiency do you get?

:beer:

I batch sparge and run off in way less than 5 mins Pete

Batz

 

[Murray]

I used to get them from time to time but have never had one since I started using rice hulls last year.

 

[TidalPete]

I batch sparge and run off in way less than 5 mins Pete

Batz

Really Batz? I usually take around 45 minutes (probably adding to my brew day as you know?)
Just fined-tuned my second attempt at fly sparging & got 84% :beerbang: & my fly sparge took 40 minutes so I have saved time here.

:beer:

 

[Ross]

BYB, On the rare occaision i get a stuck sparge when "batch sparging', I just dig a hole with the handle of the spoon straight through the mash to the false bottom. quick & easy * the amount of crud that seeps through is minimal.

cheers ross

 

[Randall the Enamel Animal]

There’s a couple of easy modifications you may like to make that’ll help. From the outlet of your mash tun, you can add a goose-neck that comes up level with the plate, where your extract can then drain into a grant before running to your boiler. This creates a vacuum break, and because it’s level with the plate, the pressure differential when running off will be across the grain bed and not across the plate. The grain bed will effectively float above the plate. Similarly, you can make a U-bend that comes up to plate height and from the top of the bend, run an open, clear sight tube to the top of the mash tun. When running forward, not only will you get a visual indication of the pressure across the grain bed, it’ll preferentially pull air before it sucks the bed onto the plate. The U-bend and sight tube need to be ‘up stream’ from the flow controller or pump.


edit for typo

 

[braufrau]

John Palmer reckons a stuck sparge is no big deal, just add a bit of water (depending on
how much has run off I guess) stir and recirculate.

He also reckons a litre/min is the right flow rate.

In my extensive experience of all of one mash I fixed my stuck sparge with stirring
and then ran the extract off at ~1l / min (into a measuring jug with one eye on the clock)
and that worked beautifully. I'm a numbers type of gal.

-braufrau

 

[Hogan]

John Palmer reckons a stuck sparge is no big deal, just add a bit of water (depending on
how much has run off I guess) stir and recirculate.

He also reckons a litre/min is the right flow rate.



-braufrau

I think Palmer is referring to 'fly sparging' when he talks of lautering at 1qt / minute. The extract is below in italics.

Starting a sparge when the wort level is 1" above the grain relates to fly sparging. I double batch sparge and fully open the drain tap to get it in the kettle ASAP. Never (never say never) had a stuck sparge and I get constant efficiencies of 82%.

9. Once the wort has cleared, drain the wort carefully into your boiling pot. Fill the pot slowly at first and allow the level to cover the outlet tube. Be sure to have a long enough tube so that the wort enters below the surface and does not splash. The splashing of hot wort before the boil can cause long term oxidation damage to the flavor of the beer.

10. Watch the outflow of wort, you do not want to lauter too fast, as this could compact the grainbed and you would get a stuck sparge. A rate of 1 quart/minute is the most common. Allow the wort level in the Tun to drop until it is about an inch above the level of the grain. Now start adding the sparge water, either from the hot water tun or by pouring in a couple quarts at a time, onto the coffee can lid, maintaining at least an inch of free water above the grainbed.



Cheers, Hoges.

 

[hupnupnee]

I seem to get a stuck sparge every other brew. I reckon you can't beat a good blow, clears it every time for me.

Floculator

Tim

 

[pint of lager]

Stuck sparges are the pits.

I used to have them all the time with a zappap and a fine crush. Regularly using a big dose of rice gulls fixed that problem.

Some extra ideas to help you out.

Get that bed flowing by using a large serrated knife. Make two-three cuts across the mash, from side to side and all the way to the bottom. Do the same in the opposite direction, so the top looks like a noughts and crosses grid. Making just one hole through the centre will probably lower your efficiency and not be as effective as a grid.

As the bed drains and more hot water is added, your wort will flow easier as the concentration of sugars drops. Make sure your sparge water is about 75 deg, cold water will mean cold wort which is more viscous and won't flow readily.

Try to keep the bed floating, that is, don't run off quickly which will compact the bed, and keep the flow rate up so there is a centimetre or so of sparge water over the top of the bed.

Since the setup here was changed to a false bottom and a proper mill which is a barley crusher, all the sparges have flowed without a hitch. Rice gulls have gone on the vegie patch. Sometimes though, it will not flow at the very start, and a quick blast of air up the outflow tube works wonders.

 

[mika]

Tidalpete, my efficiency is luck if it hits 65% at the moment. Not sure what to do to fix it as yet.
I don't think the drain off rate can affect efficiency, if you're batch sparging in one go (as I am) and everything's been given a good stir and you've recirced there shouldn't be any more sugar to come out of the grist, or your water won't hold anymore.

Slightly OT, but is there some ideal temp for the grain bed when sparging ? I'm heating the water to about 82deg and seeing ~75degs in the mash tun though sometimes higher, sometimes lower.

Some interesting solutions to a stuck sparge, might run off quicker next time, less work for the NASA

 

[Corny]

Used to use a long knife and slice through the grain bed to make slits in the muck that forms on the top and the run off would start again. Find the longer I used to recirc for, the more stuck sparges I had, put it down to more fine material forming the layer of muck over the grain bed. Mostly only recirc the floury first 500ml or so now and don't have the problem.