First all grain batch: first stuck sparge!
Posted: Mon Nov 28, 2011 10:40 pm
Well, I finally had a day off that wasn't a holiday, and brewed my first all grain batch: Jamil's Southern English Brown. Well it appears I'm missing a collet from the attachment of my new false bottom to the tubing that runs to the valve on the mash tun. Noted: a loose false bottom will let grain through and stick your mash.
I honestly thought the weight of the grist would push the dome down and create a seal. Not so much.
Another factor in the sticky sparge category may have been the crush. Thought I'd try my hand at the old hand crank cornmeal mill. From what my inexperienced eye could see there was a lot of free floating starch powder and a completely separate bunch of more or less intact barley husks. The best I could dial in, but probably way too inconsistent and way too much powdered barley.
Anyway, back to the open valve with nothing coming out of it:
I had a 3 gallon collander and a grain bag that fits around it, so I strained as much as I could through there, even did a "sparge" the same way with all that water I had heated up.
There was way too much grain material in the wort after that, but I figured 'fuck it, what am I gonna do, throw it away?'.
Everything proceeded normally from there, had a fine boil with no boilovers. It still smelled amazing. Whirlpooled a bit as it cooled and left a bit in the kettle, so the resulting beer ended up marginally clear. Got it in the fermenter before the sun went down.
Thanks to the BN for all the knowledge. Without a clear understanding of what it was I was *trying* to do, I would have been scratching my head a lot longer and potentially messed up the beer even further. Thanks all.
Toast
I honestly thought the weight of the grist would push the dome down and create a seal. Not so much.
Another factor in the sticky sparge category may have been the crush. Thought I'd try my hand at the old hand crank cornmeal mill. From what my inexperienced eye could see there was a lot of free floating starch powder and a completely separate bunch of more or less intact barley husks. The best I could dial in, but probably way too inconsistent and way too much powdered barley.
Anyway, back to the open valve with nothing coming out of it:
I had a 3 gallon collander and a grain bag that fits around it, so I strained as much as I could through there, even did a "sparge" the same way with all that water I had heated up.
There was way too much grain material in the wort after that, but I figured 'fuck it, what am I gonna do, throw it away?'.
Everything proceeded normally from there, had a fine boil with no boilovers. It still smelled amazing. Whirlpooled a bit as it cooled and left a bit in the kettle, so the resulting beer ended up marginally clear. Got it in the fermenter before the sun went down.
Thanks to the BN for all the knowledge. Without a clear understanding of what it was I was *trying* to do, I would have been scratching my head a lot longer and potentially messed up the beer even further. Thanks all.
Toast