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You are here: Home --> Forum Home --> Brewing Forum --> Brewing Discussion --> Stuck Sparges

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blur_yo_face
Houston, Tx
161 Posts


So my previous 2 batches have had a stuck sparge.. I'm pretty sick of this, and want to prevent it in the future.. I have taken pretty much everything apart and cleaned it as well as I possibly can, and then some.. 

My LHBS recommended rice hulls.. A lot of the information I've seen about rice hulls have been on a recirculating mash.. (I currently have a cooler mash tun with a false bottom that does not recirculate..) 

What should be my process/line of thinking when using rice hulls? add this to the mash tun on top of the false bottom prior to adding grains? mix it in with the grains themselves? or should I look at some other alternatives?




Posted 34 days ago.

tracebusta
Charter Member
Somerville, MA
155 Posts


This is all based on what I've read and heard from others, I haven't used rice hulls myself.

You can throw them in with the rest of the mash itself and be fine. I believe I've heard that you want to use about 5% of the weight of the total grist. They aren't going to add any flavor or color to the beers.




Posted 34 days ago.

mchrispen
Bastrop, TX
485 Posts


I use rice hulls all of the time - and I have a RIMS system. I did use them before in my old cooler mash tun when using any wheat or rye. They work pretty well. I mix them into the dry malt after milling.

They will adsorb a little bit of water in the mash tun, but not much.




Posted 34 days ago.

chino_brews
Charter Member
Eden Prairie, MN
301 Posts


Are you fly sparging in a cylindrical cooler? It can be difficult to fly sparge/lauter cylindrical coolers because of the differential pressure, which leads to a vacuum under the false bottom, and that ends up compacting your grain bed. Besides having a gauge to watch pressure and adjust the flow rates (complicated to build), a couple things you can do are to

(a) install a bleeder hose (drill a hole near the edge of your false bottom, and then run some silicone tubing through the hole up the inside sidewall of your tun (higher than your highest mash level)-- it may act to break any vacuum itself, but if not you can blow through the tubing; OR

(b) if you have a pump, add a valve to the outflow and then cut in a line and valve above the first valve that allows you to pump liquor under the grain bed to refloat the mash. You can easily do this with some silicone tubing, a t-fitting, and some poly-pro/nylon valves from U.S. Plastics. When you get a stuck mash, turn off the outflow valve, turn on the valve from the pump, and then pump hot liquor for a few seconds. Vorlauf, and you should be back in business.




Posted 34 days ago.

blur_yo_face
Houston, Tx
161 Posts


I do in fact have a cylindrical cooler.. I have heard about the pressure pockets, and I tried blowing back in the hole to alleviate this.. no luck.. the grains almost looked like powder last time, so I suspect it is compacting and forming a barrier that prevents water flow..

I like the idea of a bleeder hose, but would it also make sense to alleviate potential air pressure by opening the valve to allow strike water into the false bottom prior to doughing in? Once I'm mashing I could open the valve of just strike water and add that back into the mash anyways..




Posted 34 days ago.

chino_brews
Charter Member
Eden Prairie, MN
301 Posts


"...would it also make sense to alleviate potential air pressure by opening
the valve to allow strike water into the false bottom prior to doughing
in? Once I'm mashing I could open the valve of just strike water and add
that back into the mash anyways.."

Absolutely a good idea to float your mash from the outset. If you start by pouring in your strike water and then mixing in grist, you shouldn't have an air pocket regardless of whether the valve is opened.




Posted 34 days ago.

blur_yo_face
Houston, Tx
161 Posts


My process is to pour strike water into the cooler and let the cooler heat up a little bit before putting grains in.. I was just kinda thinking out loud, but if air pressure is a problem, just get rid of the air prior to adding grains.. I'm still suspicious that my LHBS mills their grains too fine, but I'm willing to see if the rice hull alleviate the problem before I start complaining too much.. When I brought it up to the owner, he made it seem like I'm the only one at that store with that problem.. but a lot of people at that store tend to recirculate and do BIAB, so who knows..



Posted 34 days ago.

ingoogni
nl
314 Posts


In addition to chino-brews point a, a valentine arm does wonders.

Blowing back does not help much, use underletting that's using hotwater to push the grain bed up.

Reduce stirring to the minimum help to prevent compacting, there are tiny amount of gas in the pores of the grain that keeps the grain "floating", with much stirring this gas is "beaten" out.

Run off slow, specially in the beginning. Running slow isn't about gallons per minute yield but about the speed of the wort through your grainbed in inches per minute, or mm/min. The wider your mashtun the easier it gets.






Posted 34 days ago.
Edited 34 days ago by ingoogni

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