Virgin AG nightmare

[Winton Recker]

Hi,
Well I gave AG brewing a go yesterday and had a bit of a nightmare. I was batch sparging and it turns out my mash tun manifold was a bit sh*t causing very slow runnings. drip------5mins------drip . I tried all the usual tricks but nothing would speed thing up. Because of the slowness the gain was in water for most of the day. The runnings were also very cloudy because of all the blowing and mixing so I guess I have lots of flower in the wort. Will an all day mash/sparge and excessive flower in the wort make the beer undrinkable? Just wondering before I carry on with the fermentation as the brew bin now has lots of flower in it. Thanks

[Jim]

Sorry you had problems - we've all been there with the stuck sparge, unfortunately. Either the crush of the grain or the temperature of the sparge water (too low) can be to blame (or even the mechanics of the mash tun).

Now that you've got a wort you might as well go for it and see how it turns out, though. It's amazing how a beer can recover from problems - all the crap may well settle out leaving you with something that's at least drinkable.

[Northern Brewer]

It sounds like your manifold needs a few more cuts. Running off too quickly, particularly in the early stages, can cause your run-off to jam, as can the use of certain grains. The easiest option is usually to give everything a good stir and start again. Another trick is to blow some air up the run-off tube until you hear bubbles rising through the mash.

I think you will be surprised, and your beer will turn out fine. All grain is incredibly forgiving.

[awalker]

Out of interest what sparge water temp did you use?

When I used to get stuck mashes all the time, it was before I was raising the temp of the mash, before starting sparging.

[PaulStat]

I had a stuck sparge on the second batch of my first AG, I ended up jugging the wort from the mash tun to the HLT and using a sieve to sieve out the grain from the liquid. Worked very well in the end, I've just started drinking it and it's awesome. Admittedly I was about 4L down on my target.

[Iank]

Our slow runnings problem turned out to be the hose pushed into the manifold - it was tight up against the pipe inside so making extra holes/slits had no effect. Pulling it out and making a groove in the end of the tube to still allow flow even if pushed right in solved the problem.

[Winton Recker]

My mash temp was 65c and spage was 75c. I have now gone back to the drawing board with the manafold. I think I will use 22mm copper just to get things moving. Hopfully I can rename my mash-tun niagra on my next brew. I will post a pic of the mk2 when completed.
I have just had a look at the brew bin and things look like they are working ok. When the fermentaions has finshed shuould I use gelatin fining to settle the flower/rubbish as there is still lots floating about?

[awalker]

My mash temp was 65c and spage was 75c.

I have just had a look at the brew bin and things look like they are working ok. When the fermentaions has finshed shuould I use gelatin fining to settle the flower/rubbish as there is still lots floating about?

Well the temps sound ok
You could up the temp to 80oc and use it as a bit of tamp raise before you start the first run off.
A mash out might help and as mentioned above I find slowly opening up that tap makes a big differnce

I would see how much you pick up into the secondary/keg before using any gelatin.
After primary fermentation most of it will have probably dropped out.
Just be careful not to stir it up while racking out of the fermenter.