
Good Backup Plan
- Barley Water
- Under the Table
- Posts: 1429
- Joined: Tue May 22, 2007 8:35 pm
- Location: Dallas, Texas
Good Backup Plan
Yesterday I brewed a CAP. The formulation was basicly 80% six row malt and 20% corn meal grits. Of course, this requires a cereal mash which I have done a number to times and I got that done with no problem. Because I now own my own malt mill, in a moment of clarity I decided to reduce the gap on the rollers since six row malt is smaller than two row and I didn't want my efficiency to suck too bad. After crushing the malt I remember thinking to myself, "gosh, that looks like a pretty fine crush, I may have slow runoff". Well I ain't that smart but that is exactly what happened. I didn't get a stuck mash but the runoff was very, very slow. As luck would have it, I had a couple of friends were over who were interested in making CAP's (and drinking beer). They went over to the local HBS and purchased a pound of rice hulls for me which instantly fixed the problem. Anyhow, the tip of the day from this side of the world is, keep a pound or so of rice hulls on hand all the time, you never know when you will get a stuck mash (and of course, they keep forever so you don't need to worry about them going stale if you don't need them for awhile). 

Drinking:Saison (in bottles), Belgian Dubbel (in bottles), Oud Bruin (in bottles), Olde Ale (in bottles),
Abbey Triple (in bottles), Munich Helles, Best Bitter (TT Landlord clone), English IPA
Conditioning: Traditional bock bier, CAP
Fermenting: Munich Dunkel
Next up: Bitter (London Pride like), ESB
So many beers to make, so little time (and cold storage space)
Abbey Triple (in bottles), Munich Helles, Best Bitter (TT Landlord clone), English IPA
Conditioning: Traditional bock bier, CAP
Fermenting: Munich Dunkel
Next up: Bitter (London Pride like), ESB
So many beers to make, so little time (and cold storage space)
Re: Good Backup Plan
Sounds like a good idea.
I'm fed up with my very slow run-offs whilst batch-sparging. I'm still getting stuck/very slow run-offs, and don't really know what else to do to solve it. It took 1/2 hour each sparge last time (and I still had to give them both a stir after 10 min).
So, how do you use the stuff? Add it when I top-up? Does it add any taste to the wort?
I'm fed up with my very slow run-offs whilst batch-sparging. I'm still getting stuck/very slow run-offs, and don't really know what else to do to solve it. It took 1/2 hour each sparge last time (and I still had to give them both a stir after 10 min).
So, how do you use the stuff? Add it when I top-up? Does it add any taste to the wort?
- Barley Water
- Under the Table
- Posts: 1429
- Joined: Tue May 22, 2007 8:35 pm
- Location: Dallas, Texas
Re: Good Backup Plan
No, it does not add any taste at all to the beer at all. What you are really doing is just adding more husks so that the runoff goes as planned. I do it routinely when I make wheat beer but generally don't need them for barley based beers. I just got a little too agressive with the crush on this particular beer, that and grits are very sticky. The combination of those two things just slowed things down too much. What I did was just stir in a pound of the hulls, added a little more hot water to keep the temperature where I wanted it, recirculated and then ran out the wort, worked just great. Usually I won't need them but just in case things start slowing down, I will always have the cure on hand from now on.
Drinking:Saison (in bottles), Belgian Dubbel (in bottles), Oud Bruin (in bottles), Olde Ale (in bottles),
Abbey Triple (in bottles), Munich Helles, Best Bitter (TT Landlord clone), English IPA
Conditioning: Traditional bock bier, CAP
Fermenting: Munich Dunkel
Next up: Bitter (London Pride like), ESB
So many beers to make, so little time (and cold storage space)
Abbey Triple (in bottles), Munich Helles, Best Bitter (TT Landlord clone), English IPA
Conditioning: Traditional bock bier, CAP
Fermenting: Munich Dunkel
Next up: Bitter (London Pride like), ESB
So many beers to make, so little time (and cold storage space)
Re: Good Backup Plan
When you find them in the UK let us know where you get them, been looking ( not very hard ) but not seen this in the UK.
Re: Good Backup Plan
I have never seen them for sale in the UK HB market. We can get oat husks which provide a similar function. But they have a very oat-y flavour which can carry through. If I do get a stuck mash, I just use brute force and pump the wort out 

- simple one
- CBA Prizewinner 2010
- Posts: 1944
- Joined: Tue Oct 28, 2008 11:35 am
- Location: All over the place
Re: Good Backup Plan
With the oat husks it is best to soak them over night in boiling water (well boiling once added) to lose any flavour that they may have. Then add them to the tun before the main addition of the rest of the grain.
Re: Good Backup Plan
I just rinse them in a sieve a few handfulls at a time, both methods work.
Re: Good Backup Plan
Could you maybe try adding hotter sparge water so the mash temp is a bit higher at the end and everything is a bit more fluid? What temp are you sparging at?Jerry Cornelius wrote:Sounds like a good idea.
I'm fed up with my very slow run-offs whilst batch-sparging. I'm still getting stuck/very slow run-offs, and don't really know what else to do to solve it. It took 1/2 hour each sparge last time (and I still had to give them both a stir after 10 min).
So, how do you use the stuff? Add it when I top-up? Does it add any taste to the wort?
Also - mash tun manifold design?
Re: Good Backup Plan
Not sure if the liquor is at the right temperature, but this is what I recorded last brew. Sparge 1 temp was 82 C, sparge 2 temp was 84 C.adm wrote:Could you maybe try adding hotter sparge water so the mash temp is a bit higher at the end and everything is a bit more fluid? What temp are you sparging at?
Also - mash tun manifold design?
Mash tun design:
33 L bin with DaaB's false bottom/plate. I did think that perhaps I should use a 25 L bin and have less space around the diameter. Dunno, haven't tried it yet! What do you reckon??
Re: Good Backup Plan
Well....your sparge temp should be plenty hot enough. That's about the same water temp that I use for mine.
As for the false bottom, there's plenty of folks using the Daab type with great results, so that's probably not the problem either. I would personally want a false bottom (I don't have one, so am only going on gut feel) to fit almost exactly against the edge of my tun though.
How about your grain? Have all the slow sparges come from the same sack/same crush/same maltings ? Could be that I guess. I'd imagine it could also be something to do with your water, but to be honest haven't got a clue about that!
As for the false bottom, there's plenty of folks using the Daab type with great results, so that's probably not the problem either. I would personally want a false bottom (I don't have one, so am only going on gut feel) to fit almost exactly against the edge of my tun though.
How about your grain? Have all the slow sparges come from the same sack/same crush/same maltings ? Could be that I guess. I'd imagine it could also be something to do with your water, but to be honest haven't got a clue about that!
Re: Good Backup Plan
I've had two sacks from the same brewery - both Fawcetts MO. It does seem very floury, but TBH it's all I've ever used, so I don't have any experience of anything else. At £20 for 25 kg I don't want to change supplier! Perhaps it's that...adm wrote:How about your grain? Have all the slow sparges come from the same sack/same crush/same maltings ? Could be that I guess. I'd imagine it could also be something to do with your water, but to be honest haven't got a clue about that!
I think I might build a new mash tun and see if that makes any difference. Thanks for your ideas

Re: Good Backup Plan
So would I do better to add bits of Lego to my mash 
I must say I used BBottom for the 1st Time and the Larger malt , was a much finer mill than my usual Tuckers crush!
but my system did not cause a problem but did have a worry that it might, so took it slower than normal on my last 2 brews.

I must say I used BBottom for the 1st Time and the Larger malt , was a much finer mill than my usual Tuckers crush!
but my system did not cause a problem but did have a worry that it might, so took it slower than normal on my last 2 brews.
Last edited by GARYSMIFF on Tue Oct 20, 2009 10:38 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Re: Good Backup Plan
Only if its food safe, I would've thought!GARYSMIFF wrote:So would I do better to add bits of Lego to my mash


Re: Good Backup Plan
John McEnroe man. come on. LOL "as if" Don't take me too literally .
my mates say " when Gary says run walk, but not always"
my mates say " when Gary says run walk, but not always"
