First all grain expericence a disaster

[lxxenigmaxxl]

Well I guess I should say first beer brewing a disaster as I have not tried extract brewing.

Anyway I spent countless hours researching how to all grain brew and build a Mash Tun and bought a Coleman Xtream with all the fitting and water heater hose for the filter. I also built a sparge manifold that directly connects to the top of the cooler. It looked cool and seemed like it was ready to do some major mashing. After letting my 12 lbs. of grain mash for an hour I started to drain and sparge very nicely. After about 5 min It stopped draining into my kettle so I tried pulling it out of the mash and cleaning. It would start and stop multiple time from then on out.

The hose never collapsed but I think the braids were too tight and kept clogging. I never expected this to happen and was not prepared. 2 hours later I started digging around my basement for a replacement and found a piece of mesh tubing from an old power supply so I coiled up some copper and zipped tied it all together. It stared to syphon but way to fast as my SG was .015 off from where it should have been and I pulled major sediment into the wort.

Is it common for this to happen when using this type for mash ton or am I just unlucky. Also worried about my wort turning into Coors lite with the SG that low ...Should I add something to it or leave it. Thanks

 

[stpug]

I would say that you have a flaw in your system. You should certainly be able to effectively mash, and even fly sparge, in the cooler you have with a stainless water heater hose as your filter. I believe you might have been better served with batch sparging but shouldn't mean you can't fly sparge. I would say you had an unfortunate incident and need to revisit your system setup to work out the flaws. Do you have a post somewhere here that details your system? Maybe you want to post your system setup in this thread.

Even if you DO end up with a light beer, no worries, drink it and move on to your next batch (after revisiting your system setup ).

Give us a better idea of how your setup is and how your process went.

 

[luke2080]

I'd move to a false bottom for the Mash Tun, or a manifold setup.

How much water did you mix in with the 12 lbs of grain?
Did the wort level stay an inch over the grain bed as you sparged?
What was the grain bill? If you used lots of wheat or rye, stuck sparges are common.

 

[br1dge]

Fr a cooler, I suggest a bazooka screen. Never had a stuck sparge with one!

 

[ILoveBeer2]

I use a bazooka tube and a heater braid. On brewday I misplaced the bazooka tube so ran to HD, improvised and built a heater braid.

I fly sparge and there are no noticble effiency changes or clogging using either. Both work fine for me. Rice hulls are added in wheat and rye beer grist.

I'm staying with the braid because it is easier to attach and has more surface area.

 

[TrubDog]

Copper or cpvc manifold. Done. No problems.

 

[FATC1TY]

I use a bazooka tube, and I have a copper pipe inside of it, that is drilled with holes. It makes the tube study, and also have filter out of the grain when I vorlauf.

I have never had a stuck sparge, and I fly it WIDE open when I'm draining the mash tun, and get pretty good efficiency.

 

[wilserbrewer]

Silly question, but I have to ask. Is your braid stainless steel or plastic / copolymer. Some are actually plastic but look like the real thing?
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f11/imposter-plastic-braids-122648/

 

[barmyarmy]

I made a 3/8 inch copper loop with a soldered brass t fitting. I drilled a thousand little holes in it. Never had a problem.

 

[BreezyBrew]

Same exact thing happened to me my first time out. Man did that suck. I notched holes in the plastic tubing but apparently it wasn't enough. I eliminated the plastic altogether and did some testing. Seems to work fine without it. You'll modify your process next time and it will work out. There's lots of things worse than a low abv beer. Just means you will finish it quicker and can brew sooner!

 

[LandoLincoln]

I started off with a SS braid, and had a number of problems with stuck sparges. Moved to a CPVC manifold and haven't had a stuck sparge since.