I knew it would happen one day, catastrophe happened

[ColeR]

Ok lessons learned, from Saturday brewing..

1. Add rice hulls to every and all batches of beer being brewed
2. Stired grains can form like concrete after settling.
3. Zip tie the silicon hose to false bottom and to MLT wall spigot.

If hose comes off false bottom, while stirring with 59 min left of steeping…

4. Grains can clog every piece of equipment you have.. this sucks
5. Hoses can explode off fittings with enough pressure from pumps spewing wort everywhere. This sucks
6. Removing wort from grains to fix said hose to false bottom sucks
7. Putting wort back in to MLT after cleaning pumps sucks
8. Finding out your HERMs coil is plugged, I mean really plugged really sucks.
9. Cleaning HERMs coil with a torch (the following day), cuz water and air wont clear the clog, stinks and sucks
10. Getting mash back up to temp, so slow….. it sucks

CLEANING UP ALL THE STICKY WORT FROM EVERYWHERE AND EVERYTHING - SUCKS

Now everything went as normal, from that point on through the boil.

Salvaging my 10gal batch of Honey Basil Ale with a eff of 77%, priceless

I was done with brewing for the day, done.

CR-

 

[phoenixs4r]

I've had those type of days. I'm happy everything is done in the garage and I can just hit it with a ****ing hose

 

[BakRivrBruen]

I saw the title and thought this was gonna be another broken carboy story.

 

[motobrewer]

at least you saved it. i've had one of those days where I couldn't. hours of cleaning and nothing to show for it really blows.

 

[Brulosopher]

I saw the title and thought this was gonna be another broken carboy story.

Me too! **** glass...

 

[eastoak]

Ok lessons learned, from Saturday brewing..

1. Add rice hulls to every and all batches of beer being brewed

or condition your malt before milling and let the husks act as an excellent filter bed. i made a wit yesterday with 5lb of pilsner malt, 2lb wheat malt, 2lb flaked wheat and 1/2lb oats and it didn't come close to sticking. i used rice hulls for my first few AG batches then i discovered malt conditioning and never looked back.

 

[passedpawn]

Wow, that sounds like a nightmare OP.

I haven't used rice hulls in years, and I do all sorts of beers full of wheat and rye. No stuck sparges. Go figure. My Jaybird false bottom just keeps rocking.

 

[kellzey]

I had grains and crap sucked through my false bottom to clog my pumps yesterday. Spent about 20 minutes getting everything unclogged and running again.

Not NEARLY as bad as your day. I was able to salvage as well.

Sometimes you just have to think on your toes.

 

[busa504]

well i brewed my first american ale all grain batch today on my new two tier system and what a breeze it was i loved it. 84.4% measured eff. had a couple of small glitches with using this new equipment but it worked out fine. keg is in the fridge and already bubbling away wlp001. home made rig/kegs. and sabco fermentors/chill wizard. and that chill wizard kicks ass as i hooked the o2 to it and dialed in the temp. only problem is it it so hot my water temp is 83f so i had to run the water through my old wort chiller through ice water bucket. i will follow up on the recipe and how it turned out soon. cheers

 

[ColeR]

I saw the title and thought this was gonna be another broken carboy story.

Hehe, I wouldn't post if it was just a carboy breaking, better yet i wouldn't admit to it.

 

[ColeR]

Wow, that sounds like a nightmare OP.

I haven't used rice hulls in years, and I do all sorts of beers full of wheat and rye. No stuck sparges. Go figure. My Jaybird false bottom just keeps rocking.

It was wierd, i would stir the mash, then 5 min later or so, i noticed the recirc wort coming in at the top of the keggle was slowing down, so i went to stir the grains, and the grains felt solid, and i mean solid, hard, compacted, unmoving this is when i really started stiring and and hit the hose. and then all went down hill after that.

 

[william_shakes_beer]

or condition your malt before milling and let the husks act as an excellent filter bed. i made a wit yesterday with 5lb of pilsner malt, 2lb wheat malt, 2lb flaked wheat and 1/2lb oats and it didn't come close to sticking. i used rice hulls for my first few AG batches then i discovered malt conditioning and never looked back.

I have never had anything stuck in my BIAB rig

 

[william_shakes_beer]

It was wierd, i would stir the mash, then 5 min later or so, i noticed the recirc wort coming in at the top of the keggle was slowing down, so i went to stir the grains, and the grains felt solid, and i mean solid, hard, compacted, unmoving this is when i really started stiring and and hit the hose. and then all went down hill after that.

What was your grist ratio?

 

[ColeR]

I don’t have the grain bill here at work, but it was 19lb, and at 1.25qt of water per pound that equates to 23.75qt's of water for this batch, or 5.9375 gal is what I should have added. But… I used 6.5gal for my 19lbs of grain. I go over by about .5gal to make up for the volume of the line/pumps/Herms. My only thought about why it happened is I had the ball valve wide open so I had no restriction during the recirc time.

 

[GarageBeerGarden]

I don't use HERMS, so I'm not too familiar with those systems, but I've heard people suggest using rice hulls for every batch no matter what style. Makes sense to me. They won't contribute any flavor and could only help. They're cheap too, so it's no big expense to add it to the list. I'm thinking about doing the same thing. Glad you saved your batch though o.p. that's a brew you can apperciate what went into it.