Setting my grain bed?

[echristian1]

I'm having trouble with grains slipping into my wort when i'm sparging. I have a 3 tier gravity system with a false bottom in my mash tun. I'm doing a 4 to 6 qrt vorlauf to set my bed still having problems. My OG on my last 4 or 5 batches have been a little high, am I sparging to slow?

 

[reinstone]

I'd vorlough more, check your crush and if that doesn't work try some rice hulls.

 

[CGVT]

I put a stainless steel scouring pad under my FB at the pickup. Very little grain gets through and I have never had a stuck sparge.

You can get them at Home Depot for a couple of bucks for three of them

 

[reinstone]

I put a stainless steel scouring pad under my FB at the pickup. Very little grain gets through and I have never had a stuck sparge.

You can get them at Home Depot for a couple of bucks for three of them

Damn nice idea

 

[nukebrewer]

I put a stainless steel scouring pad under my FB at the pickup. Very little grain gets through and I have never had a stuck sparge.

You can get them at Home Depot for a couple of bucks for three of them

That's a fvcking fantastic idea! I've been having the same problem as the OP and just living with it. Best of both worlds between a FB and SS braid. Have you had any changes in your mash tun dead space because of this?

 

[CGVT]

No change in the dead space at all. The liquid will siphon to the height of the pickup, the same as it did before I added it.

BTW, I put one on the end of my pick up tube in my kettle, too. I just pushed up up onto the tube and then pushed the tube back to the bottom of the keggle before I tightened it up. It blocks hop sludge and trub from getting into my chiller and fermenter.

 

[nukebrewer]

No change in the dead space at all. The liquid will siphon to the height of the pickup, the same as it did before I added it.

BTW, I put one on the end of my pick up tube in my kettle, too. I just pushed up up onto the tube and then pushed the tube back to the bottom of the keggle before I tightened it up. It blocks hop sludge and trub from getting into my chiller and fermenter.

Awesome. You're a god damn genius. I will definitely be using this on my next brew. Cheers!

 

[BackAlley]

BTW, I put one on the end of my pick up tube in my kettle, too. I just pushed up up onto the tube and then pushed the tube back to the bottom of the keggle before I tightened it up. It blocks hop sludge and trub from getting into my chiller and fermenter.

Seriously?!? That worked and it doesn't get all gummed up and block the flow? Are you whirlpooling first? If this works you seem to have solved a problem more intransigent than nuclear fusion energy, time travel and perpetual motion combined.

 

[Fishin-Jay]

Seriously?!? That worked and it doesn't get all gummed up and block the flow? Are you whirlpooling first? If this works you seem to have solved a problem more intransigent than nuclear fusion energy, time travel and perpetual motion combined.

I've ben doing this too and I have to say my success rate is just a little more than 50%. On many brews, even a couple ounces of hops (pellet or whole) gum up the scrubby and clog the transfer. My first 2 or 3 times I used this method I had no problem. I swore I had solved the issue. But my last two brews in a row the scrubby clogged.

My next attempt is to use one of these screens for the hops AND the SS scrubby at the pick-up tube. Here's hoping....

 

[CGVT]

Seriously?!? That worked and it doesn't get all gummed up and block the flow? Are you whirlpooling first? If this works you seem to have solved a problem more intransigent than nuclear fusion energy, time travel and perpetual motion combined.

I've ben doing this too and I have to say my success rate is just a little more than 50%. On many brews, even a couple ounces of hops (pellet or whole) gum up the scrubby and clog the transfer. My first 2 or 3 times I used this method I had no problem. I swore I had solved the issue. But my last two brews in a row the scrubby clogged.

My next attempt is to use one of these screens for the hops AND the SS scrubby at the pick-up tube. Here's hoping....

I use a nylon bag clamped to the kettle for the hops so I don't have as much sludge as I would if I just tossed the pellets in. I imagine that makes a difference.

 

[MollyHatchet]

Last IPA I did I used a hop spyder with a five gallon paint strainer. I used 1 lb of hops, and at the end when I attempted to lift the hop spyder out of the kettle the bag pulled off of the spyder that I had secured with a large hose clamp. I am guessing 10-12 oz of hops got out of the bag before I could fish it out, and I lost approximately a gallon due to all the trub in the bottom if the kettle. This was the first time using this hop spyder, and the clamp was as tight as I could reasonably get it. It was fairly heavy with 1lb of hops and wort in it when I tried to get it out.

PS: I know I am off the path here, just thought I'd mention it.

 

[stpug]

I'm having trouble with grains slipping into my wort when i'm sparging. I have a 3 tier gravity system with a false bottom in my mash tun. I'm doing a 4 to 6 qrt vorlauf to set my bed still having problems. My OG on my last 4 or 5 batches have been a little high, am I sparging to slow?

The scrubby idea is a good one if it works for your system (filtering the INput). Unfortunately, it doesn't work with mine.

I use a nylon strainer bag clipped to my BK and I drain the runnings into there (filtering the OUTput). When I'm done draining the runnings, I simply lift out the strainer which catches any grain particles that slipped through. Works wonderfully.

 

[BBBF]

I use the scrubby in my boil kettle to keep whole hops out of the ball valve. I just have a 1/2" 90 in the BK and I squeeze the scrubby between the fitting and the bottom of the pot.

 

[Mike COusineau]

I put a stainless steel scouring pad under my FB at the pickup. Very little grain gets through and I have never had a stuck sparge.

You can get them at Home Depot for a couple of bucks for three of them

Do you just place them under loose or somehow tie them to the FB