First brew with Grainmaster

[R17 cje]

Hi,

Completed my first brew with Graimaster yesterday, a couple of teething problems occured and wondered if would make the brew pointless to continue?

1 - during mashing it was extremely slow for the water to filter through the grain and during sparging I actually had to remove the top filter and agitate the grain to get water dripping through - would this have caused an issue?

2 - during transfer to the fermenter the pump blocked and I had to remove all the contents into a sanitised container, clear the pump and re fill to start the cooling process, looks like there was tiny bits of grain in the liquid within the fermenter - not sure if this is standard?

3 - once all in fermenter only got 19.5 litres and not 23 as advised on the kit instructions, may have been tight on the sparse water - will this have detriment?

Sorry for the long message.

Chris

 

[Zephyr259]

You're probably fine. I've been using a grainfather for over 3 years now and they do take a bit of getting used to.

Your grain crush may have been a bit fine causing the slow run-off, or maybe a sticky mash with wheat and/or oats? While mashing just leave it circulating with the valve fully open and the overflow pipe will keep things level. I was having a few very slow sparged and stirred like you did, I just crushed a bit coarser and it's been good since.

The bits of grain that go through will have been through the boil so shouldn't cause an issue. Ideally these would have been caught by the filter.

Volume is tricky as I'd need the grain weight, boil time and water volumes to comment. But if you sparged to 28L and boiled for an hour then you should have had 25l after the boil and the dead volume is about 2L.

Good luck with future brews, they get easier.

 

[Banbeer]

I have a Brewster Beacon all in one and the last couple of brews I've experienced a stuck sparge (same as you), never had one before but the last time I brewed I really took my time adding the grain and stirring as I went, I also added a litre extra to my mash volume. This seemed to cure the problem and sparging was a lot faster and a bit more enjoyable.

 

[Session]

I use 5% oat husks in the grist which work really well to prevent a stuck mash/sparge

 

[R17 cje]

Thanks for all the responses, fingers crossed it comes out ok. Currently fermenting well.

 

[foxy]

All those SVB's lend themselves to a very fluid mash, getting rid of the top screen helps with the stir during the mash, the pump will pick up the loose particles and bits of grain and dump them back onto the top of the grain bed.
I do full volume cutting out the sparge, and I will be getting rid of my overflow pipe I don't let any wort go down it, therefore the wort washes through the grain bed.
I can get 21 litres of around 5.5% ABV and 23 litres 4.5% ABV doughing into 34 litres and 32 litres respectively.

 

[Neil Whittaker]

I've also suffered from stuck mash / sparge and blocked pump in the past.

Last brew I followed Foxy "Full volume" or "No Sparge" method and I must say, my brew day was much more enjoyable. It is only my 4th AG brew and found that it took a lot of the stress out of the day. I have also ditched the overflow pipe and just throttle the pump. I missed my OG by a little bit, but i can adjust in the future for that.