grain without the flour

dps51 · Feb 16, 2017

i'm thinking about sieving the grain to get all the flour out of it
as it is just mucking things up to much
like the bottom of the ace boiler hop filter in the ace
to much sludge in fv
would this make any different to the brew
if so what

Simonh82 · Feb 16, 2017

I think you would lose some efficiency. The floury bit is the bit that is easiest for the water to access and contains some of the starch which will convert to sugar. If you sieve it out you will change the ratio of starch to husk material and lose efficiency.

I BIAB and mill my own grain and generally crush very finely so that there is quite a lot of stuff that looks like coarse flour. I use a bag from www.Brewinabag.co.uk and think it is excellent. I've never had a problem with flour debris, although I've never been bothered about some trub and hop particles getting into the beer. I also use a bazooka filter on the tap too.

IainM · Feb 16, 2017

Yeah, flour is starch, though you could always sieve it out and add it back at the top. It should all get converted to sugars by the time the mash is done, so shouldn't turn to sludge.

Bigcol49 · Feb 16, 2017

Hi!
Do you mill your grain? If so, I would consider conditioning the grain before milling it.

MyQul · Feb 16, 2017

I tried seiving the flour out for a couple of brews a long time ago. It get's tedious real fast

Simonh82 · Feb 17, 2017

The sludge at the bottom of your boiler and fermentation vessel is break material and trub. It is mostly proteins that coagulate during the boil rather than flour.

Some people have a massive aversion to it but it doesn't do your beer any harm and some reports suggest lots of trub can actually help the flavour and clarity in the end.

I scrape, poke and squeeze the stuff in the bottom of the boiler to get as much info the fermentation vessel as possible. At some point you will lose some beer to the trub but I'd prefer to let the yeast ferment it out and then give it all time to pack down at the bottom of the fermentation vessel.

chewie · Feb 17, 2017

You could also consider the grain mash itself as a big filter, coarser adjuncts like flaked barley in first with a bed of coarse crushed grain on top of that then your finest milled grain in last, it won't stop it all but it should help cut it down a bit during sparging.