Help!!! Dirty wort!!!

[Clibit]

Urgent help needed. Have done a couple of kits and now doing a partial mash, with some grain I picked up at a local brewery. Have followed the mashing instructions, but the wort looks like washing up water - dirty grey. I am using extremely basic equipment, a pan and a sieve, but I'm wondering if the grain the brewery gave me is dodgy. They said it was from the stuff they throw away but would be fine for home brewing. Am i panicking unnecessarily, or should I ditch the wort and save my extract for another go with safer grain? What colour should the wort be after mashing? I assumed it would look at least vaguely beer-like!

[Clibit]

I was hoping for some help here folks! Am I in a unique situation?!!

[garwatts]

Personally I can't see anything that is being thrown away by a brewery as being suitable for home brew Your wort should look just like beer cos it nearly is. The only missing ingredient at that stage is the yeast. Sounds like you have been given/sold some sh*te. What do you use the sieve for? What was your recipe and methodology exactly?

[Garth]

I'm assuming the grain was unused and dry...?

If so it sounds like you've just got a lot of particles in there that really need filtering out, this is where the grain bed comes in, a lot of brewers after the mash is complete, recirculate by jugging a good few litres of the wort from the mash tun tap back onto the top of the grain gently until the run off is free from particles and a lot cleaner looking.

[Eric]

I don't know this for fact, but I would assume that grain for homebrew should be at least as good as that used by commercial brewers. In fact, I would expect a professional brewer to make grain work that a homebrewer couldn't.
It should look like beer, see pictures on this site.
It should taste sweet after mashing.
I wouldn't expect a sieve to work, too coarse. The usual way requires the grain to become its own filter, packing down as the wort runs through and EVENTUALLY the runnings become clear while the muddy ones are returned to be filtered again. A sieve will likely just stop the large grains while small matter will just pass straight through or over the caught grain.
What would a brewery throw away that could be used to make beer?
Does the wort taste sweet? Is it sticky?
If it's sugary it might do little harm apart from the beer not being bright.

[Clibit]

I used the simple method outlined in 'guide 1' on this website:

http://www.beermadeeasy.co.uk/

I just wanted to see what i could do without investing in a lot of equipment, and gradually work out what I absolutely need, to create the simplest, cheapest method.


The grain was unused and dry. I'm wondering if they swept it off the floor! The wort doesn't have much flavour, and isn't sticky. It's just come to the boil. It taste like dirty water! I'm rather discouraged! I will chuck it, it didn't cost me anything, and buy some grain from a homebrew shop and have another crack.

[Clibit]

I was only asking if I was in a unique situation, but it looks like I am. The grain looked exactly like the grain I bought from the HB shop, which I haven't used yet. I will try again with those and see what happens.

I don't think I could have screwed it up completely. I think it must have been the grain. Thanks for your comments everyone.

[Eric]

Well that site is right but describes a rather crude method.
It would be unwise to judge an all grain mash with any result obtained by that method BUT I would more likely suspect the malt.
I'm quite new to this forum having started doing AG brews nearly 20 years ago. From that time I would never brew any other way for the reasons everyone who's done a successful AG brew knows, but since taking advice, reading and adopting ideas from here, my beer has improved beyond belief. What is more, a lot more, my attempts are still a long way from perfection. I struggle to think what awaits.
Don't give up but it would be a wise decision to do as you say and eliminate as much of the unknown as you can.
Good luck.

[Billy Hunt]

Where the grains crushed?

[ADDLED]

Where the grains crushed?

Bingo! My fivers on the man with the rude sounding name.

[Clibit]

Been away, thanks for the additional comments. Uncrushed grains is not out of the question, but I was led to believe that the grains I was given were those deemed unsuitable after crushing. I didn't ask enough questions, and I'm not convinced the guy I dealt with, who was really helpful and also gave me yeast and hop pellets, was totally au fait with everything. It was a big-ish brewery.

There was a grey-ness to the wort, an that strikes me as odd and suggests that it may have been swept up off the floor, to me! But the lack of sweetness is strange. I got an OG of about 1020, which is academic really as I was doing a partial mash and had not added the extract or adjusted the water volume.

Bizarre. Hopefully, it will never happen again. What suggestions would people make in terms of improving my mashing technique, which wouldn't require a big spend, or any messing about with DIY? I have no DIY skills whatsoever. I think I am likely to try a mashing and sparging bag in my boiling pan. And then using a jug to transfer it to the FV. That's how I'm thinking.