mesed up sparge...will it matter?

[Rowang]

Hi guys,

Nightmare brewday, went to sparge only to find my mash tuns false bottom had liberated itself from the tap, and everything had become clogged up... so... i tipped everthing into a bucket, sorted it out, and started again. Problem was, by the time it was fixed, the mash was decidedly cooler that when i started... to compensate i sparged at the hotter end of the scale... but will this affect the brew? Is it going to be cack?

Cheers

[boingy]

Nope, it will not be cack, it will be fine but you might want to fix the false bottom for next time to save you a bit of faffing.

[Fallen]

Rowang, almost exactly the same happened to me last night (stuck run-off caused by a blocked tap)!!

I had to pour the mash into a separate bucket, fix the tap then pour the mash back into the mash tun and continue sparging. It all worked fine after that. The only thing I noticed was my efficiency was lower (68% versus my normal 75%+). Could this be due to the need to disturb the grain bed? I didn't give it any time before starting the fly sparge after pouring the mash back into the mash tun (although I did recirculate >5L of the run-off for a 19L batch).

I'm not going to worry about it (I'm sure the final beer will be fine - albeit lower strength) but I'd like to know if this is the probable cause of my reduced efficiency?

[Rowang]

I got a fairly good sparge off of mine in the end, I was more worried about off tastes in the beer from agitating the mash, but i suppose its not different to batch sparging really..

Im not sure I can tolerate a weaker brew... i might chuck in a few bags of sugar for good measure

[boingy]

Did you hit your target OG?

[lancsSteve]

Me and a mate went halvies on a ritchies 'mash and sparge bag' as a fail safe in this situation. Thankfully i've never had to use but he's had exactly this happen a couple of times - now sorted. They're a good thing to have on standby so if the false bottom comes away then just ip the goods in the sparge bag and sparge in that....

He's now ditched the false bottom which had these problems repeatedly and gone for a flexible tap connector with the rubber tube cut away and a cap over the end - works very well and I now use one on my boiler as well.

[trucker5774]

Been there, done it, had the same issue................tipped into a bucket and then carried on.........no problem with the beer.

[Rowang]

Cracking - Il keep on with it then!

Boingy - not sure about OG, I havnt invested in a chiller so its not cool enough to gauge yet. Since its a bit of an experimental hybrid brew I might just top it to 25L anyway - aiming for a summer lighteningy bitter and twistedy premium lagery ale type thing...

[Billy Hunt]

The same thing has happened to me and the brew ended up being okay.

[Spud395]

summer lighteningy bitter and twistedy premium lagery ale type thing...

Sounds nice, might try one

[floydmeddler]

Happened to me a few times too. No probs.