Stuck mash

[Chrissyr63]

Hi,

my last two brews have both had a stuck mash (the last one on Saturday I resorted to almost emptying and filtering through some net curtain (almost back to BIAB!)).
I use a length of the steel braid as my filter and this seems to have worked on all my other brews. I replaced this with a new piece for the last brew but that seems to have made it worse.
I have just started to use a bag of Crisp pale malt from The Malt Miller for the first time - does this have a different grind and so not suitable for the braid? Am I best switching to a copper pipe with drilled holes? or something else?

For info recipe was just pm, brown, crystal and chocolate so no obvious culprits.

C

[NobbyIPA]

copper pipe 22mm 4 me


done over 20 brews with this one 5kg + wheat's too

in reality should be drilled but dremmel worked for me
i had trouble with those braid thingy's

[MTW]

I think copper is the way to go for the mashed grains. The braid in my kettle hop filter had become constricted over time two brews back, ie it had been pulled longer, unknown to me, which had constricted all the little gaps and it blocked up when draining to the FV. If you are using braid, at least make sure it's squashed short enough to open the gaps up a bit.

[Chrissyr63]

thanks for replies

the original braid had been used for about 20 brews and was fine until last but one brew - it had got a bit longer but this seemed to open the holes more. I thought changing for a new piece of braid might improve the flow but seems to have got worse.
Might have another go and then look at building a copper one.

C

[Rick_UK]

By coincidence I had the same problem this weekend also with Crisp malt - but it's the 5th brew I've made with it and its not blocked before so it may have been the 500g of rye malt?

I'm thinking of just using a grain bag in future as nothing can go wrong and it works as well as anything. I think the end rather than the means is the priority

Rick

[Fuggled Mind]

Rye does have quite a reputation for becoming gummy and causing stuck mashes as it is a huskless grain. I've used rye several times but never in great enough quantities to experience this (fingers crossed).

Cheers

Jason

[Chrissyr63]

just as an update - I did a brew Saturday with Vienna malt (plus some wheat malt and carapils) and this was fine in the mash tun. Will see if the crisp malt sticks next brew.

[Fil]

do you clean and de-flour your braid? soaking in warm water and squeeze/stretching the braid to move the wires over each other then hang to dry and when bone dry repeat the manipulation.

Also chopping up short lengths of copper tube drilling the odd hole in the short lengths and slotting them inside the braid will guard against the braid getting crushed

[Chrissyr63]

well I must admit I do not break it down and clean every mash.
After each brew I clean out cooler box and run some hot water through the tap (and so the braid). Also before each mash I add boiling water to heat the mash tun up and then that gets emptied through the tap. This was a brand new braid on the last but one - and was ok on this one - hence I suspect the grain might be crushed differently from what I previously used. Like the idea of a copper insert with holes might try that.

C

[guypettigrew]

Odd stuff, Crisp malt.

The Malt Miller sells both Crisp and Fawcett's malt. He crushes both himself to the same crush.

When I tried Crisp malt the efficiency was lower than the Fawcett's. No stuck mash, but the beer at the end wasn't so good.

Ho hum. Only Fawcett's for me from now on.

Guy