Stuck Mash -- New LHBS

Question

Stuck Mash -- New LHBS

jessecurry

2012年10月3日 19:21

I recently found that there was a home brew store much closer to my house than the one that I had been visiting. The new store has a larger selection of grains, yeast, and hops; but I've been having a lot of trouble with slow or stuck mashes since I started going to the new store.

I don't have my own mill, so I rely on the LHBS to mill my grains. I thought that the mill at the new store might be too tight, but they assured me that opening it up any more would cause a lot of the grain to fall through totally un-cracked.

My current setup is a 5 gallon round igloo cooler with a false bottom. I'm generally mashing at 154° F for about an hour. If I fill my mash tun with only water if flows freely.

I've now had two batches that we so stuck that I had to abandon them, even straining through a colander wouldn't work.

What would you recommend I do?
Is there some way I can verify that their mill is set properly?
Should I be using a bazooka tube instead of a false bottom? A grain bag?
More rice hulls?
My own mill?

Topic mash-tun crush mill sparge all-grain homebrew

Category Mac

Denny Conn · Accepted Answer · 2012年10月3日 19:21

It might be their mill, or it might be that your system isn't capable of dealing with properly milled grain. What kind of efficiency were you getting from the other shop that milled your grain? If it was good, then I'd say the mill at the new shop may be set too fine. If you were getting low efficiency before, you might want to consider changing your lautering system. I use a SS braid and I've found it to be much less prone to stuck runoffs than either a false bottom or manifold.

mdma · Accepted Answer · 2012年10月3日 19:12

1

mdma answered at 2012年10月3日 19:12

It sounds like it's the crush. Get some feeler gauges and measure the distance. Typical distance is 0.038 to 0.042 inches.

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TMN · Accepted Answer · 2012年10月3日 19:11

To really verify their crush, you'd need some kind of sizing screen. For a quick check, though, I'd just dump a cup of milled grain into a sandwich bag and shake it a bit. You should be able to see how much flour or really fine particles are in there. If you've got a lot of small stuff, then their mill is too tightly gapped. Doesn't sound like they're willing to adjust it, though, so you may have to resort to buying your own mill. Apparently there's a good one out for about $100, maybe it'd be worth looking into.

Stuck Mash -- New LHBS

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