I've been brewing on a 14-barrel JVNW system (built in 1993) for 10 months now, primarily making 7-barrel batches because that is the size of the serving tanks. I do brew a few beers (IPA, lager, wheat) in 14-barrel batches for efficiency. However, I dread making my IPA because the runoff invariably slows or gets stuck altogether, resulting in lower yields and long days. I don't have this problem with other 14-barrel batches.
I have around 1100 pounds of grain in the IPA and I think the additional weight makes the grain bed more susceptible to collapsing/compacting. I don't think it's the mill gap because other beers runoff just fine and the majority of the hulls are intact.
Does anyone have any suggestions for me regarding the runoff, i.e. how slow vorlauf should be, how slow should the runoff start and when do you speed it up, when do you start sparging, how much water should be on top of the grain bed during sparging...
Also, does anyone have a solution for a compacted grain bed? I can't underlet with anything more than a hot water hose, and that doesn't seem to help...
Here are some other details: the IPA mash is usually about 400 gallons at 152d, I vorlauf through a 11 gallon grant for 20-30 min (three or four grant cycles), runoff starts at 5 min grant cycles, I begin sparging when there is about 4" of water on top of the bed, sparge water is 165-170d. My 7-barrel batches take 80 min to runoff but I'm sure I could go faster. The other 14-barrel batches take around 2.5 hours.
Thanks for any suggestions!
I have around 1100 pounds of grain in the IPA and I think the additional weight makes the grain bed more susceptible to collapsing/compacting. I don't think it's the mill gap because other beers runoff just fine and the majority of the hulls are intact.
Does anyone have any suggestions for me regarding the runoff, i.e. how slow vorlauf should be, how slow should the runoff start and when do you speed it up, when do you start sparging, how much water should be on top of the grain bed during sparging...
Also, does anyone have a solution for a compacted grain bed? I can't underlet with anything more than a hot water hose, and that doesn't seem to help...
Here are some other details: the IPA mash is usually about 400 gallons at 152d, I vorlauf through a 11 gallon grant for 20-30 min (three or four grant cycles), runoff starts at 5 min grant cycles, I begin sparging when there is about 4" of water on top of the bed, sparge water is 165-170d. My 7-barrel batches take 80 min to runoff but I'm sure I could go faster. The other 14-barrel batches take around 2.5 hours.
Thanks for any suggestions!
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