Hey folks,
We’re a new brewery here in Charlotte, NC and have been open for about 2 months now. We’re brewing on a 10bbl two-vessel system from ABE and are happy with everything for the most part. However, we’ve been having some occasional issues with runoff and I was hoping to get some perspective/advice on what we may be doing wrong.
Basically, we conduct our mash as normal and then vorlauf through our wort grant before running into the kettle through the same grant. We always do our best to start the runoff for the vorlauf into the grant slowly so as to not pull on the bed too hard at first and will then speed it up a little once we have a good flow. Vorlauf normally goes perfectly fine with no real issues but has been taking approximately 25-35 minutes to achieve clear enough wort without grain pieces still in solution. This seems like it could be a possible cause…
Once runoff to the kettle starts is often where the issue begins. It’s interesting because we usually slow the wort pump down to a lower speed than what we’re using to vorlauf but the wort level in the grant will gradually drop to the point that we’re getting a trickle into the kettle because the wort feeding into the grant isn’t flowing as fast as the wort into the kettle. We haven’t fully stuck a mash yet (knock on wood) but we basically have to stop the pump, close the kettle-in valve and then let the grant slowly fill back up before starting the pump and opening the kettle-in valve again. The other day we literally had to do this for the entire amount of wort in the MT which, at roughly 15 gallons in the grant at a time, extended the brew day considerably.
We use rice hulls for brews with any significant portion of wheat, oats, spelt, rye, etc. but for all barley brews we normally don’t. We checked the crush out of the mill and auger with a rotap and we are on the course side, so logic tells us the grain crush shouldn’t be the issue either. We have used some rice hulls in all barley brews and haven’t had this issue, and we’re sort of okay with just adding rice hulls to every mash as they aren’t too expensive. However, we don’t feel like we shouldn’t have to do that.
We also don’t normally do a mashout rest in the MT as the steam jackets are hard to control, so we turn the jackets in the BK on once we reach a certain level and let that temp rise halt enzymatic activity. We know that heating the wort in the MT thins it out some but again, this just isn’t an easy thing to accomplish without potentially overheating the entire mash.
We’ve pulled the plates out in the MT to inspect the plumbing and underlet ring and have no clogs there. We’ve tried eliminating the potential causes but are not having much success.
Sorry for the lengthy post but I’m just looking for anything we might be missing or should be doing differently. The beers have been turning out well, which is the most important thing but we sure would like to avoid adding a couple hours to our brew days if we don’t have to…
Any help is welcome and appreciated! Cheers!
Ben Dolphens
Divine Barrel Brewing
ben@divinebarrel.com
We’re a new brewery here in Charlotte, NC and have been open for about 2 months now. We’re brewing on a 10bbl two-vessel system from ABE and are happy with everything for the most part. However, we’ve been having some occasional issues with runoff and I was hoping to get some perspective/advice on what we may be doing wrong.
Basically, we conduct our mash as normal and then vorlauf through our wort grant before running into the kettle through the same grant. We always do our best to start the runoff for the vorlauf into the grant slowly so as to not pull on the bed too hard at first and will then speed it up a little once we have a good flow. Vorlauf normally goes perfectly fine with no real issues but has been taking approximately 25-35 minutes to achieve clear enough wort without grain pieces still in solution. This seems like it could be a possible cause…
Once runoff to the kettle starts is often where the issue begins. It’s interesting because we usually slow the wort pump down to a lower speed than what we’re using to vorlauf but the wort level in the grant will gradually drop to the point that we’re getting a trickle into the kettle because the wort feeding into the grant isn’t flowing as fast as the wort into the kettle. We haven’t fully stuck a mash yet (knock on wood) but we basically have to stop the pump, close the kettle-in valve and then let the grant slowly fill back up before starting the pump and opening the kettle-in valve again. The other day we literally had to do this for the entire amount of wort in the MT which, at roughly 15 gallons in the grant at a time, extended the brew day considerably.
We use rice hulls for brews with any significant portion of wheat, oats, spelt, rye, etc. but for all barley brews we normally don’t. We checked the crush out of the mill and auger with a rotap and we are on the course side, so logic tells us the grain crush shouldn’t be the issue either. We have used some rice hulls in all barley brews and haven’t had this issue, and we’re sort of okay with just adding rice hulls to every mash as they aren’t too expensive. However, we don’t feel like we shouldn’t have to do that.
We also don’t normally do a mashout rest in the MT as the steam jackets are hard to control, so we turn the jackets in the BK on once we reach a certain level and let that temp rise halt enzymatic activity. We know that heating the wort in the MT thins it out some but again, this just isn’t an easy thing to accomplish without potentially overheating the entire mash.
We’ve pulled the plates out in the MT to inspect the plumbing and underlet ring and have no clogs there. We’ve tried eliminating the potential causes but are not having much success.
Sorry for the lengthy post but I’m just looking for anything we might be missing or should be doing differently. The beers have been turning out well, which is the most important thing but we sure would like to avoid adding a couple hours to our brew days if we don’t have to…
Any help is welcome and appreciated! Cheers!
Ben Dolphens
Divine Barrel Brewing
ben@divinebarrel.com
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