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Stuck bazooka
A brewing buddy of mine has a 5 gallon beverage cooler mashtun outfited with a straight bazooka screen for his mash setup. He batch sparges.
He has done only three all grain brews and each time he gets a stuck sparge or a nearly stuck one.
I haven't spent a lot of time looking at his setup. But I was with him on his first run and I suspected it was the crush. He is crushing his grain at the LHBS (beer-wine hobby in woburn).
I suspect the crush was too fine and that their mill was out of wack. But I haven't really taken a good look at his crush since then. The last session he made a pale ale and used a full pound of rice hulls and still had a stuck sparge. A FULL POUND!!! So I wonder if its actually the bazooka screen.
Does anyone here have any experience mashing with a bazooka? He has gotten the green light to brew this sunday and I want to help rid him of this issue. When I look at the bazooka it just looks like the holes are too big to be effective at setting up the grain bed without clogging. I thought the bazooka was supposed to be more of a kettle screen for whole hops.
Any ideas....
I thought about having him mill his grain on my mill but he alreayd bought the grain and milled it at the shop.
brewchez wrote:
When I look at the bazooka it just looks like the holes are too big to be effective at setting up the grain bed without clogging. I thought the bazooka was supposed to be more of a kettle screen for whole hops.
That's what I thought too.
What if you created a sleeve made out of some wire mesh with smaller holes that can slip over the Bazooka screen?
I think a bazooka is only suited for a BK, he would be better off with a different makeshift manifold like a SS braided water hose from home cheapo.
If he still wants to use the bazooka though, maybe wrapping it with a course weave grain bag or paint strainer bag, or cheese cloth may help, but I agree the holes in the screen for a bazooka are way to course.
Tell him to switch to a stainless steel mesh, like one from a sink. Hacksaw the ends off, and pull the plastic tubing out. This is what I have, and you should be able to crimp the open end over the bazooka tube itself, and crimp the other end over a brass plug. If it doesnt fit over the bazooka tube, take off the tube, and crimp the mesh to the bazooka fitting using ear clamps.
Beer and wine has a fine crush, but I can make it flow with the mesh.
BW's grinder sucks...it's not even made for grains, but coffe beans. If they're not looking, you can adjust it a bit.. Biggest reason I bought a Barley Crusher and do it myself. I don't have a brand name bazooka screen, but a homemade one. It's actually two layer. The outside layer is standard 18 SS mesh, and the inside is a much finer mesh to catch anything that does get through. The only time I get a stuck sparge is if I let it drain to much and the grains compact around it.. I just leave a 1/2 gallon or so before refilling for batch sparge. It took a couple of batches ot get dialed in, but now it's great.
Of course, it's a balmy 4 F'ing degrees outside, so I can't brew again for a while...
ricka182 wrote:
Of course, it's a balmy 4 F'ing degrees outside, so I can't brew again for a while...
I hear ya. This cold MA winter is f'ing with my brewing schedule. I picked up a 3 gallon carboy for 8 bucks and I'm thinking about turning my 6 gallon batches into 3 gallon batches and doing an AG batch on the stove top.
Sorry, I didn't see Thirsty's reply, I was using an I touch to answer, so I couldn't scan up the whole page. Beer and Wine, is a great place, it's kinda pricy compared to the internet, but still great for picking up everything you need. That being said their crusher sucks, but I didn't realize this until i started ordering grain from the internet, and I thought that it was to corse. Of course the internet grain turned out to be the way grain is supposed to be milled, or cracked, not ground into an almost fine powder like beer and wine.
brewchez, if you can have him buy the grain from your LHBS, and I bet he won't have a problem, the Bazooka screen is promoted for use in a mash tun, so i'm sure it would work fine.
bruguru wrote:
Beer and wine has a fine crush, but I can make it flow with the mesh.
This is good to know. Today is his birthday, so I offered to build him a SS braid piece to couple up to his bulkhead in the cooler he has. He is brewing Sunday so I am going to pick up the thing tonight do the retro fit and return it to him Saturday.
He already crushed his malt at beer and wine, which is fine. I recommened adding in rice hulls again just for insurance, but I am hopeful a switch to the SS brain will remedy his problem.
Thanks for the feedback everyone.
how did this work out brewchez?
bruguru wrote:
how did this work out brewchez?
Thanks for bumping this up and reminding me Bruguru, its been busy in the brewchez house getting ready for baby2 and wondering when I am going to brew any stinking beer.
It sucked. I replaced the bazooka with a SS braid like I said. But My buddy still got a stuck sparge with a half pound of hulls too. He thinks the problem is that was making a fairly large beer for a 5 gallon cooler and his water to grist ratio was like 1.1qt/lb. He thinks that if he maybe mashed in two cycles where he could get to 1.25 or better if would flow.
I have to agree, but he also didn't have much headspace in the 5 gallon cooler with the entire grist to add some hot water to try and mash out. I don't really think mash out is all that important, but when you are having troubles getting to mash out temps helps lower the viscosity a bit.
I contend that his realy problem is the fine crush. His next batch he should just mill at my house using my mill. I don't think he is going back to Beer and Wine again, mainly for those reasons we discussed above.
The problem is that he doesn't brew enough to be able to effectively track the changes. He maybe brews 3-4 times a year. He is a really careful and well planned brewer because of it though.
Oh well. So kids following along at home Uncle Brewchez says the take home message is:
1. Always opt for slightly bigger equipment than you need, because you don't know how the process really goes until you try it.
2. Mash out temps are useful for decreasing wort viscosity and improving flow.
3. You can have too fine a crush, so be warned.
I''ve had multiple stuck sparges using beer and wine grain, but I thought this was just par for the course. I was able to make it flow bumping up the sparge water making a fairly thin mash. Since i've been buying from the internet, what do you know, no stuck sparges.
It never really got me down, and like I said I could always make it work even with a really thick mash. Your ESB brewchez was about 34lbs of grain stuffed in my 10 gallon rubbermaid cooler, but it worked. I buy on the internet mostly now, but when I need a batch in a hurry I go to beer and wine.
P.S. brewchez, if your have # 2 on the way start mashing in overnight, it saves like 2 hours the next day. And get those starters made.
brewchez wrote:
bruguru wrote:
how did this work out brewchez?
Oh well. So kids following along at home Uncle Brewchez says the take home message is:
1. Always opt for slightly bigger equipment than you need, because you don't know how the process really goes until you try it.
2. Mash out temps are useful for decreasing wort viscosity and improving flow.
3. You can have too fine a crush, so be warned.
Too fine of a crush can lead to astringency issues as well.
Never had astringency issues with it, actually my first all grain was a Grand Cru that took 2nd in Catagory at the sam adams long shot. I must have had 4 stuck mashes in that one, I think it was a total of 18lbs of grain.
I know what your saying though to fine, is to fine. I think they are right on the edge between acceptable, and problematic. You can't run their grain with a false bottom, i'm pretty sure of that
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