GGCD

Hey there, Second mash in 3000L mash tun. Attempted to let 100% wheat soak all night at a little over room temperature, being agitated the whole time. Mashed as normal the next morning bringing it up as high as 85C 185F and everything seemed fine until I went to vorlauf and the recirc pump couldn’t draw any wort. Opened the dump valve and it was packed with rock hard bright white substance (assuming it was starch). I was able to inject water back up the drain and able to break it up enough to vorlauf. I let it vorlauf for about 45 min and the OG came up a lot, presuming from the starch being converted. Transferred to the fermenter no problem. Cleaned out the grain from on to of the false bottom and when I pulled a plate up it was packed to the underside of what looked like ballistic gel. Has anyone experienced this and if so did you find something that will dissolve it? I’ve had 3 test containers with the gel in it. One with laminex, one with caustic soda and one with citric acid. They don’t seem to have any effect on it. Hoping someone knows of a way to dissolve it before I have to crawl in and pull each plate and scrape it off with a putty knife. Thanks in advance for any help. Chris.

Ya fair enough. I may end up doing it that way, I just hadn’t planned on fermenting on the grain. I thought maybe someone with this setup had found a clever way to lauter before it went to the fermenter? Thanks for the reply. Chris.

Hey There, ive been reading through this equipment page trying to find info on a mash separator of some sort. It sounds like people have tried a few different things but nothing really stood out as an option for us. We plan on mashing mostly wheat with some barely mostly in a 3000L mash tun/stripping still but it is incapable of lautering. Are there manufacturers that build a premade unit that could filter the wort and collect the grain from a 3000L batch? I have been looking at modifying a square stainless fermenter that has a removable lid and could be fitted with a screen and also has a flange at the bottom to hook a pump to, to pump the wort to the fermenter. From what I’m reading on here there is a good chance that the screen will plug up quite quickly and just overflow the wort. Any help or direction would be greatly appreciated Thanks, chris