Sparge from Hell...Lessons learned

I brewed with a lot of rye the past few months... I don't think I'll be doing that so often again. It essentially doubled the time to collect runnings, even with lots of rice hulls and mashing out. Maybe one of these days I'll actually try a beta-glucan rest.

 

Yes, rye is the worst, much stickier than wheat. I've only made one rye beer -- and the mash did't stick -- but it was a bit scary.

 

Haha stuck sparges suck. What's your mash run setup?

 

It sucks, I brewed a Roggenbier last month at 50% rye and luckily didnt have any issues. I did use a lot of rice hulls. Usually my sparge from hell stories involve me accidentally knocking the copper manifold connections (they are slip on) while stirring the mash. Nothing will fix that.

 

Never had a problem with rye, but also never used more than ~20%. Note to self, buy more rice hulls just in case.

 

I usually split my Rye between malt and flaked. The most I've used in a recipe is 20% Rye total...and split between the two variations I've never had an issue. I usually throw in a handful of hulls...but could have easily sparged without them.

 

6. When doing a glucanase rest with a rye beer always be ready to do a decoction to get to saccharification and/or mash out if all else fails.

I've done four rye beers (1 BIAB), two of the four required decoctions to unstick the mash and get up to sacch and/or mash out. Not for the faint of heart.

 

find oats to be almost as bad as rye...but had 10lbs of rye malt and 5 lbs of flaked rye I received last year so brewed a lot of rye beers in 2014. Luckily only had one slow sparge on a rye IPL (just like you, it was something like 30% of the grain bill), but besides that came through okay. Malt conditioning, mashing out and starting my fly sparge slowly seemed to do the trick for the most part with some rice hulls in the mix when I had them for the first batch.

 

An oversize mash tun that permits a shallow grain bed makes things much easier. I've done hefes with 60% wheat with no rice hulls. Yes, the efficiency is not always great, and a longer vorlauf is often needed but it's a small price to pay to avoid a 3 hour runoff.

And you're all set for that monster barleywine!

 

My worst stuck sparge was using rye. I feel for you . . .

 

Good thing I don't care for much rye. Used it a couples time, but no more than 5-8% in the grist.

I however, don't have much issue using a ton of oats or wheat myself...

I have had to do the blow into the ball valve with some tubing trick and re-stir the mash.

 

With high percentages of rye malt the game is lots of rice hulls, beta glucan rest, mash out hot, and hope for the best.

 

Are you guys using more than a pound of rife hulls on a 5 gal batch? I've only brewed with rye once or twice at about 8%.

 

I've only made cement beer once, and I recall it had quite a bit of rye in it.

 

You are forgiven, my son. Us BIAB-ers are a durable lot who make very good beer.....

 

Fixed your line breaks, you crazy poet.