Interesting question.  Not sure why anyone would keep stirring a mash during conversion and am concerned that significant temperature may be released causing mash temp to drop below target temperature. 

 

Do you know if there was a heater element or flame for temperature adjustment and do you know how long the temp was maintained? 

 

If the grain was converted but extract was low, it may be that the sparge flow through the grain bed didn't work well.  This could be caused by excess water flowing around the outside of the basket with minimal flow through the center of the bed. 

 

It may be helpful to taste the spent grain as it is removed from the tun or basket trying to find areas of excess sweetness.  If they exist, then some more engineering is needed. 

 

My original mash tun was a Zap Pap or something.  It worked but was real messy.    The second device was a small SS tube screen in a 15 gallon stock pot.  It worked ok for large batches but left way too much sugar in the far sides of the grain bed.  Extraction efficiency was between 20 and 25 gravity points per pound. 

 

My current system uses a 3/4 inch slotted copper manifold in the bottom of the same stockpot.  It works nicely, can be disassembled for cleaning and usually delivery 30 or more gravity points per pound of grain. 

 

Best suggestions for your friend would be to identify more specifics such as the recipe, batch size, starting gravity, and better identify what he felt was less than appropriate for his last batches. 

 

Hope this helps. 

 

Rick O
>>> Will Holway <brew987@yahoo.com> 01/21/02 09:49AM >>>
Hi,

I was at a birthday party on Saturday, and met a guy
who was having a lot of problems with an all grain
system he designed. He did have any specific gravity
to see if it was an extraction problem, but he claimed
the beer turned out much better with his old system
(mashing on the stove top and using Pihl's sparging
system).

His new system consists of a 1/2 barrel keg with a
stainless steel basket of some kind to hold the grain.
There is a welded stirring aparatus to constantly turn
the grain in the basket (during mashing). There is no
false bottom in the system, all of the grain is
contained within the basket. It is apparently a sealed
system so that the water is above the top of the
basket which holds the grain (or the basket is
submerged within the mash water).

He said that he is hitting his temps right on the mark
(122, 140, 150).

He is thinking that when he sparges, the water is not
coming into contact with the grain, thus resulting in
"thin" beer. He said that last time he transferred
grains from this system to his plastic bucket sparging
system and it works OK.

But I am not much of a beer equipment designer (I
generally stick with a more tried and true design
using a false bottom), so maybe one of the design
gurus has some thoughts ...

Cheers!
WH

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