10 replies to this topic

[CoastieSteve]

I have been dialing in my new brewing system volumes now that I have a true blue HLT and have fitted a valve to my keggle. To ensure I maximized the extraction from the wort, I stirred like crazy during the batch sparge rest and noticed some of the wort made it out of the tun and onto my stand. I was wearing my ipod so I assumed I just didn't hear it splashing over the top when stirring like crazy. Then I saw it- I had knocked the bung out of the hole in the bottom of the cooler! (You can see the tip of it on the bottom sloped portion of the cooler between the wheels of the above pic). The mash dutifully plugged the hole in short order (think stuck sparge). I then tried to use my stir rod to find the bung and push it back into the hole. This was futile and only resulted in losing even more of the mash until the hole was replugged.Needless to say, once the liquid level dropped sufficiently during the run off, the hydrostatic pressure around the hole decreased to the point that the balance was lost and hot wort poured out of the hole almost as fast as I collected into the keggle. Fortunately, this happened during the sparge process so I had already collected most of the fermentables. I ended up losing 6 points in gravity with the half gallon or so of lost wort.

[MtnBrewer]

I'm not sure why you were stirring so hard. All you need to do is re-suspend the grain bed back into the mash liquor so that the sugars can dissolve into the sparge water. Who told you that you need to stir that vigorously?

[djinkc]

I'm not sure why you were stirring so hard. All you need to do is re-suspend the grain bed back into the mash liquor so that the sugars can dissolve into the sparge water. Who told you that you need to stir that vigorously?

Betcha we both have done it. I would suggest that you rig up or buy a bulkhead fitting. It'll save a lot of headaches.

[MtnBrewer]

Betcha we both have done it.

Call.

[JReigle]

I would suggest that you rig up or buy a bulkhead fitting. It'll save a lot of headaches.

+1I like the bung for it's simplicity, but prefer the bulkhead since you don't face these sorts of problems.

[MX1]

I like the bung for it's simplicity,

TWSS......Tim

[BrewerGeorge]

Yep. The bung works, but I had it knock loose too many times and got disgusted with it. The Kewlers bulkhead fits the IceCube perfectly.

[denny]

+1I like the bung for it's simplicity, but prefer the bulkhead since you don't face these sorts of problems.

Or you could simply try being reasonable when you stir. I've used the tun with a bung for over 350 batches and never knocked it loose.

[CoastieSteve]

Or you could simply try being reasonable when you stir. I've used the tun with a bung for over 350 batches and never knocked it loose.

Denny, I'm with you and those that go for the simple bung. I don't know what got into me to knock the darn thing off this time since I've brewed about 50 batches previously without knocking it out. This was the first time that I've seen grain clump together for so long into the stirring process so I think I was concentrated on ensuring I broke other clumps apart... even those submerged (dumb looking back on it). This was a little reminder that complicating a fairly simple process means you simply have even more details to monitor & track.

[denny]

Try using a bit of silicone sealer on the bung.

[JReigle]

Or you could simply try being reasonable when you stir. I've used the tun with a bung for over 350 batches and never knocked it loose.

Well, I never knocked it loose either. I considered that it would be pretty simple to knock it loose if I made a mistake, which I'll admit I do tend to do from time to time. I've seen enough liquid burns to know it's not worth it for me, and I sleep better at night now too.