A couple mashing questions/thoughts

[Dogwood]

I have been reading some brewing books and threads about the mash. The part I am wondering about is the grain and water. I had years past on high gravity beers 30 to 40 llb grain bills and had a bit of work getting all the dough balls stirred out, never knowing for sure if they all got broken apart. I started putting the water in the mash tun first and added grain, stir, more grain, stir until all the grain was in the mash. No chance of dough balls doing it this way. is there any reason for this not to work? For me its much easier!
Next, I am about to do a high gravity brew soon and am thinking of getting rice husks, hate those stuck mashes! Its quite a drive to get to a place to get them and shipping is very high for a bag. I was thinking of something easier/cheaper to use and while filling the bird feeders the other day, I thought why not use the sunflower shells. Any thoughts on this or something else that might work?
Thanks

 

[Hawkbox]

Water first is how I do it. That was how I learned to do it.

I don't see a reason not to use sunflower shells but there might be. Worst case you find out it was a bad idea.

 

[Craigerrr]

To improve mash flow you could wet condition your grains before milling. There are dozens of videos on YT on the subject. Approximately 2% of the weight of your grist in water. I split my 12ish pounds of grain into two buckets because it does get tough to stir as the grain absorbs the water. I use a spray bottle. Once your done wetting the grains leave them sit for 20 minutes before milling so you don't muck up your rollers. The result is that the husks get torn, instead of crushed.

 

[Nosybear]

I have been reading some brewing books and threads about the mash. The part I am wondering about is the grain and water. I had years past on high gravity beers 30 to 40 llb grain bills and had a bit of work getting all the dough balls stirred out, never knowing for sure if they all got broken apart. I started putting the water in the mash tun first and added grain, stir, more grain, stir until all the grain was in the mash. No chance of dough balls doing it this way. is there any reason for this not to work? For me its much easier!
Next, I am about to do a high gravity brew soon and am thinking of getting rice husks, hate those stuck mashes! Its quite a drive to get to a place to get them and shipping is very high for a bag. I was thinking of something easier/cheaper to use and while filling the bird feeders the other day, I thought why not use the sunflower shells. Any thoughts on this or something else that might work?
Thanks

If water-first is the way that works for you, it's the way to go! There's no right or wrong way.

Sunflower husks MIGHT work, as long as they are flavor neutral (or you want sunflower husk flavor in your beer). My only concern would be that they may be too big and not loosen the mash sufficiently. Basically, any inert organic matter would work, again the concern being that it's not too large or too fine and how much water the absorb.

 

[WesBrew]

If you have a pump, false bottom, and a valve at the bottom of your mash tun, the way to do it is underlet the strike water; mill and dump grains in. fill mashtun from the bottom, slowly. no conditioning needed, no dough balls. only light stirring needed and minimal at that. one of the best things I've picked up recently.

 

[HighVoltageMan!]

I recently started experimenting with enzyme additions to the mash. I have a RIMS and circulate for the entire mash. For a couple of years I would get an occasional stuck mash. Flow would come to a crawl and it would have to be stirred to get it going again. Rice hulls helped, but if I used too much adjuncts it would still get stuck.

So I tried adding extra amylase and it helped some, but it still wasn’t very good. So the last 2 batches I added glucanase enzyme. It made an incredible difference. Not only did it improve flow, but mash efficiency improved by 10% or more. The first beer was a 1.058 gravity beer I have brewed before and got @ 82% efficiency. With glucanase added to the mash the efficiency jumped to +95%. The second beer was a 1.080 beer that rarely exceeds 80%, with glucanase I got 95%.

What I didn’t know was that I had been fighting glucan in the mash. It causes the mash to get gummy and amylase enzyme can’t break it down. All I add is a 1/4 tsp of this $h1+ to mash and my life is sweet again. I highly recommend it, plus it’s cheap.

https://www.morebeer.com/products/cellarscience-glucabuster-placeholder.html

 

[BarbarianBrewer]

If you have a pump, false bottom, and a valve at the bottom of your mash tun, the way to do it is underlet the strike water; mill and dump grains in. fill mashtun from the bottom, slowly. no conditioning needed, no dough balls. only light stirring needed and minimal at that. one of the best things I've picked up recently.

I did this for the first time last brew and it worked perfectly. I preheated my mash tun with 123F (50C) tap water. Then heated my strike water to 4 F over target and mash temp came out right on target! Previously, when adding strike water first I would heat it 10-15 F above target and wait for it to cool to what the BF mash calculator indicated it should be. With underletting strike water, I don't have that option.

 

[Nosybear]

For my 3-gallon batches I've started heating the water with the RIMS. I have a 1,600 watt unit so it heats the water in a reasonable amount of time. For 5-gallon batches I underlet. As mentioned, works great!

 

[Craigerrr]

I had a 3 vessel keggle system, I always underletted, worked great! I have a Brewzilla now, so I add and stir, add and stir...

 

[J A]

I bring my water up to temp in the mash tun and circulate as I mill directly into the tun. I find that around .8 qts/lb is minimum liquor volume for dough-in. Once it's milled and stirred in, I usually let it sit at 120 degrees for 15 minutes at that thickness and then start circulating and heating for the next rest (usually 1.5 qts/lb at 148 degrees).

 

[HighVoltageMan!]

I usually let it sit at 120 degrees for 15 minutes

That's actually a really good idea. That targets the beta glucanase enzymes in the mash reducing the "gum" (actual term for it) in the mash. The beta glucanase I add is fungi derived and will survive to over 155F as opposed to beta glucanase derived from barley that denatures above 122F. Either way it allows for better flow, lautering and sparging; increasing extract efficiency of the mash.

 

[56 Firedome]

I use the empty Mash Tun to mix my water additions & then drain into Kettle. I heat to 7 deg over Strike temp & preheat the Tun for 20 min. Drain back to the Kettle & pour in the Grain. I underlet the Strike water & stir with a Paint Mixer. I switch the hoses to the Sparge Ring at the top of the Tun & hold at 132 deg for 20 min. I circulate in using the ring & out the drain valve back to the Kettle to raise temp to 156 deg & hold for 60 min. Raise temp to 168 deg hold for 15 min before Sparging with 170 deg & holding for 15 min before draining back to Kettle before the boil.
I Always use 1/2 lb Rice Hulls in every Mash & haven't had a stuck Mash since I started doing that. I typically use 1.25 to 1.5 qts per lb of grain. The Paint Mixer prevents gum ups & doughballs The circulation does a good job of filtering the Wort leaving a 1/2" thick layer of super fine grain dust on top of the Mash.
The glutamate enzyme sounds interesting.

 

[Minbari]

That's actually a really good idea. That targets the beta glucanase enzymes in the mash reducing the "gum" (actual term for it) in the mash. The beta glucanase I add is fungi derived and will survive to over 155F as opposed to beta glucanase derived from barley that denatures above 122F. Either way it allows for better flow, lautering and sparging; increasing extract efficiency of the mash.

Might explain why i get nice easy recirc. Been doing a protein test for about a year now. Does help