Got stimulated

[Leftofcentresalterego]

Woop! Woop! $900 smackeroonies just came in the mail! Thank you Kevvy and Swanny.

How to spend it? Am thinking of 50kg of base malt (pilsener) plus 6 or 7 kilos of dark grains, plenty of hops and yeast. Mebbe a grain mill.

A heap of new plants for the garden as well.

Home brew and Nursery industries are both heavily domestic, so spending on these things will maximise the effect of the stimulus. Of course, imported things still underpin many retail jobs so that's OK as well.

[Jovial Monk]

You won't have a better chance to get a grain mill! Do it now!

That or a keg system?

[Leftofcentresalterego]

The keg system is tempting but maybe I will go for the mill. My sole issue with my own full mash brews - which shit all over fourex and VB as far as drinking quality goes (if I do say so myself ) - is the haze in the lighter coloured brews. It can't be chill haze, the warm beer has the same haze. Starch haze? But I get fairly into the mash with an egg beater to ensure that there are no lumps. I can only think of the fact that I crack the grain in a blender which renders some of it into "malt barley flour". If you chuck a handfull of flour into a bottle of water, most of it will settle fairly quickly but there will be a hazy suspension of particles in the water for ages. Perhaps by using a blender I am grinding it too fine.

I do have a packet of beer finings ( I have never used the stuff). Is it OK to throw this in the next brew?

[Jovial Monk]

Very likely, and it wear out the blender very quickly wink wink nudge nudge

Ever done an iodine test?

When all mashed in, take out a drop and place on a white plastic or ceramic plate or saucer, run in a drop of iodine, it goes black! Repeat this with a drop of wort once the mash is finished, iodine should not change color.

It could be you are getting husk particles etc. You could try cold conditioning and adding your 'finings' (gelatine!) 3 days before bottling. Gelatine isn't much of a fining but it may help.

What sort of mash tun do you have? An esky with a manifold? Then can recirculate to clear the wort.

http://www.grainandgrape.com.au have the Phillmill 1 mill for under $200, somewhat slow but a good mill while for not much over $200 can get a BarleyCrusher or Crankenstein--solid mills that will last forever and save her blender blah blah blah.

[Leftofcentresalterego]

Yep, remember doing the iodine test with my first mash or part mash. Everything was hunky-dory so I haven't done it again but I might with the next brew to make sure it isn't full of starch. Have bought cracked grain before, it is just broken up grains, not finely ground like the suff from the blender. The heavily roasted grains like roast barley just seem to explode to powder as soon as you turn the blender on.

Crankenstein might be on the shopping list.

[Leftofcentresalterego]

Yeah, mash tun is an esky.

[Jovial Monk]

So when you run the wort out, close the tap and pour the wort back over the grain, repeat 2-3 times and the wort should be much clearer.