Lauter tun

[Aleman]

'bout time someone posted a topic in this department.
I used to use my false bottom boiler and a large grain bag to boil and lauter
my wort. God I used to get some crap coming through!
Then I discovered the lauter tun.
A 20L bucket with mega holes drilled in the bottom sits inside another 20L bucket with a spigot(tap). After mashing, all the grain and liquid is dumped in. Now with a jug you pore off about 500ml a time and return it to the top. Repeat until it starts to pore clear. The grain will settle and create a natural filter bed. Then you can proceed with the usual sparge.
Don't over sparge as you will start to flush out too many tannins.
How do the rest of you grain brewers lauter/sparge?


Aleman

[bhami]

Hi Aleman.

I used to use the bucket with the holes drilled into it and it works very well. Now I have a RIMS system that has a mash/lauter tun with a stainless steel false bottom. As the mash circulates the grain bed gets pulled down and by the time I start to sparge it has formed a very good filter with the hot wort running perfectly clear.

You are right about not sparging too much. You should not use runnings that have a gravity below 1.010 or you get those tannins you were talking about. You should also not use water above about 78 degrees C or you get the same problem.

Here is a picture of my mash/lauter tun



Cheers

Ben H

[Aleman]

Wow, a bit more sophisticated than my set up!
Still, the results from the lauter tun are far superior than my original method.
We live and learn. My methods tend to evolve each year in one way or another.

Aleman

(Grant)

[bhami]

I think all our methods evolve every year, that is part of home brewing. My system does a darn good job with lautering but the old double bucket trick works pretty well too.

Cheers

Ben

[buster3931]

Ben can I just clarify your lauter tun in my mind . sparge water is fed into the manifold that sits ontop of your grain bed and sweet wort is drawn from the plug hole ?

[bhami]

That's exactly how it works.

Cheers

Ben

[buster3931]

Ta mate, I was stuffed until I thought of it full of grain .