Glossary
Stuck sparge
A grain bed that has compacted so tightly that wort stops flowing through it.
Also called stuck mash, set mash.
Usually caused by milling too finely, by a high proportion of huskless grain such as wheat, rye or oats, or by drawing off too fast and pulling the bed down onto the false bottom. Rice hulls are the standard remedy: they contribute nothing to flavour and restore the bed’s permeability.
Related
More vocabulary
Arrested fermentation · Barrel ageing · Batch sparging · Biotransformation · Blending · Bottle conditioning · Bottom fermentation · Burtonisation · Cask conditioning · Centrifugation
See every term on the glossary index.
Last reviewed 2026-08-16.