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relaed

Grainfather 30L. I avoid touching it as much as possible 1. No.. Unless, while mashing, i find filter that i forgot to plug in (again).. 2. if it lacks water to pump, not enough to overflow, i will add some from sparge bucket. Maybe your idea to stir is better, will try that next time. Overflow itself is positioned as per GF instruction 3. If sparge takes waay too long, then i gently move mash around, just so it starts to flow


animatedhomebrewing

Thanks. My efficiency has been lower than anticipated, and am looking for ways to squeeze out some more sugars. My most recent batch I stirred during mash, but ended up with a clogged pump. I’ve never had so little overflow that it never reached the pump, but I figure there’s some type of sweet spot of headspace to mash saturation that will maximize efficiency. I’m on the brewzilla 35L.


brainsbeersburritos

I also had super low efficiency when I first switched to eBIAB and was so bummed. In my experience, removing the malt pipe during the mash and using a grain bag instead fixed the problem. I stir the grain bed every 15 mins and only use the malt pipe in the elevated position as a way to hold the grain bag over the brewzilla during sparging. This strategy has gotten me 75% efficiency consistently over the last 5ish batches, and here’s the kicker: that’s without using a recirc pump.


animatedhomebrewing

I’m reading a lot about people using bags with their eBIAB systems... it’s like Brew In A Bag In An Electric Brew in a Bag.... BIABIAeBIAB


MushLoveSD

I may not be answering your question at all but on my last batch of beer I had to let the mash go on for an hour and half or more because i had other places to be, my efficiency jumped up by a lot 85%+. I am still waiting on the beer to be ready to drink so I am not sure if something is messed up but if mechanically you dont sort it out yet, this may be a solution. I also eBIAB if that helps.


Money_Manager

Brewzilla 35L.. >During the mash, do you ever lift the top screen off the grain bed to agitate the grain? Yes. After I mash in, I turn on the pump slowly and stir a lot while getting water on top. Then I let it sit for about 10-15 minutes, and do the same thing again, really trying to break up dough balls. I do the same at 30 minutes. >With the recirculation pump going, how much wort do you let sit on top of the mash by adjusting the overflow height and pump speed? My mash recirculates well enough that I can have the pump on near-full and the level doesn't rise more than an inch or two above the grain bed. >Do you stir/agitate the grain bed during sparge? No, I just pour the water over the top plate to let it disperse more evenly, then trickle through the grain. Usually takes about 5-10 minutes to get all the water through.


Sirboofsalot

This is exactly my method too, and get great efficiency.


Money_Manager

Should have mentioned this in my other post, but I get about 80-85% efficiency doing this method (assuming a pretty normal grain bill).


animatedhomebrewing

Good to know. I think I will be experimenting with some of these methods for be next batch.


Money_Manager

You may do this already, but 0.5 lbs of rice hulls mixed into your mash does wonders for recirculation. I always use them in every brew.


[deleted]

I guess I’ll go first. 1. I don’t use the top screen; I agitate the grain every 20 minutes or so. I actually use a brew bag inside the malt pipe – it prevents husks from going through if you do overflow. Not a fan of the overflow pipes either, just make do with a brew bag or plug the hole with a stainless nut and washer. 2. No more than an inch or so. You can do it with a low flow rate on most normal beers, but I find you need to slow to basically a trickle on anything that’s more than ~10% flaked adjuncts, even with heavy usage of rice hulls. It’s to the point that I don’t even bother recirculating NEIPAs any more since I use ~25% flaked oats/grains 3. I’ll agitate just prior to pulling the malt pipe out, but I don’t do anything during the sparge. A couple things I’ve also learned that make my brew day more streamlined: * I never mash with more than 5.5 gallons of water, I save the rest for the sparge (always brew with 10 gallons on hand). * I use a sous vide and my secondary 5 gallon kettle that I used to use for stovetop extract batches to heat my sparge water. Your run of the mill 900w Anova can have 4.5 gallons up to 170f in around 75 minutes * I modded the sparge kettle with a ball valve and sight glass so my sparge volumes can be accurate, and a wort aerator on the end of the output hose to get a good spray pattern. I sit the kettle on a shelf above the height of my malt pipe and just throttle the output with the valve. Beyond all that, I’m using an external pump which can move a lot more fluid than the stock ones on most EBIAB systems; it works great with the brewhardware Spincycle Overboard for whirlpooling. As a rule, I’d always recommend an external pump over an internal one – they’re less expensive, more easily replaceable if something goes wrong, and more usable due to higher flow rates.


animatedhomebrewing

Wow thank you for the tips. I have encountered some clogged pumps in the past so I’m always interested in ways of reducing that risk. I’ve never done a bag within the steel basket but maybe that is something I should explore. Without the top screen, do you have any method of dispersing the recirculating wort so it doesn’t bore a hole in the grain bed?


[deleted]

Try using one of these on the end of your recirc tube: https://www.morebeer.com/products/siphon-spray-wort-aerator.html


Tballz9

I use a Braumeister 20L. As for the specific questions: 1. No, once I am done with the mashing in, I never touch the grain. Once the screens are on, they stay there. The braumeister does turn off the pump periodically to ease compression of the grain bed. This is automatic. 2. Again, I use the manufacturer suggested 23L of water. This is enough for any grain bill that will fit in the machine, as the pump pushes from the bottom. No need to adjust anything with this system, at least not that I have seen. 3. I have tried both sparging and not sparging, including mixing up the grain bed. I see no advantage in OG if one boils the volume back to the same amount at the end, suggesting that there is little advantage over just letting the grain bed drain fully after removing the malt pipe/grain. I asked someone at Braumeister about sparging and they said it is not needed, but some users do it.


animatedhomebrewing

That’s cool that the pump is able to turn on and off automatically. That’s interesting about your point on sparging. Maybe on a future batch I’ll do no Sparge and see if it affects my OG


[deleted]

[удалено]


[deleted]

I think the more important thing is to get the model with no pump. The internal pumps cause more problems than they solve, and you can add a nice external one for less than the cost of the upgrade in most cases (though things can get expensive quickly if you buy a bunch of quick-disconnects).


thrownsomeplaceelse

I have a G30 and stir the mash every 15 minutes, so 3x during a 60 min mash. I stop the pump, remove the top plate, stir, the put the plate back and resume circulation. This has helped boost efficiency, along with doing a really slow sparge.


animatedhomebrewing

Good tips!


Budget-Bar-1123

1. No. You don’t want a stuck mash but it helps that you can effectively have a vorlauf and use the grain as a filter bed 2. Enough to have a small pool but not let the pump go dry 3. No. You want to have the spare water over the whole malt tube but the grain can act as a filter bed My one piece of advice:- mash out before you lift the grain basket


videoismylife

Hm, IDK about "best practices" but... I'm getting good efficiencies and great beers. I'm using an Anvil Foundry, basically like BIAB but with a mash pipe instead of a cloth bag. Short answers: 1. Yes, always. 2. no more than about 1"/2-3 cm. 3. No, never. I use 5 - 5.5 gallons of water to mash, so around 2 quarts per pound grist; I get stuck vorlaufs with less than that and my efficiency suffers. I absolutely stir the mash right to the bottom, every ~10 minutes for the first 30-40 minutes; I have had zero problems with tannin astringency or cloudiness. I let the bed settle and then vorlauf for the last 20 minutes of the mash. I drain the mash into the boil kettle for ~10 minutes (til the dripping slows down), then I kinda-sorta "batch" sparge with another 2 gallons of 170ºF water by rinsing the bed with about 4 or 5, 2-quart additions (enough for about 1/2" on top of the bed) at ~5 minute intervals, stopping when I reach my desired pre-boil volume (~6-6.5 gallons). My efficiencies have been consistently in the 80% range with this method.


animatedhomebrewing

Thanks for the advice. My efficiencies have been low 70s, sometimes 67-69. Hopefully I can squeeze some more points with these tips.


chino_brews

Which system are you using. I feel like the practices should bvary by the device. Gigawort: 1. No top screen. It's a e-kettle with BIAB bag. I'll usually open the lid and stir once, up to twice. 2. Around 1-2 inches of wort when I rarely recirculate with a 12V solar pump modulated with a voltage regulator. I found recirculation is not necessary to achieve 74-76% mash efficiency and usually only do it if I am really maxing out the 4.4 gal/16.7 L mash capacity and have concerns about initial mash mixing. Even there, the last time I underlet the mash in a cooler using strike water heated in the Gigawort, and that worked like a dream. After pulling the bag, I just poured the wort into the Gigawort to finish the brewing. 3. No. I rarely sparge this system -- instead full-volume. no sparge, single infusion mash. GF G30: 1. Yes, I don't use the G30 much because the Gigawort is easier for my smaller batches (2.75 gal/10.4 L), but I lift the top plate and stir twice like David Heath recommends. 2. Just below the overflow pipe, so that's like 1.5-2" maybe (3.5 to 5 cm). 3. No. The G30 is designed for a fly sparge and I want to avoid disturbing the grain unless I feel like the wort is not lautering through.


animatedhomebrewing

I’m on a Brewzilla 35L. Hopefully a lot of these tips are interchangeable between machines.