Brewzilla

[OldPeculiar]

I'm going to do that with my BZ, I had a relatively normal grain bill for my Amarillo pale Ale and found the level rising far too quickly even on a dribble of a recirc. Maybe the grain crush ? As there did seem more flour than before. Must get a grain mill of my own!.

 

[Griff097]

I'm going to do that with my BZ, I had a relatively normal grain bill for my Amarillo pale Ale and found the level rising far too quickly even on a dribble of a recirc. Maybe the grain crush ? As there did seem more flour than before. Must get a grain mill of my own!.

Do you use oat husks or similar in the mash?
I found that made a huge difference to flow through the grain bed.

 

[OldPeculiar]

Hi Griffin, I bought some thinking ill use them when I do a NEIPA recipe, but hindsight is wonderful, I should've thrown some in! How much do you use when doughing in? Is it a handful per approx kg of malt??

 

[OldPeculiar]

Griff079!!! Apologies!

 

[Griff097]

Hi Griffin, I bought some thinking ill use them when I do a NEIPA recipe, but hindsight is wonderful, I should've thrown some in! How much do you use when doughing in? Is it a handful per approx kg of malt??

That's about what I use, I probably stir in about a kilo at a time and put a good handful in before the next batch of malt.

I don't know if you can have too much, I was wondering if it would lower efficiency if you had too much by providing too easy a path through the bed, but I have preferred to be on the side of avoiding stuck mash/spare as that's a faff to sort.

 

[OldPeculiar]

That's about what I use, I probably stir in about a kilo at a time and put a good handful in before the next batch of malt.

I don't know if you can have too much, I was wondering if it would lower efficiency if you had too much by providing too easy a path through the bed, but I have preferred to be on the side of avoiding stuck mash/spare as that's a faff to sort.

All I know is it doesn't convert, just used as I filter aid. I'd rather be on the side of flow than thick porridge any day! Thanks for the replies, I'll keep.you posted as to progress when I next brew.
OP.

 

[London]

2 or 3 good handful of rice hulls is what I use and don’t have any problems with sparging.

 

[Manxnorton]

I have never used the overflow pipe, kept the black bung on it.Also only the single bottom screen, and no top screen.
I should really get a 1/4 bsp and remove the overflow pipe tbh.

hmmmmmmm! the penny has dropped...not using the overflow pipe, bung it, or get the new bottom screen
Heard that a lot dont use the second fine screen.
All these things i will eventually try,
Like any system getting used of the in n outs, like the GF i found easy (even for my tiny brain)
Looking fwd. to getting the 35L one.
Bri

 

[2Beers]

Unless they've changed the design you can also use 1/4 bsp blanking plug to save the expense of a new screen. I use a 1/4 blanking plug and both bottom screens.

 

[Manxnorton]

Unless they've changed the design you can also use 1/4 bsp blanking plug to save the expense of a new screen. I use a 1/4 blanking plug and both bottom screens.

thanks so much m8
have you got a visual link pic to help me pal...i struggle
Lets face it, it's great that we can learn from these systems...hint, tricks etc.
Mind i still miss my 3 tier system all proper manual labour
ths pal,
Bri

 

[Sym]

Just got mine today, from brewkegtap. will be doing my first AG at the weekend :)

 

[Florin]

after my experience with the first try with brewzilla, I wish I had a bag malt extract to fix the very low OG I got

 

[Matt_W]

after my experience with the first try with brewzilla, I wish I had a bag malt extract to fix the very low OG I got

Sounds like you had a brew day from hell. We’ve all been there.

I’m usually within a couple of points +/-

I think the only time I was way out was when i forgot to leave the 500w element on during the mash and came back an hour later to a water temp of 50C. It was in the middle of winter.

 

[Florin]

Well, just did my second try on Brewzilla. I've managed to get a good OG, but sadly when i started cleaning, I've found a lot of burned wort on the bottom.
I must be honest, i'm not that impressed on brewzilla, and here is why:
I have the new 65L version and even the first time (when i didn't burn anything), i had a lot of problems keeping it to a boil. With all 3 elements (3500W) on, it was boiling on the surface, but not that powerful. If I power off the 500W ... almost no boil. ( i leave at aprox. 150m altitude and it's very hot here, 30C+)
Let's say I would keep all the elements on, but then .. all the time the pump get clogged and I managed to fix it by blowing air in it. And the issue was that the water level was increasing 5L, then when i blow air to clear the pump, level drops to the real one and the temperature drops immediately by couple of degrees C.
I cannot imagine this is really boiling all the time.
This is why my 75minutes boil was never loosing enough water through evaporation and last time i had to "boil" for 1h:50min instead of 1h:15 min .
And because the damn water level was increasing (maybe trapped gas bellow the false bottom ???) I tried to press on a side of the false bottom to allow the gas forming there and mess up the boiling temperature. Probably because of that more malt got on the bottom and got burned.
I had to fiddle almost two hours during the boil with Brewzilla and still got **** results. Worse results than boiling in a pot on the stove. Not even taking into account that on the stove I didn't had to fiddle at all. .. just leave it boil, as it should be.
Maybe I'm doing something wrong, but i cannot see what, but for the moment I'm very disappointed.
For the moment I have two batches done on this, and two failures (one very "low density" beer and one burned beer)
All 3 beers done without Brewzilla, were perfect.

 

[Brew_DD2]

Sounds like a bit of a nightmare. Am I right in understanding that you kept the pump on during the boil?

What are your electrical outlets rated at?

Did you stir at all when you were ramping up to boil?

How fine was your grain crush?

 

[Florin]

I didn’t kept on the pump all the time, because it got clogged all the time. Probably one of the reasons of burnt wort.
the outlets have no limit, the wires would melt before or fuses would blow, not limit the current.
I did stir sometimes, but it has the false bottom anyway.
The wheat i grinded at 0.89 mm and vienna at 1.4 mm. I suppose i did the wheat too fine. I used gorilla grinder and i think those measurements are not very precise. I mean 0.89 was not allowing a gap of only 0.89 between rollers, but more.
My main problem is the boiling which is not consistent at all and i have to fiddle with it all the time. The first batch, i had the grains grinned at the shop. I didn’t had burnt wort indeed, but still a pain to hold the boil.

 

[chillipickle]

Does the 65ltr version come with 2 mesh bottom plates? (not false bottom).
If your grain crush is to fine it could be clogging up the bottom?

There are only 2 elements in the 35ltr 1900w + 500w, once it reaches a good rolling boil just the 1900w keeps it boiling.

 

[Florin]

I have the false bottom plate and the bottom plate on the mash pipe. At boil after i take out the mash pipe, i only have the false bottom plate.
it has 3 heat elements: 500, 1000 and 2000. I couldn’t find a combination to have a good rolling boil.
I had to boil it for almost 2 hours to make it loose enough liquid.

 

[Griff097]

Made a modification to the malt pipe on mine, I have removed the center pipe and blanked the hole in the bottom plate with a stainless nut and washer.
It's way easier to dough in, also using less oat husks to see if it improves sparge efficiency as I have a feeling the grain bed was flowing too quickly.
We will see got a couple of brews on to test

 

[Theoriginalrich]

Can anyone tell me how high the unit is when you’re not using it. I can’t find any dimension specs anywhere.