First time using Brewzilla, a few problems

[Bogdweller]

Hi
Having brewed lBIAB for 40 plus years without issue I now find myself in pre school with thus kit.
I have read the instructions,and watched the videos but..
Problem 1.
I mashed in calculating 3 litres per kg of malt but added 7 litres to the liquor as that is what sits below the false bottom. Logic being the grain would sit in the right proportion of liquor.
Stirred well and placed the too seive over the grain and fitted the overflow pipe.
Set the circulation pump to low and checked the temperature.
Very soon after the liquor crept up to the overflow so I stopped the pump. The top seive slipped down several inches leaving a volume of water sat on top. I couldn't circulate it and the temp dropped.
Problem 2.
I lifted the malt pipe to drain off for the boil but it basically just trickled out in drips, only dropping a couple of inches in half an hour!
Any ideas??

 

[britton]

Sounds like the grain bed got compacted, was there a lot of powder in your crush? A lot of people (including myself) add rice hulls to the mash now as they aid flow through the grain bed.

 

[Bogdweller]

I did consider that. It was a fairly finely crushed pale malt. Thanks for the reply.

 

[Bogdweller]

Sounds like the grain bed got compacted, was there a lot of powder in your crush? A lot of people (including myself) add rice hulls to the mash now as they aid flow through the grain bed.

What quantity of rice hulls do you use? I've never had to use them with BIAB.

 

[britton]

What quantity of rice hulls do you use? I've never had to use them with BIAB.

Just a few hand fulls ae enough, never really weighed it out, they dont affect flavour

 

[Rwilts]

Did a brew yesterday with my brewzilla (added rice hulls as I always do) and the sparge was very slow to run through. BUT I did hit all my numbers , so whilst it took a while it clearly was beneficial instead of flowing straight through and out .

 

[Benfleet Brewery]

I’ve never used rice hulls and have made quite a few brews with a lot of oat and wheat without issues, though I did have similar issues to the OP the first couple of times. A couple of things I did that fixed this:
1. As mentioned previously, use a standard crush grain (I used fine crush when I did BIAB)
2. Screw the overflow tube to the large mesh disk upside down then put the fine mesh at the bottom of it so you have the fine mesh one below the large mesh one.

 

[Bogdweller]

Just a few hand fulls ae enough, never really weighed it out, they dont affect flavour

Cheers. I've ordered some so we'll see how it goes..

 

[Bogdweller]

Did a brew yesterday with my brewzilla (added rice hulls as I always do) and the sparge was very slow to run through. BUT I did hit all my numbers , so whilst it took a while it clearly was beneficial instead of flowing straight through and out .

That's encouraging but just draining the wort off after mashing has been 2 hours and it's not finished yet!
I did manage to get the top mesh out and it was covered in a thick layer of sludge.
In addition to the pale malt I used flaked barley, crushed roast malt and crystal.
I'll see what I've extracted when I get there but sparging may be difficult.

 

[Rodcx500z]

I agree with above, looks like your crush is to fine which explains the sludge on the top plate

 

[Rwilts]

I’ve never used rice hulls and have made quite a few brews with a lot of oat and wheat without issues, though I did have similar issues to the OP the first couple of times. A couple of things I did that fixed this:
1. As mentioned previously, use a standard crush grain (I used fine crush when I did BIAB)
2. Screw the overflow tube to the large mesh disk upside down then put the fine mesh at the bottom of it so you have the fine mesh one below the large mesh one.

View attachment 76901

I stopped using the fine mesh very quickly, I had a stuck mash and read up that others had similar experience with a layer forming between both plates. I think they dropped this in the latest gen 4 .

 

[dave_77]

Agree with most of above. Never used the fine mesh or top plate. Use around 80g of hulls in normal brew 120g if wheat or rye used. Always use standard crush.
After I have mixed all the grains I make a point of really mixing the grains right down to the bottom plate making sure to break up the grain bed on the bottom plate. The second stir after 15 mins I will do the same. After this I won't break up the bed at the bottom and just stir the grains 2/3rds down roughly . Found this helped with avoid to much compacting of the grain bed. Probably don't need the rice hulls with this method on most brews but I got a similar stuck sparge which was not fun on a evening brew session

 

[buddsy]

Never used rice hulls myself. If it were me I'd have taken the top plate out and given it a stir. Does sound like your problem is how fine your crush is.

Buddsy

 

[Benfleet Brewery]

I stopped using the fine mesh very quickly, I had a stuck mash and read up that others had similar experience with a layer forming between both plates. I think they dropped this in the latest gen 4 .

The fine mesh is very flimsy so grain just gets in underneath it. The larger mesh plate is far more ridged. I don’t get anything between the two by putting the fine mesh one under it as in my previous post.

 

[Rwilts]

The fine mesh is very flimsy so grain just gets in underneath it. The larger mesh plate is far more ridged. I don’t get anything between the two by putting the fine mesh one under it as in my previous post.

Didn't pickup in your order of plates. Is it push fit?

 

[Benfleet Brewery]

Didn't pickup in your order of plates. Is it push fit?

No, screw in

Screw the overflow pipe into the “bottom“ of the large mesh plate and just push the fine mesh one under it then gently put the whole lot in the malt pipe.

 

[Bogdweller]

I’ve never used rice hulls and have made quite a few brews with a lot of oat and wheat without issues, though I did have similar issues to the OP the first couple of times. A couple of things I did that fixed this:
1. As mentioned previously, use a standard crush grain (I used fine crush when I did BIAB)
2. Screw the overflow tube to the large mesh disk upside down then put the fine mesh at the bottom of it so you have the fine mesh one below the large mesh one.

View attachment 76901

I agree with above, looks like your crush is to fine which explains the sludge on the top plate

Thanks. There was also a good layer on the bottom plate too. Notwithstanding that I muddled through (as we all do from time to time) and managed to get a result consistent with my usual BIAB brew day with the same recipe. It just took 2 hours longer!
Have ordered rice hulls and made extensive notes..

 

[Bogdweller]

I stopped using the fine mesh very quickly, I had a stuck mash and read up that others had similar experience with a layer forming between both plates. I think they dropped this in the latest gen 4 .

They didnt supply me with a fine mesh on my 3.1.1 and I'm quite pleased..

 

[Bogdweller]

Never used rice hulls myself. If it were me I'd have taken the top plate out and given it a stir. Does sound like your problem is how fine your crush is.

Buddsy

Cheers. It is pretty fine. I tried to take the top plate out to do that but it was several inches under mash temp wort and wouldn't budge.

 

[Bogdweller]

That's interesting. If you are using an AIO were you still able to re circulate ok without the top plate?

Agree with most of above. Never used the fine mesh or top plate. Use around 80g of hulls in normal brew 120g if wheat or rye used. Always use standard crush.
After I have mixed all the grains I make a point of really mixing the grains right down to the bottom plate making sure to break up the grain bed on the bottom plate. The second stir after 15 mins I will do the same. After this I won't break up the bed at the bottom and just stir the grains 2/3rds down roughly . Found this helped with avoid to much compacting of the grain bed. Probably don't need the rice hulls with this method on most brews but I got a similar stuck sparge which was not fun on a evening brew session