Question for Brewzilla owners

[MrJay83]

A more fluid mash and stirring for 15 to 20 minutes for starch conversion to be complete helps. Otherwise any hulls will do, be it rice or oat. Just be aware all the cereal grains, rice especially are sprayed with fungicide pesticide and finally weed killer before they are harvested.
Before they can be used in animal feed they have to be washed, in some countries even use as chicken litter they have to be washed. So it is best to wash them before putting them into your mash.

Brewed yesterday, used rice hulls, stirred the hell out of it when mashing in and gave it another stir halfway through. Difference was night and day. Could have the pump turned almost all the way up and the sparge was done in about 10 minutes. My usual mash efficiency is about 60-70% but this was 80% so I think this is the way forward for me.

 

[Obadiah Boondoggle]

It all rather depends on what you are brewing and what the other grain is in your grain bill

 

[MrJay83]

To be honest I've had my Brewzilla only a few months and this is my sixth brew on it. My grain bill yesterday was 6.15kg including 350g flaked oats and was the most straightforward brew yet. I'll definitely be using rice hulls from now on.

 

[hoppyscotty]

Not necessary if oats are less than 5 or so percent of grain bill. If higher than that I'll throw in some hulls.

 

[dave_77]

I have a feeling that If you have a good grain mill and you do it yourself you can get away with not using hulls for certain grain bills. I get my grains pre milled by MM and I have had slow sparges with beers that I wouldn't have expected and really quick flows with batches that I would have expected it to be slower. I have a feeling it could be down to people forgetting to change the mill settings (fine or standard crush order option) or also the weight of grain used in the system. I use hulls all the time now just to remove the chance of a stuck/slow sparge. I will only use 70-90g in low wheat/oat/rye beers and will use 120g + for beers with those grains or high Abv beers.

 

[MrJay83]

I have a feeling that If you have a good grain mill and you do it yourself you can get away with not using hulls for certain grain bills. I get my grains pre milled by MM and I have had slow sparges with beers that I wouldn't have expected and really quick flows with batches that I would have expected it to be slower. I have a feeling it could be down to people forgetting to change the mill settings (fine or standard crush order option) or also the weight of grain used in the system. I use hulls all the time now just to remove the chance of a stuck/slow sparge. I will only use 70-90g in low wheat/oat/rye beers and will use 120g + for beers with those grains or high Abv beers.

I'm convinced by them now. I'm doing a larger this weekend and still will throw a handful in

 

[foxy]

Brewed yesterday, used rice hulls, stirred the hell out of it when mashing in and gave it another stir halfway through. Difference was night and day. Could have the pump turned almost all the way up and the sparge was done in about 10 minutes. My usual mash efficiency is about 60-70% but this was 80% so I think this is the way forward for me.

How many litres of sparge water did you use? Ten minutes is very quick.

 

[MrJay83]

How many litres of sparge water did you use? Ten minutes is very quick.

Just 9l (brewfather calc). After a while I put the pipe into a spare bucket so I could get on with the boil and poured in the 200-300ml that collected there back into the BW.

 

[Benfleet Brewery]

Just 9l (brewfather calc). After a while I put the pipe into a spare bucket so I could get on with the boil and poured in the 200-300ml that collected there back into the BW.

You can leave the pipe in place whilst ramping up to the boil. I don’t take mine away completely until I’m up to about 90 degrees. It’s drained nicely by then.

 

[gavp1979]

Brewed yesterday, used rice hulls, stirred the hell out of it when mashing in and gave it another stir halfway through. Difference was night and day. Could have the pump turned almost all the way up and the sparge was done in about 10 minutes. My usual mash efficiency is about 60-70% but this was 80% so I think this is the way forward for me.

How many hulls did you use? I have only done 2 brews in my brewzilla gen 4, the last one was a stout with oats and I had to turn the pump off because no matter how much I stirred it blocked within minutes of me stopping. I then put the spunding valve on the wrong post so the entire lot ended up on the floor anyway I have an order including rice hulls from the malt miller on the way so that I can re-brew it this weekend but not sure how much to use

 

[MrJay83]

Not sure exactly how much but around 5 or 6 handfuls in my last brew. Threw in a handful each time I poured some grain in and gave it a mix before adding some more.

 

[Bogdweller]

How many hulls did you use? I have only done 2 brews in my brewzilla gen 4, the last one was a stout with oats and I had to turn the pump off because no matter how much I stirred it blocked within minutes of me stopping. I then put the spunding valve on the wrong post so the entire lot ended up on the floor anyway I have an order including rice hulls from the malt miller on the way so that I can re-brew it this weekend but not sure how much to use

I did a brew today with a Brewzilla. My second batch with this after years of BIAB. The first took hours to drain before sparging but today used 2 big handfuls of rice hulls pre mixed into the grain before mashing in at roughly 9lbs (sorry, imperial measurement)
It ran off a treat when I lifted the pipe and the pump ran ok too.
I did give it a few stirs in the first 15 minutes though.

 

[Agentgonzo]

How does improved recirculation affect your sparge? On my grainfather, I can get a really good recirculation going now by conditioning the grain, and stirring well during the first 10/15 minutes of the sparge.

But then, given the grain bed is so well draining, the sparge water runs straight through it like a vindaloo through a elderly English gent.

How do you manage to get a free flowing recirc, but a slow enough sparge? Or does it not matter (I haven't noticed my efficiency affected TBH)

 

[RoomWithABrew]

@Agentgonzo

I found that my recirculation and sparge was vindaloo fast as well. Much slower now that I condition grain and have a tighter gap.

You could play with milling half of the grain a bit tighter and see how it affects your efficiency.

Mine certainly went up with a much tighter gap and the sparge slowed down so that I could actually have the mash bed covered during the sparge.

 

[Agentgonzo]

How does improved recirculation affect your sparge? On my grainfather, I can get a really good recirculation going now by conditioning the grain, and stirring well during the first 10/15 minutes of the sparge.

But then, given the grain bed is so well draining, the sparge water runs straight through it like a vindaloo through a elderly English gent.

How do you manage to get a free flowing recirc, but a slow enough sparge? Or does it not matter (I haven't noticed my efficiency affected TBH)

Sparging in an all in one system seems to answer my question: you don't need a slow sparge on recirculating systems. I'd not though about it like that before - if you do a constant recirculation, then the sugars have already been washed out of the grains, so sparging 'vindaloo-fast' isn't a problem. Which also explains why I still have a decent (80-84% brewhouse efficiency) despite a really fast sparge.

It seems like I fell foul to the classic trap of just applying traditional/commercial brewing practises to the homebrew level without fully understanding the reasoning of why those practises exist.

 

[Agentgonzo]

@Agentgonzo

I found that my recirculation and sparge was vindaloo fast as well. Much slower now that I condition grain and have a tighter gap.

You could play with milling half of the grain a bit tighter and see how it affects your efficiency.

Mine certainly went up with a much tighter gap and the sparge slowed down so that I could actually have the mash bed covered during the sparge.

I've been playing with the mill gap a bit recently. After starting to condition the grain, it recirculated really really well. So I tightened it up a bit: Boom, stuck mash on the next brew. So then it got slackened off a bit and I stirred the bejesus out of it during the first 15 minutes: vindaloo-fast recirc/sparge. So next I'll tighten the gap a smidgen and stir it quite-a-bit-but-not-as-much-as-before. I think I'm zeroing in on my sweet spot.

 

[RoomWithABrew]

I've been playing with the mill gap a bit recently. After starting to condition the grain, it recirculated really really well. So I tightened it up a bit: Boom, stuck mash on the next brew. So then it got slackened off a bit and I stirred the bejesus out of it during the first 15 minutes: vindaloo-fast recirc/sparge. So next I'll tighten the gap a smidgen and stir it quite-a-bit-but-not-as-much-as-before. I think I'm zeroing in on my sweet spot.

Try tightening the gap on half of your milling or a third to zone in on a sweetspot knowing that you know which is fast.