It depends on the recipe/style. If you pick one that has a high OG, say above 1.070, you'll probably have a hard time. I do 3gal BIAB recipes with no problem. I just keep a gallon back for sparge water instead of doing no-sparge.
I've been giving the grain bed a good stir while pouring in the sparge water. It helps that I've been using my brewbag in the malt pipe so I don't have to worry about grain husks etc. getting in. All of my efficiencies have been in the low 70's.
Glad you got to a happy place. I lost track of this thread. The lid is an important part of a 120v boil imho. At least just get you to boiling as the side insulation helps keep the boil going. But is does take a long time to get up to boiling with 120v.
I did my first brew on the 10.5 foundry, an American Wheat Ale. I started with 5.9 gallons water. My mash was 6lbs two row and 5lbs wheat, with 1/2lb rice hulls, then 1 gallon sparge.
Interesting. Haven’t vorlaufed like this on the foundry. What was your expected gravity after the mash considering the Vorlauf brought you up a good bit? Did you do anything to fluff up the grain bed before the vorlauf or leave as is? I’ve been raising to 168 for mash out before lifting the malt pipe so trying to think of this would help bump mash efficiency up a couple points after sparging.
I was expecting a OG closer to 1.050 or higher, so the 1.033 seemed pretty low, but the sticky feel of the grains was obvious that there were plenty more sugars available. We lifted the mash pipe and ran the recirculation through it above, as in the picture, and that seemed to help quite a bit.
Yeah I’m well familiar with the manual and it’s recommendations for 5gallons sparge method which is what I do. But these guidelines are based off of 5.5gallons and my losses throughout the process are more at this point so I have adjusted. I wasn’t thinking of going thicker than the guidelines at all. In fact the guidelines for 16lbs show 7.1g for 240v is which is what I’m running on which equates to a 1.75ish ratio is thicker than the 2.0 ratio I’m using. Was just trying to see what opinions are on whether or not this affects efficiency much if at all
I don't think changing the ratio to be more qt/lb will impact efficiency that much if all you're doing is a single temp sac rest, especially if you are recirculating. If you do a step mash with an acid rest or gelatinization/protein rest, you'd want a thicker mash to start with.
What strainer are you referring to? My valve on kettle simply has a dip tube that can rotate. Not sure if something has changed as far as design of foundry is concerned.
Agreed, although I’ve enjoyed putting my wilserbag in the malt pipe so zero debris gets into boil kettle and those two barbs on the ring would likely tear it. I’ve brewed without the bag twice, first time it went ok as is and had a little debris after mash, second time had more than id prefer. So will likely keep using the bag for me
To save time. 10.5 gallon unit seems massive, aka tall. Wish it was wider.
Yes, before I use my refractometer on wort I always make sure it is calibrated with distilled water. Everytime its properly zerod out prior to taking wort measurement. I do think though that Im coming up short on OG (based on beer smith calcs) is because of how beer smith calculates it. If I take my pre-boil volume, gravity, and put in 1 gallon less for ending volume in brewers friend calculator, it always shows about 2 points less than beer smith's predicted OG. So I think theres some "behind the scenes" calculations I don't fully understand in beer smith too. For example, when you adjust the post-boil losses in beer smith such as "cooling shrinkage" and/or "trub losses", the estimated mash gravity actually changes which isn't logical to me but I know beer smith "backward calculates" these estimates based on brewhouse efficiency.
A "partial mash" IS brewing a smaller volume/grain bill to which you add extract at flameout. Then top up with cold water in the fermenter.
Let me not forget to say, this is a basic partial mash routine. It can be changed and adapted where you see fit, either to suit your ingredients, recipe, process, beer style, etc.
Many recipe kits seem too expensive to me, costing more than the ingredients would if bought in bulk. Those that do go on deep sales can be excellent bargains, such as NB used to have, buy 3 all-grain kits for $60, with free shipping. It's hard to beat that, and you can always add some extra malts and hops to them if you want.
