Maiden voyage on my 10.5 yesterday. I've been brewing for decades, and used my 6.5 maybe 20+ times. Thought the 10.5 would be identical. I feel some of your pains now.
* That basket, w/ 14 pounds of grain, and lots of water, is heavy to lift especially w/ the Anvil on a countertop and you're standing on a 5 gallon bucket.
* If you do the lift & lower thing, the 10.5 (unlike the 6.5 for some reason) will slosh that water on the sides of the pipe up and out of the Anvil over the sides if you lower too quickly. It'll also push out of your recirculation pipe that you just hung onto the handle.
* Dunk sparging the grains in a separate pot is 50x harder as well.
No question I'll be doing the false bottom & bew bag method from here out. Then I can "just" stir, and not have dead space on the sides.
* That basket, w/ 14 pounds of grain, and lots of water, is heavy to lift especially w/ the Anvil on a countertop and you're standing on a 5 gallon bucket.
* If you do the lift & lower thing, the 10.5 (unlike the 6.5 for some reason) will slosh that water on the sides of the pipe up and out of the Anvil over the sides if you lower too quickly. It'll also push out of your recirculation pipe that you just hung onto the handle.
* Dunk sparging the grains in a separate pot is 50x harder as well.
No question I'll be doing the false bottom & bew bag method from here out. Then I can "just" stir, and not have dead space on the sides.