Most Recent Results/Findings with SS Mesh Baskets (May 2018)

[enormous13]

Hey Everyone,

It's finally about time for me to purchase a stainless steel mesh basket for the eBIAB system I've put together. I've done quite a bit of reading on here regarding the baskets and I'm looking for any updates from users, since some of these posts go back to the early twenty-teens.

Here's a few questions I specifically have in mind:
1. Any new insights on 300 vs. 400 micron mesh? I'm leaning towards 400, thinking it'll give more flow and make it more difficult to create a stuck sparge.
2. Any updates on the all mesh vs. solid sided vs. half and half "hybrid" baskets? I know there was some thought that solid sided or partially solid sided baskets helped direct recirculation flow down through the grain more efficiently than all mesh baskets.
3. What's everyone doing for recirculation with their baskets? Right now I have a bulkhead in my lid with one of these on the inside (https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00ODSS5J8/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20). I know some folks use locline attached to their lid, but I'm wondering if I should leave the lid off for the mash. For some reason I've always been drawn to the SS Brewtech Mash Manifold (https://www.ssbrewtech.com/products/re-circulation-manifold-for-infussion-mash-tuns).
4. Has anyone used one of their baskets as a hop spider during the boil? I see Grainfather users are now leaving their mash baskets in during the boil to act as a hop spider and they're getting quite good results. Just wondering if that maybe stemmed from experiences in BIAB-type setups?

Let me know your thoughts, any insights are more than welcome! Thanks everyone!

 

[PsychoBiter]

In my experience, if you aren't heating the wort (via RIMS or HERMS or whatever), to maintain mash temps, recirculation is going to cause more problems than its worth.

1. Go with the 400, the better the flow the less problems you will have with recirculation.

2. We use solid sided basket, went with that vs all mesh to make the wort flow through the grain bed, no insight on hybrid.

3. Don't use that aerator if you believe in hot side aeration. You want the wort to return back to grain bed under the surface of the wort. I am not sure about HSA, but it won't hurt to not aerate the wort.....I like the SS brewtech manifold, but we just use a silicone hose to return wort back grain bed. If you have a way to heat the wort while recirculating, then lid probably isn't needed. I like to be able to watch my wort level as to not stick the mash.

4. We haven't used the basket in the boil as a hop basket, but I like the idea if you have a all mesh basket. Not sure about a solid sided basket, but its probably better than the hop sock we suspend over the basket. It really doesn't flow very well. Maybe we will give the basket a second duty has hop spider.

 

[enormous13]

In my experience, if you aren't heating the wort (via RIMS or HERMS or whatever), to maintain mash temps, recirculation is going to cause more problems than its worth.

1. Go with the 400, the better the flow the less problems you will have with recirculation.

2. We use solid sided basket, went with that vs all mesh to make the wort flow through the grain bed, no insight on hybrid.

3. Don't use that aerator if you believe in hot side aeration. You want the wort to return back to grain bed under the surface of the wort. I am not sure about HSA, but it won't hurt to not aerate the wort.....I like the SS brewtech manifold, but we just use a silicone hose to return wort back grain bed. If you have a way to heat the wort while recirculating, then lid probably isn't needed. I like to be able to watch my wort level as to not stick the mash.

4. We haven't used the basket in the boil as a hop basket, but I like the idea if you have a all mesh basket. Not sure about a solid sided basket, but its probably better than the hop sock we suspend over the basket. It really doesn't flow very well. Maybe we will give the basket a second duty has hop spider.

I could definitely see how recirculation would be moot if you weren't using the concepts of RIMS/HERMS.

Regarding #2, how's your efficiency been with the solid sided basket?

Regarding #3, I'm not a believer in HSA, I haven't found the impact to be negative at all for what I've brewed so far, but for not that much more of an investment, I was thinking of getting a more traditional recirculation method. The current method was just cheap, and it works well since I don't want to go through the side wall of the kettle, minus the possible HSA effects. I had not thought of keeping the lid off to monitor liquid levels more closely, good thought. I could just drape the return line over the kettle brim and leave the lid off completely for mashing.

Regarding #4, I agree that with a solid sided basket, this probably wouldn't be the best idea. Seems the wort flow in/out would be too limited with the hops/additions. I know some of the basket fabricators offer a solid "sleeve" that slides into the basket, so you could have a solid sided or all mesh basket in one package. Haven't heard any feedback on them yet though.

Thanks for your insights here!

 

[PsychoBiter]

Regarding #2, how's your efficiency been with the solid sided basket?

Honestly, our efficiency has been pretty bad and rather inconsistent. I do not blame this on the basket, as I really don't know what is causing this...I am about to start a post about this..

 

[RM-MN]

Honestly, our efficiency has been pretty bad and rather inconsistent. I do not blame this on the basket, as I really don't know what is causing this...I am about to start a post about this..

Do you own your own mill? If not, blame improper milling for bad and erratic efficiency.

 

[PsychoBiter]

Do you own your own mill? If not, blame improper milling for bad and erratic efficiency.

We do have our own mill and this is the reason we bought it. We hit our mash PH numbers, we hit our mash temp numbers....I will be checking and double checking our mill settings, but I don't think that the problem. Our crush has a bunch of flour in it.

 

[Smellyglove]

We do have our own mill and this is the reason we bought it. We hit our mash PH numbers, we hit our mash temp numbers....I will be checking and double checking our mill settings, but I don't think that the problem. Our crush has a bunch of flour in it.

You'll get some flour no matter how you crush it. The interesting thing is how small pieces the starch is broken down to.

A classical error is someone milling, sees lot of flour, widens gap, sees less flour and goes with that and get terrible results. You need to look at the starch. If you get to much flour you are either milling to tight or to fast. Speed is a big issue not everybody thinks about. Go slow and you can tighten the gap to get proper crushed starch.

A bigger/closer pic of what you posted would help as I couldn't zoom in enough to look at the husks and the starches.

 

[wilserbrewer]

A proper crush will contain a fair percentage of flour, it is completely normal and expected. Good article linked below

http://brewlikeapro.net/maltmilling.html

 

[PsychoBiter]

You'll get some flour no matter how you crush it. The interesting thing is how small pieces the starch is broken down to.

A classical error is someone milling, sees lot of flour, widens gap, sees less flour and goes with that and get terrible results. You need to look at the starch. If you get to much flour you are either milling to tight or to fast. Speed is a big issue not everybody thinks about. Go slow and you can tighten the gap to get proper crushed starch.

A bigger/closer pic of what you posted would help as I couldn't zoom in enough to look at the husks and the starches.

We use a hand drill and speed is set pretty slow, we definitely don't pull the trigger and let 'er rip. We condition the grain ahead of time as well. I take it slow, but not sure what the RPM is.

If you click on the pictures they should get bigger.

Our last batch was particularly terrible, pre boil was 51% on an 1.081 est OG beer. We weren't super far off because I estimated a 58% efficiency.

Sorry to hijack OP....

 

[Smellyglove]

We use a hand drill and speed is set pretty slow, we definitely don't pull the trigger and let 'er rip. We condition the grain ahead of time as well. I take it slow, but not sure what the RPM is.

If you click on the pictures they should get bigger.

Our last batch was particularly terrible, pre boil was 51% on an 1.081 est OG beer. We weren't super far off because I estimated a 58% efficiency.

Sorry to hijack OP....

I clicked on them and they don't get big enough for me to really see what's going on down there. I can't really tell if those husks which are large are just cracked, or crushed. By the looks of the starches it seems like a decent crush, but it's really hard to tell without a zoomed in pic.

 

[enormous13]

We use a hand drill and speed is set pretty slow, we definitely don't pull the trigger and let 'er rip. We condition the grain ahead of time as well. I take it slow, but not sure what the RPM is.

If you click on the pictures they should get bigger.

Our last batch was particularly terrible, pre boil was 51% on an 1.081 est OG beer. We weren't super far off because I estimated a 58% efficiency.

Sorry to hijack OP....

No worries lol, if it solves your issue it helps me too.

 

[BeardedBrews]

I've used my 400 micron full mesh basket as a hop filter and found the hops utilization perfectly normal. Some observations though.

1. During the boil steam will get trapped under the basket and cause a surging thumping boil. Can be messy.

2. The 400 micron acts as a pretty robust trub and break filter when there are pellet hops flakes around. The basket will "stick" and run dry underneath if you are trying to recirculate while you are chilling. Watch out for dry firing if you heat during your whirlpool.

3. I like my basket quite a bit. I leave the lid off during recirculation and run a silicone tube into the basket instead of a fancy manifold.

 

[enormous13]

I've used my 400 micron full mesh basket as a hop filter and found the hops utilization perfectly normal. Some observations though.

1. During the boil steam will get trapped under the basket and cause a surging thumping boil. Can be messy.

2. The 400 micron acts as a pretty robust trub and break filter when there are pellet hops flakes around. The basket will "stick" and run dry underneath if you are trying to recirculate while you are chilling. Watch out for dry firing if you heat during your whirlpool.

3. I like my basket quite a bit. I leave the lid off during recirculation and run a silicone tube into the basket instead of a fancy manifold.

Sounds like boiling/chilling with the basket is more trouble than it's worth, I'm leaning towards just keeping it in during the mash.

Bearded, do you sparge at all with BIAB?

 

[Wyobrew22]

I literally just got my arbor fab basket for my 15 gallon spike kettle on a custom setup I built and can give you a couple of notes as I would have gotten slightly different measurements than I did. My basket is 400 micron and measures 13.5" across and 16" tall. I got 3" legs with the rubber feet and hooks installed 3" up the basket sides or 6" up from the bottom of the legs. The width of my basket is perfect and has about a finger width all the way around the sides. My height is a little funky in a couple of ways. I should have gotten a 15" basket with slightly taller legs (3.5" like you are going with would have helped) My basket ended up needing the rubber feet for the added height to clear my elements when I wasn't for sure planning to use them. This then bumps the basket up high enough that the lid just has to sit on top of the basket while I recirculate, it works but isn't secured in any way. I am currently recirculating through the lid with a bulkhead fitting and loc-line but plan to build a pipe similar to how the brew boss system works in the future. I'm also trying to find a domed lid for the kettle rather than using the stock one that fits down inside by 3/8" or so.

 

[cooper]

I got my basket from Arbor Fab and I wish I would have went with a 400 micron instead of the 300 micron. I have to really slow down my circulation or I start to get cavity issues. It's 16 inches tall and the top 7 inches are solid; my hope was to try to get advantages of both solid and mesh siding so i'm not sure how much that has to do with it at this point.