Too much space beneath brew basket?

[RockfordWhite]

I'm looking to order a Utah Bio diesel basket but am worried that there might be too much space under the basket, making the mash quite thick above it. I have a spike 15g electric kettle, which i use for 5 gallon BIAB. My thermometer and whirlpool port are a bit high, and would require the basket sit about 5in above the bottom of the kettle, which is about 4 gallons. For a standard gravity BIAB i usually have about 7.5ish gallons of water to start. Has anybody had a similar issue here? The other option would be to use a TC spool so my thermometer doesn't poke as far in, and order a basket that would have a smaller diameter, but that might end up being pretty equal in terms of liquid outside the grains....

I currently use a brew bag which is sitting ~3.5 in off the bottom, so maybe like 2.5 gallons, and working fine, but it's starting to show wear, and thinking of switching over to a basket that will never need replaced, but seems like the way my kettle is designed might not afford the basket solution

 

[doug293cz]

That's way too much dead space below the grain bed. For most brews, more than half the liquid volume would not be in contact with the grain. However, if you recirculate during the mash, it wouldn't really be dead space.

Brew on

 

[RockfordWhite]

Yeah, i would be recirculating, but i'm worried that the mash would be way too thick and really hurt my efficiency

 

[RockfordWhite]

An alternate suggestion that i have heard is to move the thermometer outside of the kettle onto the recirculation, as there isn't too much utility of the thermometer in the bk

 

[doug293cz]

An alternate suggestion that i have heard is to move the thermometer outside of the kettle onto the recirculation, as there isn't too much utility of the thermometer in the bk

I'm not a fan of temp probes sticking into the middle of vessels. If you are going to recirculate, a better location for the temp probe would be in the outlet stream from the kettle to the pump. Even better is a probe in the bottom of the kettle, at the level of the element, close to the element, and the tip positioned between the element and the outlet to the pump. This last position helps prevent the wort next to the element from overheating.

Brew on