What is your favorite way to increase efficiency in Anvil foundry?

[Srdjan Ostric]

I have seen all sorts of ways to extract all the sugar out of the grains, but basically what I do is use the mash pipe and the recirculation pump with a no-sparge method. Do any of you who use the anvil think that fly sparging or batch barging is an important step I should be done? I kind of like the hack that makes it biab technique... But I hate the bag. If they had something like the claw hammer mash pipe that was more like a fine screen that would be cool. Thoughts?.

 

[JoeSpartaNJ]

I was getting roughly 60% efficiency when I first got it. That was no sparge, directly in the malt pipe. Its all a learning curve.

After about 20 batches, I'm getting 72% on average. (I still base all my recipes on 65%)

I dont realy chase the efficiency dragon. I know I will get 65% at least.

I use the bag in the pipe (a lot easier to clean)
Sparge with 1.5 gallons of water
Recirculate mash. Stir the mash and "dunk" the malt pipe every 10 minutes - 60 minute mash
Squeeze the bag by pressing down while its in the pipe draining.

 

[Srdjan Ostric]

What bag do you use? I have some but the size is wonky...

 

[JoeSpartaNJ]

What bag do you use? I have some but the size is wonky...

I bought mine from www.brewinabag.com designed specifically for the Anvil malt pipe.

I believe it is now exclusively sold through Anvil

 

[kevin58]

This is much discussed in the Anvil Foundry thread in the Electric Brewing forum but in a nutshell there is an inherent flaw in the Foundry design. The water between the malt pipe and the kettle wall does not get pulled into the recirculation system leaving you with plain water along the sides that never becomes part of the mash. Then, at the end of the process when you pull the malt pipe all that water then floods in dropping the gravity and reducing your perceived efficiency.

To combat this you can pull the malt pipe during the mash so that still water comes in contact with the grain. I do this twice during the mash. Since I started using this method the BHE on my Anvil Foundry 10.5 is 76% to 78%. I use the malt pipe with no bag - recirculate using the Anvil recirculation kit and I do full volume mash with no sparge.

Edit: I found the thread on another forum where I first learned about this from user @Oginme. It was on the American Homebrewers Association forum. Oginme begins his explanation at the bottom of page one... Anvil Foundry Questions

 

[Srdjan Ostric]

I get it. I saw your edited link. It makes sense because when I make tea in the morning I swish it around a little bit and it gets more concentrated. Makes perfect sense

 

[aceluby]

This is much discussed in the Anvil Foundry thread in the Electric Brewing forum but in a nutshell there is an inherent flaw in the Foundry design. The water between the malt pipe and the kettle wall does not get pulled into the recirculation system leaving you with plain water along the sides that never becomes part of the mash. Then, at the end of the process when you pull the malt pipe all that water then floods in dropping the gravity and reducing your perceived efficiency.

To combat this you can pull the malt pipe during the mash so that still water comes in contact with the grain. I do this twice during the mash. Since I started using this method the BHE on my Anvil Foundry 10.5 is 76% to 78%. I use the malt pipe with no bag - recirculate using the Anvil recirculation kit and I do full volume mash with no sparge.

Edit: I found the thread on another forum where I first learned about this from user @Oginme. It was on the American Homebrewers Association forum. Oginme begins his explanation at the bottom of page one... Anvil Foundry Questions

Yep, this is what I do as well. Mash in, let it go for 10 min, stir, set up recirc pump, 15 min, stir then pull the pipe out and back in, stir, recirc for 15 min, 2nd pipe drop, recirc for 15 min, stir, start the boil, pull the pipe out at 170 for mash out, drain, then wait for the boil. Might get a few % more with an additional fly sparge, but the extra work isn’t worth it to me

 

[Dancy]

To combat this you can pull the malt pipe during the mash so that still water comes in contact with the grain. I do this twice during the mash. Since I started using this method the BHE on my Anvil Foundry 10.5 is 76% to 78%. I use the malt pipe with no bag - recirculate using the Anvil recirculation kit and I do full volume mash with no sparge.

I do this with my Mash&Boil and it increased efficiency, especially with larger grain bills. I use a Wilser BIAB.

 

[Srdjan Ostric]

This is much discussed in the Anvil Foundry thread in the Electric Brewing forum but in a nutshell there is an inherent flaw in the Foundry design. The water between the malt pipe and the kettle wall does not get pulled into the recirculation system leaving you with plain water along the sides that never becomes part of the mash. Then, at the end of the process when you pull the malt pipe all that water then floods in dropping the gravity and reducing your perceived efficiency.

To combat this you can pull the malt pipe during the mash so that still water comes in contact with the grain. I do this twice during the mash. Since I started using this method the BHE on my Anvil Foundry 10.5 is 76% to 78%. I use the malt pipe with no bag - recirculate using the Anvil recirculation kit and I do full volume mash with no sparge.

Edit: I found the thread on another forum where I first learned about this from user @Oginme. It was on the American Homebrewers Association forum. Oginme begins his explanation at the bottom of page one... Anvil Foundry Questions

I just brewed an alt bier last night, and I used your technique, and got an OG of 1.065.

I haven't really taken the time to study how to measure efficiency, but I know I have a solid 5.5% or more beer.

Great for fall.

Thanks for your help.

 

[Brewdog80]

I do a simple one gallon room temp sparge at the end. Way easy to save the last gallon and just do a 10 minute sparge.