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I thought I was doing well in keeping the hop matter out of the wort. I used a hop basket for the boil and then hop bag for the whirlpool hops. But when I transferred the wort into the fermenter, the bottom of the kettle and the false bottom looked like a hop massacre. I don’t know where all the...

I did check my pre-boil SG. Being my first go I took a guess at 75% mash efficiency but it came in at 80%. So does that tell me the sparge was ok? It’s an IIPA. The whirlpool hops are in at the moment. I’ve just discovered I can’t do a proper whirlpool with a hop bag sitting in the kettle. So...

I’m in the middle of my first AG brew. Everything seems to be going well, and this BrewZilla is really nice to use. I’m curious about a few things as I go. 1. Does it matter where you place the recirculation tube during mashing? I just made sure it was under the surface so there was no...

That’s going to be a big beer. Nice. I ferment at 18C/64F with the M42 and it progresses calmly though rapidly. I’ve never had to use a blow off tube, the airlock works fine. I’ve seen people who ferment this hot and it makes a huge mess.

I didn’t watch that video. The info I saw was somewhere on a forum site in Australia.

I can cold crash with the CO2 attached just as in the photo, and set the pressure to under 1 psi on the gauge. Don’t have a photo of the airlock in, and I’m not at the fermenter atm. But the black cap you see at the top of the setup unscrews, and I use the other black cap that comes with the...

I leave the pressure transfer kit on all the time. I just fit and remove the airlock and the solid cap that seals the unit as required.

Well I think the screen at the top is a big improvement. A more advanced system with data logging and connectivity options. The power lead disconnects, which I guess is handy when cleaning. I can’t recall any other features just now.

I was going to hold off for the V4 because it sounds like it has some nice features. Especially the screen at the top of the unit. But I talked to KegLand and they are having problems releasing it, and it won’t be available until at least mid year. I couldn’t wait that long so I just got the V3.1.1.

No, I still use the airlock. But when I want to do a trub dump or start the transfer I remove the airlock and cap the opening to seal it.

I got burnt by pretty much everything written there the first time I dumped out the trub valve. Obviously I ended up sucking in some air, then after I dumped, my RIS stopped fermenting and left the FG a bit high. I thought, there has to be a better way. So, I bought the Grainfather pressure...

Buy a few quality cleaning and sanitising products specifically made for brewing. I’ve kept notes on every beer I’ve made and find it invaluable to check back when refining recipes or processes. Use a bottling tree for cleaning and sanitising bottles. It’s amazing how such a simple device...

I did consider it will be recirculated. I was mostly concerned when I realised there would only be 2.5L of water in the bottom of the malt pipe to mash the grains in. The video you linked has him using the 3L/kg ratio plus 10L, so maybe I’m on the right track. I read this entire thread a while...

Another question. There’s around 10 litres of space under the malt pipe. Just say I use a mash ratio of 2.5L/kg. That’s 12.5 litres for a 5kg grain bill. It seems apparent to me now that I need to add 22.5 litres of water for the mash. Otherwise, I will essentially be trying to mash in 2.5L of...

Ah, yes, so true.

I’m running my BrewZilla 65 with water for the first time. It seems nice and intuitive to use. Contrary to what I said a few posts back, I see now with the pump flange on the bottom of the unit sticking up a little, that you can’t get all the liquid back out of it. I poured in a few litres of...

You must have a bit of beer laying around if you are finding random old bottles around the place. :) Old yeast at bottling is definitely a consideration. I could never get my RIS to carbonate after months of conditioning. Now I add CBC-1 yeast at bottling.

Thanks for your replies. I thought it was common knowledge that if you take your big beers off primary the day it hits FG, you’re leaving minimal time for the yeast to clean up after itself. So in one sense, you could say it’s done as soon as it hits FG, but certainly for a big RIS, there’s...

I’ve done quite a few RIS brews now, and typically I can get them from around 1.120 down to 1.022 in 7-8 days. I pitch heaps of yeast, ferment cool and get a good fermentation. I am curious how long everyone leaves their RIS sitting in primary. I always plan on 4 weeks, but usually get to the 3...

Ok, thanks. I thought I was miss understanding what dead space loss is because I couldn’t see any loss using the BrewZilla. I bought a hop basket so I’ll see how that works out for me.