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I just received my BrewZilla 65 yesterday. Now that I have it, I’m confused about the dead space loss. I will be connecting a counterflow chiller into the recirculation arm, and pumping the cooled wort direct into the fermenter. Seeing as the pump draws the wort from the bottom of the kettle...

What I do is put the Roasted Barley and Chocolate Malt straight into a pot of water. In a ratio of 3L per kg (sorry I’m using that new fangled measurement system). On brew day I pour the pot through a strainer and collect the liquid in another pot. Then I rinse the grains with another 1L of cold...

I used US-05 for my first RIS and Mangrove Jack M42 ever since. My last RIS was OG 1.118. I pitched 4 packs of hydrated M42 and it raced down to FG 1.021. So that’s about 82% attenuation. So I’m a big fan of M42 as it makes great RIS. The secret for mine when making high OG RIS is pitching lots...

I have made quite a few extract RIS beers now. They are the best beers I’ve made. I put in a bit of effort because RIS is about my favourite beer. This is what works for me. 1. I steep my Roasted Barley and Chocolate Malt for 24 hours at room temperature to avoid any acrid flavours from...

I pressure transfer out of my stainless conical fermenter into a keg that’s been CO2 purged and pre-filled with the priming sugar. I then use a bottling gun. The gun has a liquid line and a CO2 line. I put the gun in the bottle and pull the CO2 trigger to fill the bottle with CO2 then pull the...

Without quoting and replying to everyone, I just want to say thanks for all the great info. I’m learning a lot. It certainly looks like there are two different approaches to setting the Brewzilla up, and neither is better or worse than the other. While I understand why the top screen and centre...

That’s a good explanation. So, lots of people are using their Brewzilla without the top screen so they can stir the mash. Are there any issues with recirculation or sparging without having the top screen in place. I saw a video of a guy sparging and he said it was nice to have the screen. Maybe...

I don’t have my Brewzilla yet, but I’m wondering why some people are stirring the mash. Don’t you just use the recirculating arm to pump wort back through the grain bed? This is my step into AG, so all this is new to me. But from what I’ve read recirculating the wort is how the pros do it, and...

I think pitching 4g is good advice so I’ll go for that.

I did some numbers and thought I would use 3g. What is the ABV of the beers you use 4g for? I guess the only downside of extra yeast is a touch more sediment in the bottom of the bottle.

Thanks for the info. I’ve decided to order some CBC-1 and use that at bottling.

Thanks Jim, good stuff.

Thanks, yes I know that. EC-1118 has a long history of being used for bottle conditioning and has some advantages over CBC-1 like alcohol tolerance. The question goes out to those who have actually used these yeasts for bottle conditioning/carbing as I’m keen on your experience with them.

I have a 12.5% ABV RIS that spent 4 weeks in primary and 6 months conditioning in keg at 10C. Time to bottle soon. A previous RIS I made never carbed, so my experience with these numbers is the yeast is too old, too tired and has dropped out by the time it’s been through primary, conditioning...

That explains it. There wasn’t anything written anywhere describing what the purpose of the top plate was. But preventing grain overflowing into the centre pipe makes sense. I’m going to pick up a 65L Brewzilla and get the bottom plate without the hole, and toss the top plate as well.

Can someone please explain what the top screen is supposed to do? Seems many people don’t use it so they can stir during the mash. So it looks like a part that’s not really required.

I believe under Belgian brewing law they are not permitted to add sugar to the fermenter, it must all go into the kettle. I did some big Belgians and RIS and was adding the sugars around day 4 or 5 and getting good attenuation. I got a bit over confident, and with my last Rochefort 10 clone...

Thanks, yes I’m aware of that.

I suspect there will be very little difference between the two, so probably not so critical. I did a Hefeweizen, and while it was nicely carbed, the head doesn’t last long. So just trying to improve on that. I use wheat LME, and mini-mash the rest of the grains. So perhaps my head retention...

I’m about to brew a Dunkelweizen, and bought a small amount of both of these because I couldn’t decide which to get. I’m using it to improve the head retention in the beer. If you could use just one of these for the job, which would you pick?