Additional Water for Rice Hulls

[KFurk]

So I’m using 1.5L per pound of grain bill and it’s a I’m brewing with 10lbs of 2 row. So I planned to start with 15L of water for my mash. Now with my Brewzilla I wanted to try and use rice hulls this time to hopefully allow better water permeability. If I put in .5 pound of rice hulls should I increase my mash water by .75 of a litre or am I overthinking this whole process?

 

[AzOr]

I’d add another quart or two.
The more I brew the less I care about mash thickness. You’ll get a feel for how thick it should be just by stirring.

 

[IslandLizard]

They don't absorb much water, no need to adjust your water volume.

But 2-row is permeable enough by itself, it contains plenty of hull material. Rice hulls are really for use when hull material is lacking or when mashing very sticky grists, such as wheat or rye.

 

[Yooper]

When I've used rice hulls (and .5 pound is a LOT- a handful is what I use) for a really sticky mash, I've found that it worked better for me to simply rehydrate the hulls separately and then add them to the mash and stir those in.

 

[KFurk]

Ok I appreciate the replies. I use a Brewzilla and this is only my 2nd brew. I found last time that I wasn’t getting my sparge water through without stirring which I’d like to avoid. I had read that rice hulls will help with that. I’ll try a handful this time and see how it works out!

 

[IslandLizard]

Ok I appreciate the replies. I use a Brewzilla and this is only my 2nd brew. I found last time that I wasn’t getting my sparge water through without stirring which I’d like to avoid. I had read that rice hulls will help with that. I’ll try a handful this time and see how it works out!

How finely (or coarsely) is your grains' crush? A crush that's too fine could have a lot more to do with plugged up mashes than the percentage of husk.

Although I'm not familiar with the Brewzilla, I've seen similar all-in-one brewing apparatus at work. It's simply recirculating your mash, isn't it? It's not really sparging, right?

Rice hulls:
A "handful" would be the amount you scoop up with 2 hands cupped together, as if you were scooping water to drink from a stream. It's about a pint on average, I'd say, in case you want to measure it more precisely for future brews.
I use a quart size takeout soup container as my grain scoop.

 

[KFurk]

How finely (or coarsely) is your grains' crush? A crush that's too fine could have a lot more to do with plugged up mashes than the percentage of husk.

Although I'm not familiar with the Brewzilla, I've seen similar all-in-one brewing apparatus at work. It's simply recirculating your mash, isn't it? It's not really sparging, right?

Rice hulls:
A "handful" would be the amount you scoop up with 2 hands cupped together, as if you were scooping water to drink from a stream. It's about a pint on average, I'd say, in case you want to measure it more precisely for future brews.
I use a quart size takeout soup container as my grain scoop.

Well I don’t crush my own grain but I get it done by the LHBS and I know they do their brews with a Brewzilla as well. During the mash there is a pump which circulates the mash... but after I pull out the mash pipe and sparge the grain to rinse before my boil. The sparge was what seemed to be stuck and couldn’t get it the drain through without stirring.

 

[IslandLizard]

Well I don’t crush my own grain but I get it done by the LHBS and I know they do their brews with a Brewzilla as well. During the mash there is a pump which circulates the mash... but after I pull out the mash pipe and sparge the grain to rinse before my boil. The sparge was what seemed to be stuck and couldn’t get it the drain through without stirring.

Most LHBS crush fairly coarsely, 0.045-0.055" gap seems to be standard in those places. That's good for preventing stuck mashes and fly sparges, but not so good for mash efficiency...

Your grain bed may have compacted due to draining it too dry, so your sparge water can't get through. There's a fine balance.

Look around here for threads where brewers have encountered the same or a similar issue. Or start a new thread on it.
I did read something a week or 2 ago, he had very low mash efficiency with a similar brewing machine.

 

[SMOKEU]

Ok I appreciate the replies. I use a Brewzilla and this is only my 2nd brew. I found last time that I wasn’t getting my sparge water through without stirring which I’d like to avoid. I had read that rice hulls will help with that. I’ll try a handful this time and see how it works out!

I have the 35L Robobrew 3.1 (Brewzilla). I slowly add sparge water over about a 5 minute period, although I could sparge faster if I wanted to and still get 75-80% brewhouse efficiency. The only time I've had to stir the grains during the sparge process is when I had a stuck mash, and that was fully 100% stuck.