BIG BEERS in the RoboBrew\Brewzilla

[Skipp107]

I'm thinking about doing an Ole Ale that has 22lbs grain for a 5g batch. I found this idea on FaceBook and thought this is brilliant!

Has anyone here tried this? I thought about punching a hole through the lid and running a hose with a sparge spay tip on it. I figured this would help keep the temp.

Thanks in advance!

 

[Dave T]

Give it a shot and let us know - I’m in the same boat, just brewed 2 batches that had a big grain bill.

First was just over 19# - did it all in the kettle, was tough, efficiency was low but not horrible, not much trouble. I did mash for an extra 30 min.

second was 23# - I decided to do 17 in the kettle, and 6 biab. Kettle mash was ok, biab was a pain but seemed to work fine. Missed og by a ton. Time to reevaluate that one lol.

Looking at upgrading to 65l unit just for some big brews, but it’s just a year old, so for now I’m sticking to sub 18# brews. Maybe I’ll get some partial extract ones.

 

[brewman !]

Look up reiterative brewing. It works way better than trying to mash a single huge mash. Tip: because the wort is so high in the second mash, it will tend to get sticky. I recommend some rice hulls in the 2nd grain bill.

This was my first reiterative mash. I could have hit 1.120 quite easily. Used 30 pounds (2 x15lb mashes) to yield 8 gallons of 1.095. I did 2x 1.5 hour mashes. Efficiency was 70%. The second mash will convert very quickly because the wort from the first mash is full of enzymes.

 

[Skipp107]

This type of mash sounds interesting. Thanks for the advice.

 

[rjhoff]

For bigger beers, I substitute DME for base malt to keep my grain bill <=17 lb and my grist ratio >=1.6.