First batch in the BE Mash and Boil, questions...

[Coastalbrew]

Hi folks! Brewed my first batch in the M&B today. All in all I love the system. It was so much easier than my old stove top system. The two issues I had this batch were a stuck sparge and missed my numbers in regards to mash temp and OG.
Recipe is:
10# pilsner
.75# honey malt
.5# Munich malt
Hops:
.75 oz Magnum @ 60
.25 oz Magnum @ 45
1 oz citra @ flame out steep for 15 min
1 oz citra @ pitch
Pitched Hornindal Kviek yeast @ 85*
Strike temp was set to 160* with grain temp of 69*. Mash temp settled at 145* (using my digital thermometer in the mash itself). Set unit to 152* after mash in. I had 4.25 G of strike water based on a 1.5 qt/# ratio. The mash seemed a bit on the thick side to me. I did manual recirculation, pulling 0.5G every 15 minutes and pouring it over the grain bed then giving it a good stir. 60 minute mash.

When I pulled the grain basket to start my sparge there was barely a trickle of wort coming out. I added some sparge water to the basket and waited. After 20 minutes the water exiting the basket had almost stopped and the water level in the basket had not changed... Time for plan B. I pulled the grain basket out dumped the grain into a spare paint strainer bag from my old BIAB setup and put the bag back in the grain basket. WOW, what a difference that made as far as flow rate. That got the sparge going again. I had about 6.25 G pre boil with an SG of 1.040. I will definitely use the bag from the get go in future batches. And will go with a double crush for the grain instead of the single crush I used this time.

The recipe was assuming 70% efficiency which I clearly missed, and was supposed to yield an OG of 1.050. I had 1.046 when I transferred 5 G to the fermenter which gave me an efficiency of 55.5%. Not great, but will still make a decent beer so...

Any thoughts or feedback you all might have would be much appreciated. And if you have any process suggestions to speed the brew day that would be great too. Thanks in advance.
Cheers!

 

[Snuffy]

I've used the M&B for... 6 brews now and never had an issue with getting the sparge once the basket was hanging. Sounds like too fine a crush maybe. I usually start off with the recommended water/grain volume and then add a quart or so if it's too hard to stir. I do the manual vorlauf thing too. I don't use a bag unless its just a small volume of grain in addition to a DME recipe or something. Largest grain volume I've tried is about 12.5 lbs. They say the M&B will do up to 16 lbs, but I can imagine that could be very close to a full basket and a real pain to mash.

 

[Coastalbrew]

Thanks @Snuffy . The crush didn't seem particularly fine to me and I only ran it through the mill at the shop once. I did do manual recirculation during the mash and my theory is that the grain bed got too compact at the bottom even though I was stirring. I use a wisk to stir so it's not real easy to get in the corners at the bottom of the basket. I agree, I think a16# grain bill would be right to the brim in the basket. I don't do beers that big generally so no big deal for me.

Cheers!

 

[WesBrew]

I would guess a crush around .045 to avoid stuck sparge. Strike water at 1.5 is probably ok but you’d also have to add the amount of water it takes to reach the bottom of the grain basket which might be a gallon. Constant recirc is prob going to help efficiency (plus betterflow through grain bed) look for cheap pump n tubing to get that going as well.

 

[sleev-les]

I would guess a crush around .045 to avoid stuck sparge. Strike water at 1.5 is probably ok but you’d also have to add the amount of water it takes to reach the bottom of the grain basket which might be a gallon. Constant recirc is prob going to help efficiency (plus betterflow through grain bed) look for cheap pump n tubing to get that going as well.

This. I have the M&B. I bought a pump (mine was prior to their release with the built in pump) and do constant recirc. I stir about every 15 minutes too. The deadspace is about .5 gallon below the basket. I run 1.5 to 2 quarts per pound. I typically sparge 2.5 gallons to get to boil volume, but I saw someone would almost squeeze the grain like a spunge to get more out of it so I may try that once and see if it makes a different. Since the all in ones aren't really a true sparge imo. I haven't had any issues with stuck mash except one time which i just had not choked the pump enough and it was basically pullling grain to the bottom, causing a stuck issue.