Robobrew/Brewzilla Discussion

[Panderson1]

Two best i found. This guy claimed in one of his videos that he got 87% efficiency.

Start at 11:10
Start at 6:35

thank you very much

 

[Panderson1]

Just to be clear. I put the top screen on during the entire mash. Then put the lid on top, so it is all closed up, and recirculate through the hole in the lid. So there is water/wort on top of the grain bed the entire time. The overflow runs down the center pipe. When mash is done, I lift the malt pipe, and add the sparge water to the pool on top. For me, it has always drained slowly.

OK i tried it last night but didn't have enough liquid to reach the top of the pipe. I know it's adjustable but it was too late to adjust it. What happens if you can't reach the top of the pipe? (see pic)

Lol i can't get this right

 

[Silver_Is_Money]

The intent is that water only spills down through the center pipe if you are experiencing a partially to fully stuck mash. It is a safety valve which prevents the region below the malt pipe from running dry and causing the heat element to scorch or outright burn out.

 

[RePete]

OK i tried it last night but didn't have enough liquid to reach the top of the pipe. I know it's adjustable but it was too late to adjust it. What happens if you can't reach the top of the pipe? (see pic)

Lol i can't get this right

How much water did you start with? If the mash is coarse enough, maybe the water never built up enough to the overflow. Not sure that's a problem, as long as you are hitting your target numbers. I guess I have my mill set tight enough that I always have overflow down the center pipe.

 

[Sammy86]

Brewing tomorrow. Doing my first full volume no sparge 6 gallon batch...banking on 70% efficiency with my crush! Wish me luck!

 

[Panderson1]

How much water did you start with? If the mash is coarse enough, maybe the water never built up enough to the overflow. Not sure that's a problem, as long as you are hitting your target numbers. I guess I have my mill set tight enough that I always have overflow down the center pipe.

47.5 qts

See attached.
We came short gravity 15pts. Was supposed to be 1.061 but ended up 1.046. My buddy weighed the grains and added the water. He says he's confident he weighed everything perfectly. I should have tasted the spent grains for sugar. Anyways. So I don't know what happened. But the mash went perfect as far as temp 152f. See next post about the sparging.

 

[Panderson1]

Another question I have is about sparging. (Brewzilla 65) We installed a pully. When we lift up to drain, it drains really fast. By the time we get it set on the "feet" to hold in place (maybe 30/45 seconds), it's drained a significant amount. by the time I start adding sparge water it's drained too much to keep a constant few inches abovethe grain bed/ screen. Does this sound normal?

 

[Panderson1]

The intent is that water only spills down through the center pipe if you are experiencing a partially to fully stuck mash. It is a safety valve which prevents the region below the malt pipe from running dry and causing the heat element to scorch or outright burn out.

Can you please see the post I quoted on the top of this page ^ (very 1st post)? It has 2 video links in the quote. Are they not using the pipe correctly? Wort is constantly flowing heavily down the pipe during the mash and recirculating.

 

[Silver_Is_Money]

By what magic might Wort overflowing down the center pipe improve anything? You want the Wort to flow through the grist whereby to extract the sugars released via saccharification, as this is the entire reason why we mash in the first place.

 

[Sammy86]

Another question I have is about sparging. (Brewzilla 65) We installed a pully. When we lift up to drain, it drains really fast. By the time we get it set on the "feet" to hold in place (maybe 30/45 seconds), it's drained a significant amount. by the time I start adding sparge water it's drained too much to keep a constant few inches abovethe grain bed/ screen. Does this sound normal?

Yup. It's supposed to be a fly sparge so while you have no control over the drain you can control how fast you sparge. I don't believe there is any science to back up the claim you meed water in the tun while you sparge.

As i mentioned in an earlier post I got impatient and just dumped two gallons on top of the draining malt pipe and exceeded my efficiency by almost 10 points, with cold water.

 

[RePete]

Another question I have is about sparging. (Brewzilla 65) We installed a pully. When we lift up to drain, it drains really fast. By the time we get it set on the "feet" to hold in place (maybe 30/45 seconds), it's drained a significant amount. by the time I start adding sparge water it's drained too much to keep a constant few inches abovethe grain bed/ screen. Does this sound normal?

My mash never drains that fast. I have the smaller 35L unit, so maybe that makes a difference? My guess is that you could improve efficiency by milling the grain finer. I have my mill dialed in to where the mash drains very slowly, but I’m not getting stuck sparges.

 

[Panderson1]

^ thanks. I mill pretty fine. Definitely on the more aggressive side. If that makes sense.

 

[Panderson1]

By what magic might Wort overflowing down the center pipe improve anything? You want the Wort to flow through the grist whereby to extract the sugars released via saccharification, as this is the entire reason why we mash in the first place.

Yeah. Coming from a cooler mashtun I see your point. I never used to stir the mash at all in the cooler after the initial mash in and I got great extract.

It will be fine. I just had a bad brew day yesterday.

 

[Cloud Surfer]

Another question I have is about sparging. (Brewzilla 65) We installed a pully. When we lift up to drain, it drains really fast. By the time we get it set on the "feet" to hold in place (maybe 30/45 seconds), it's drained a significant amount. by the time I start adding sparge water it's drained too much to keep a constant few inches abovethe grain bed/ screen. Does this sound normal?

Same thing happens to me with my 65L BrewZilla. As soon as I lift the malt pipe it gushes out the bottom and the grain bed dries out. No matter how fast I sparge I can't keep the sparge water above the grain bed.

As mentioned, you don't want wort running down the centre tube, that defeats the entire purpose of what you are trying to achieve. It's there as a safety backup only.

 

[RePete]

As mentioned, you don't want wort running down the centre tube, that defeats the entire purpose of what you are trying to achieve. It's there as a safety backup only.

That is what I thought at first. Now I open up the valve enough that there is constant flow down the center. This helps maintain temperature by keeping heated wort on top. It's just a matter of how much you open the recirculation valve. I use to keep it so there was just a trickle, to avoid overflow. Now I open it up more and let it flow. But it really works either way.

 

[Sammy86]

Welp, I'm never throwing in loose hops EVER again! Clogged the pump and pipe from the pump...going to use the paint strainer bag from now on. Lesson learned!

 

[Panderson1]

At what point did the pump clog? I noticed when I used the whirlpoolarm after the boil. It creates a nice mound of hops in the middle leaving the pump hole clear. Knocking on wood. I'm 3 hoppy brews in and no clogs. I have a hop spider but still haven't used it

 

[Sammy86]

At what point did the pump clog? I noticed when I used the whirlpoolarm after the boil. It creates a nice mound of hops in the middle leaving the pump hole clear. Knocking on wood. I'm 3 hoppy brews in and no clogs. I have a hop spider but still haven't used it

It must have clogged during the whirlpool. I couldn't really see what was going on in there because of the steam but the clog was BAD.

 

[jimdeasy]

What’s a good mill size for brewzilla?
I’ve been milling at 0.75mm on a Evil Twin mill. That is wrong. Super stuck mash. Tons of goopy flour mess under the screen...fully clogged pump and screen for the entire brewday. Never ending lauter and sparge was over an hour. Gave up on cool down with immersion chiller after 2 hrs in an ice bath. Only got to 73. My longest brewday ever.

 

[Cloud Surfer]

What’s a good mill size for brewzilla?
I’ve been milling at 0.75mm on a Evil Twin mill. That is wrong. Super stuck mash. Tons of goopy flour mess under the screen...fully clogged pump and screen for the entire brewday. Never ending lauter and sparge was over an hour. Gave up on cool down with immersion chiller after 2 hrs in an ice bath. Only got to 73. My longest brewday ever.

I would be curious to hear what others are using also. I just got myself a mill. It’s a MillMaster with fluted rollers. Even at 1.1mm gap it’s splitting almost every husk in half when milled at about 120rpm. So I can’t believe some of the smaller gaps I’ve read people are using.

I did discover malt conditioning, and when I tried that I get about 90% intact husks at 1.1mm gap. First brew using the mill is a Barley Wine in a couple of days, so I’ll stick with that setting used with malt conditioning.

 

[RePete]

I have a Malt Muncher? It is a 2 roller Kegland product the I purchased from Morebeer. The setting is around .0375”? Whether that is accurate or not I don’t know. I set it halfway between the .025 and .050 settings. I have found that is as tight as I can get it without getting stuck sparges.

 

[Panderson1]

I crush with barley crusher. No idea what setting lol. I eyeball it each time and check the 1st few seconds of the crush. I like the husk cracked open and somewhat still intact. If it all starts looking like crumbs it's too aggressive imo.

 

[Twinkeelfool]

I use around 40 thousandths and the last 45 batches have had no issues with a variety of malts.
I now no longer use the fine screen at the bottom, I’ve found there’s no need. Also, when I’m ready to Sparge I lift the basket onto the top and recirc for 10 mins on the way to the boil. I find I get a little better clarity

 

[rjhoff]

Welp, I'm never throwing in loose hops EVER again! Clogged the pump and pipe from the pump...going to use the paint strainer bag from now on. Lesson learned!

Its a PITA taking that pump apart to clean it. Happened to me once and I was using a hop spider.

 

[Sammy86]

Its a PITA taking that pump apart to clean it. Happened to me once and I was using a hop spider.

Yeah it was an absolutely horrific experience that I intend to never do again...im thankful it was only a 6.5 gallon batch....

 

[rjhoff]

I would be curious to hear what others are using also. I just got myself a mill. It’s a MillMaster with fluted rollers. Even at 1.1mm gap it’s splitting almost every husk in half when milled at about 120rpm. So I can’t believe some of the smaller gaps I’ve read people are using.

I did discover malt conditioning, and when I tried that I get about 90% intact husks at 1.1mm gap. First brew using the mill is a Barley Wine in a couple of days, so I’ll stick with that setting used with malt conditioning.

I’m milling at 0.032” (0.81mm), works great for me on a 35L. Only issue I have is with a few recipes where I use a local malt house - their grain seems to be smaller than typical, last brew was 0.29”

 

[Cloud Surfer]

I’m milling at 0.032” (0.81mm), works great for me on a 35L. Only issue I have is with a few recipes where I use a local malt house - their grain seems to be smaller than typical, last brew was 0.29”

With that gap, are you pulverising the malt into small pieces? So do you have it set that tight to get better efficiency?

I’m wondering if the main downside to a fine crush is a slow sparge.

Also, I only use European malt. Is that perhaps slightly bigger than US malt, hence our different mill gaps.

 

[rjhoff]

With that gap, are you pulverising the malt into small pieces? So do you have it set that tight to get better efficiency?

I’m wondering if the main downside to a fine crush is a slow sparge.

Also, I only use European malt. Is that perhaps slightly bigger than US malt, hence our different mill gaps.

I was having a terrible time achieving efficiencies. I have a barley crusher which was factory set to 0.039” and I dialed it down over a few brew sessions to 0.032”. The crush looks pretty normal to me and my sparge time averages maybe 30 mins. At this gap I’m getting 75% and into the 80s efficiency, even with large grain bills.

For the local grain they spec kernel size and recommend gap settings - this kernel is smaller than is typical.

 

[RePete]

I could never set mine that tight. The one time I did I had a stuck sparge. So I put it back.

 

[DuncB]

I find that my run off on lifting the grain basket on the Guten 70 litre also brisk. I'm going to try milling half of the next grain bill even finer to see if that helps. Possibly its the way that the Maltzilla is flattening the husks instead of chopping the grain. Efficiency has been 76% but the grain still sweet when tested and the liquid last brew was above 1.030 that ran out after I put the grain basket in a large container for the last drainings whilst boil was on.
Perhaps I need less liquid in the mash and more sparge as well.
For 5.5 kilo grain I mashed with 21 litres and sparged with 17 aiming for 29 litres in fermenter.
I find that the recirculation is at full speed after about 15 minutes of mashing and I can't get liquid pooling on the top of the mash bed it just soaks straight in.
I don't use rice hulls or oat hulls.
I use European and NZ malt haven't noticed much of a size difference but do go tighter for malted wheat.