Robobrew or similar setup sparge question

[Darkbrew]

Sorry if this has been asked before, I wasn't able to find it anywhere...

So I have a Robobrew on the way, my biggest concern is the sparge technique.

1) raising the basket out of the wort, and sparging through without the capability to vorlauf seems like it would allow a lot of debris into the wort. I suppose this is why I have seen others mention they use rice hulls?

2) I have always been in the camp of those who believe that allowing the grain to be uncovered by sparge water releases more tannins because the hydro static pressure around the grain is lowered.

3) I'm confused with the mash water requirements. Do you mash with normal amount of thickness? I normally mash around 1.5 - 1.75 qt\Lb
Doesn't seem that would be enough to re-circulate properly?

Anyone with a robobrew or Grainfather care to share their exp?

Thanks!

 

[Little_Lebowski]

Were you able to answer any of your questions? I did see someone mention they were using about 1.25-1.3 as their water to grain ratio. If you got a chance to use it yet... my concern would be clogging the pump up with hops brewing a big IPA. Is there any way around this? I'm really interested in this device but primarily brew IPAs with generous hop schedules. Most of the videos I've seen barely address the boil or drain to fermenter. Thanks.

 

[Darkbrew]

Not really. I have been busy trying to get my house on the market, so I've only completed that one brew.

I think I will try a 90 minute mash next to see if it helps achieve better extraction. The sparge method is still a little weird to me. Doesn't seem efficient.

As for your question about the hops, as long as you use hop bags, or a hop spider I don't think there is an issue. You really aren't going to need to run the pump during the boil after mashing. I didn't notice that thehops were getting down to the pump recirculation orfice, and I noticed there was very little debris when I rinsed and ran the cleaning liquid though the pump. Draining to the fermenter was easy, there was some residual trub left in the bottom which I discarded. Clean up was simple, I used Oxi Clean Versatile. I really only have 2 complaint about the Robobrew.

1) the chiller is awkward to use, it works but seems slower than my traditional immersion chiller.

2) the sparge method, it's going to take some experimenting to get the best extraction rate.

Hope that helps!

 

[augiedoggy]

2) I have always been in the camp of those who believe that allowing the grain to be uncovered by sparge water releases more tannins because the hydro static pressure around the grain is lowered.

I dont want to take this off topic but as far as your concern here...
I used the think the same thing as well as squeezing the grain to extract the last bits of sparge/wort would extract tannins... basically from what I learned since its a brewing myth. I was told many breweries squeeze the grainbed as well as many brew in the bag brewers which would essentially be a more extreme version of what your concerned about. There have also been experiments done to debunk this which were shared in a thread I read last year on this. The ph is the important factor when it comes to releasing tannins.

 

[Darkbrew]

Interesting. That's one of the first things we are told not to do when learning to home brew, and making tea

I'd like to learn more about this, can you recommend some links?

Thanks!

 

[augiedoggy]

Interesting. That's one of the first things we are told not to do when learning to home brew, and making tea

I'd like to learn more about this, can you recommend some links?

Thanks!

I was actually told the same thing about a year after I started using a locline sparge arm the would sprinkle from above so I changed my process and saw zero effect on the beer.

Take a look at the sparge arm sold by stout on all thier micro and nano mash tuns... its effectively a sprinker which sprinkles the mwort over the grain bed while mash recirculating a ton of microbreweries use this process.


theres a thread here call Squeezing the grainbed" or something to that effect you might want to search for. it had a lot of links and discussion on the topic and is where I was educated on this.

a quick google search brings this up where it mentions ph as the cause.
https://www.westcoastbrewer.com/BrewersBlog/tag/tannins/

and then theres this.
https://homebrew.stackexchange.com/...-not-to-squeeze-the-speciality-grain-mesh-bag

 

[chezhed]

As for sparge and hoppings techniques, I can answer regarding the Grainfather and I presume it will be applicable to the Robobrew since the baskets are similar.
Hop additions - While the Grainfather has a filter, it does become clogged and requires scraping if a lot of loose hops are put in. I believe the same problem will occur with the Robobrew's false bottom. Grainfather offers a hop spider that fits nicely and works well. Alternatively bagged hops solve the problem. I use a combination of both. Scraping defeats the whirlpool effect IMO.
Sparging - Many of us (me and my customers) have struggled initially to get better efficiency with the GF and sparge methods. Two things seem to help; 1) a finer crush than you might normally use in a standard cooler mash tun and 2) keeping the water level above the top plate when sparging. We have learned that it is best to pour enough water continuously to keep that plate underwater by as much as possible without overflowing into the center pipe. It also helps to push the plate down to the top of the grain bed when raised to drain/sparge instead of letting it sit high with dead space below so you can actually see the water level. I suppose you could even push on it to squeeze the bed if you wanted afterward.