My first all grain brew.

Davo114 · Dec 1, 2021

Hi guys.
I did my first brew in my Brewzilla the other day using an all grain stout kit I bought at Maltmiller. I did the mash and stirred it regularly then when I lifted the malt pipe out to drain into the Brewzilla hardly anything drained off. It was a 23ltr kit and after the mash I ended up with only 16 litres for the boil. Should I just sparge it through with boiling water up to 23 litres next time? It's all very new to me.

pilgrimhudd · Dec 1, 2021

The grain will hold onto a lot of water, you need to take this into account when you brew. How much did you start with?
Did you follow any instructions or anything?

Rodcx500z · Dec 1, 2021

Have you got brewing software ie brewfather, it has a profile for the brewzilla 35L and 65L, i have the 35 and was quite surprised by the dead space under the grain basket 6.75L, for a grain bill of 4.68kg i needed 20.78L of mash water and 7.68L to sparge, the brewzilla is a great bit of kit but i would recommend some kind of software

Davo114 · Dec 1, 2021

Davo114 said:
Hi guys.
I did my first brew in my Brewzilla the other day using an all grain stout kit I bought at Maltmiller. I did the mash and stirred it regularly then when I lifted the malt pipe out to drain into the Brewzilla hardly anything drained off. It was a 23ltr kit and after the mash I ended up with only 16 litres for the boil. Should I just sparge it through with boiling water up to 23 litres next time? It's all very new to me.

pilgrimhudd said:
The grain will hold onto a lot of water, you need to take this into account when you brew. How much did you start with?
Did you follow any instructions or anything?

Yeah. I followed the instructions to the letter. Nothing about water retention or sparging in it.

chillipickle · Dec 1, 2021

As rod mentioned, down load the brewfarther app it's free.That will help you work alot out.Plenty of in depth youtube videos using the software and the brewzilla.

Just a rough guide, for a 5.5 to 6kg grain bill i use about 20ltr mash water and 13 to 15 ltr sparge to get a 29ltr pre boil.
After hops have had their drink and dead space normally 22 to 23ltr in the fv.

Davo114 · Dec 1, 2021

Rodcx500z said:
Have you got brewing software ie brewfather, it has a profile for the brewzilla 35L and 65L, i have the 35 and was quite surprised by the dead space under the grain basket 6.75L, for a grain bill of 4.68kg i needed 20.78L of mash water and 7.68L to sparge, the brewzilla is a great bit of kit but i would recommend some kind of software

Thanks mate, I'll take a look.

chillipickle · Dec 1, 2021

The instructions wont normally tell you sparge volumes etc as most systems are different, get that brewfarther app :)

pilgrimhudd · Dec 1, 2021

Difficult to get things right first time! I have a Klarstein and it's taken me age to know how to get a consistent brew on. As Rod said, get the brewfather app, it'll help you get started.

Davo114 · Dec 1, 2021

chillipickle said:
As rod mentioned, down load the brewfarther app it's free.That will help you work alot out.Plenty of in depth youtube videos using the software and the brewzilla.

Just a rough guide, for a 5.5 to 6kg grain bill i use about 20ltr mash water and 13 to 15 ltr sparge to get a 29ltr pre boil.
After hops have had their drink and dead space normally 22 to 23ltr in the fv.

Just a thought then. If like last time, I lose say 8 litres in the grain and its a 23 litre batch size, could I just add 8 lites of sparge water back up to the 23 litre mark inside the Brewzilla?

Alastair70 · Dec 1, 2021

Davo114 said:
Just a thought then. If like last time, I lose say 8 litres in the grain and its a 23 litre batch size, could I just add 8 lites of sparge water back up to the 23 litre mark inside the Brewzilla?

The software does all the hard work for you so you don’t have to ponder things like this. If Brewzilla doesn’t have one of their own, the usual suspects like BeerSmith or Brew Father will have your device in their equipment profiles.
In essence your right but your efficiency will suffer if your mash viscosity is way off to begin with.

chillipickle · Dec 1, 2021

Have a watch through this video, explains setting up brewfarther with a 35ltr brewzilla.You will need to make slight adjustments, but it's a decent starting point.

robster62 · Dec 2, 2021

Davo114 said:
Just a thought then. If like last time, I lose say 8 litres in the grain and its a 23 litre batch size, could I just add 8 lites of sparge water back up to the 23 litre mark inside the Brewzilla?

For a 23L brew you would need to boil around 27L allowing for 3-4L boil off.

fgoulding · Dec 2, 2021

The Brewfather app was a bit confusing at first for me but you soon get the hang of it. Setting the boil time for your Brrewzilla in the equipment profile is key.

Plus don’t be surprised is your mash plus sparge water exceeds 33L at times depending on the recipe. Just trust the app.

Also, I highly recommend buying rice hulls to help with the sparge in the Brewzilla. They are cheap, don’t impart any flavours but really help the sparge water to run through. Just use 3 or 4 handfuls per brew.

Good luck!

martin1256 · Dec 2, 2021

Firstly I don’t bother lifting the grain pipe as there is enough dead space underneath to contain any wort which can be got out by tipping it slightly. Secondly it may sound obvious but no one has mentioned that when you finish sparging I use the top plate to compress the grain to ensure I get the most out as a fair amount of water is trapped in the grain.

HarryFlatters · Dec 2, 2021

How much water did you start with?

When I'm doing a full volume mash, I start with 30-32 litres depending on the grain bill.

fgoulding · Dec 2, 2021

martin1256 said:
Firstly I don’t bother lifting the grain pipe as there is enough dead space underneath to contain any wort which can be got out by tipping it slightly. Secondly it may sound obvious but no one has mentioned that when you finish sparging I use the top plate to compress the grain to ensure I get the most out as a fair amount of water is trapped in the grain.

I used to do that and it’s great advice but I’ve ditched the pipe in the centre of the grain basket and plugged the hole. So now I don’t use top plate anymore and have a plastic diffuser on the tube from the pump.

Also not having the centre pipe makes it easier for me to stir the mash every now and then.

But as not to lose any volume, after mash out I put the grain pipe into a plastic fermentation bucket and pour back into the boil any liquid from the drain off.

Davo114 · Dec 2, 2021

HarryFlatters said:
How much water did you start with?

When I'm doing a full volume mash, I start with 30-32 litres depending on the grain bill.

It was a 19l batch so I used 19l. I'm only used to doing Coopers kits so I'm learning, slowly.

HarryFlatters · Dec 2, 2021

Davo114 said:
It was a 19l batch so I used 19l. I'm only used to doing Coopers kits so I'm learning, slowly.

No worries man, that's what we're here for acheers.

For all grain, you need to factor in grain absorption and boil off. Absorption is normally between 0.5 and 1 litre per kg of grain and boil off is between 2 and 4 litres per hour. It's system / grain bill dependent so start with the standard numbers on one of the online calculator and then once you've a few brews under your belt you can change the values to suit your system.

When you figure out what volume of packaged beer you want at the end, you then work back to figure out the total volume you require. I do full volume, no sparge, so your mileage may vary...

I want a full keg, so that's 19 litres of packaged beer
There's going to be some crud in the fermenter that I don't want to put in the keg, so I'll add on about 2 litres for trub, now we're at 21 litres
There's going to be crud at the bottom of the kettle that I don't want to go into the fermenter, so I'll add on another 2 litres for cold break, now we're at 23 litres.
An hour boil is going to boil off 4 litres, so we're at 27 litres pre boil volume.
My grain bill is 5kg, and I figure I'll lose 1 litre per kg to absorption, so that means the total amount of water I need to start with is 32 litres.

This is the simplified version of the calculations done in the Grainfather app and Brewer's Friend etc - works for me :beer1:

Davo114 · Dec 2, 2021

HarryFlatters said:
No worries man, that's what we're here for

For all grain, you need to factor in grain absorption and boil off. Absorption is normally between 0.5 and 1 litre per kg of grain and boil off is between 2 and 4 litres per hour. It's system / grain bill dependent so start with the standard numbers on one of the online calculator and then once you've a few brews under your belt you can change the values to suit your system.

When you figure out what volume of packaged beer you want at the end, you then work back to figure out the total volume you require. I do full volume, no sparge, so your mileage may vary...

I want a full keg, so that's 19 litres of packaged beer
There's going to be some crud in the fermenter that I don't want to put in the keg, so I'll add on about 2 litres for trub, now we're at 21 litres
There's going to be crud at the bottom of the kettle that I don't want to go into the fermenter, so I'll add on another 2 litres for cold break, now we're at 23 litres.
An hour boil is going to boil off 4 litres, so we're at 27 litres pre boil volume.
My grain bill is 5kg, and I figure I'll lose 1 litre per kg to absorption, so that means the total amount of water I need to start with is 32 litres.

This is the simplified version of the calculations done in the Grainfather app and Brewer's Friend etc - works for me

Thanks very much mate.

My first all grain brew.

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