Water help

[Tess Tickle's Brewery]

Hey guys

I’m looking for help from people who have a brewzilla along with a helix please. Maybe @DocAnna @Rodcx500z might have the answer?

My problem is, my latest brew’s efficiency is really down and I’m not sure why. I think it may be down to too much water, as when I removed the mash pipe after the wort had dripped out, another 2L of wort dripped out into the bucket.

Turned out ok in the end as it’s over-attenuated so I’ve made back some gravity, but now it’s slightly more bitter than I was going for (also had an issue with the inkbird but that’s another story!)

I wondered if someone could have a look at my equipment profile, and tell me if anything looks off please? Do the figures look about right or would you think I need to change anything? I can only assume I should take the grain soak-up rate down a bit, but not sure.

 

[Moe]

I use pretty much the same profile for my BZ. Apart from my trub/chiller loss is set at 1L and I work at 70% efficiency.
My efficiency was wildly variable for my first ten brews or so, but I’m slowly dialling the consistency in. I’m not an expert but slowly learning a bit here and there as I do more brews.
Water treatment and sparging slowly has increased my efficiency. Also funnily enough in a high malt bill, just letting the mash overflow down the handle holes ended up with one of my most efficient high ABV brews.

What recipe did you brew when you had poor efficiency?

I have found that anything over 5kg of malt means the efficiency dips, and completely plummets at 6kg+.

I try to make up for this with some extra grain, but then you end up chasing your tail so to speak as more grain means less efficiency.

I have accepted that my maximum ABV with this is 6.5 ish % for a 23l brew. And to be honest it’s dangerous enough having a 6% beer on tap so my liver is happy with this

 

[Tess Tickle's Brewery]

I think part of it is to do with having removed the middle pipe and having a blanking plug in. I’m not using the top plate so it seems like there’s too much standing water on the top of the malt, if you know what I mean. Also I’m getting a lot of malt in the wort. I love TMM but they crush the grain way too fine.

Thanks for the reply Moe. Just as a matter of interest, do you have a helix?

 

[foxy]

Hey guys

I’m looking for help from people who have a brewzilla along with a helix please. Maybe @DocAnna @Rodcx500z might have the answer?

My problem is, my latest brew’s efficiency is really down and I’m not sure why. I think it may be down to too much water, as when I removed the mash pipe after the wort had dripped out, another 2L of wort dripped out into the bucket.

Turned out ok in the end as it’s over-attenuated so I’ve made back some gravity, but now it’s slightly more bitter than I was going for (also had an issue with the inkbird but that’s another story!)

I wondered if someone could have a look at my equipment profile, and tell me if anything looks off please? Do the figures look about right or would you think I need to change anything? I can only assume I should take the grain soak-up rate down a bit, but not sure.

View attachment 62560View attachment 62561View attachment 62562

A finer crush should increase your efficiency, but don't get to hung up on efficiency, it's about making the best beer you possibly can.
There is no standard profile with the SVB's. It is a slightly different profile between each brewer. The pH will make a difference as will sparge water and speed of sparge. If you have removed the overflow pipe and you have a fine crush it helps to keep giving it a stir.
I don't sparge so I have to get every drop of liquor out of the grain so I take my time between the end of mash out and boil. What I do is get a 20 litre pail full of water and sit it on top of the grain bed extracts about 2 to 3 litres of extra wort, I push my weight down on it too.
My boil off is 4 l/hr but I have heard the BrewZilla has a weak boil, there are tricks to reducing trub loss too.

 

[Tess Tickle's Brewery]

A finer crush should increase your efficiency, but don't get to hung up on efficiency, it's about making the best beer you possibly can.
There is no standard profile with the SVB's. It is a slightly different profile between each brewer. The pH will make a difference as will sparge water and speed of sparge. If you have removed the overflow pipe and you have a fine crush it helps to keep giving it a stir.
I don't sparge so I have to get every drop of liquor out of the grain so I take my time between the end of mash out and boil. What I do is get a 20 litre pail full of water and sit it on top of the grain bed extracts about 2 to 3 litres of extra wort, I push my weight down on it too.
My boil off is 4 l/hr but I have heard the BrewZilla has a weak boil, there are tricks to reducing trub loss too.
View attachment 62582

Some of your points I already do.

With the top plate removed it makes sense to give it a stir - but it's pushing bits through the bottom plate into the wort.
I ALWAYS sparge super slowly with a jug - you may have seen this on my brewday thread.

I take on board some of your other points though. But I guess if you haven't got a Brewzilla then you can't really answer my question.

 

[foxy]

Some of your points I already do.

With the top plate removed it makes sense to give it a stir - but it's pushing bits through the bottom plate into the wort.
I ALWAYS sparge super slowly with a jug - you may have seen this on my brewday thread.

I take on board some of your other points though. But I guess if you haven't got a Brewzilla then you can't really answer my question.

You are missing the point, it isn't the BrewZilla, its your process, doesn't matter what SVB you have you have to work out your own equipment process. No two brewers are going to have the same grain crush, loss to grain absorption, same calibration of mash temperature, same liquor to grain ratio. Its something we all have to do on ones own merit.

 

[Tess Tickle's Brewery]

Silly question - but do you think the grain absorbs more water when it's finer, or less?

Getting one of those grainfather electric things asap so I can crush my own!

 

[foxy]

Silly question - but do you think the grain absorbs more water when it's finer, or less?

Getting one of those grainfather electric things asap so I can crush my own!

Better off crushing your own grain, a word of warning put a 200 gram through first and check that the crush is correct, all grains aren't equal. This is generally on the base/fermentable grains. Fine or coarse crush the absorption is roughly the same.
Another point the fine bits that get through the bottom screen aren't a problem. You can skim of the hot break as it comes up to the boil, or wait until it all coagulates at the bottom of the kettle. It's the husks you have to keep out of the boil.

 

[Tess Tickle's Brewery]

ok, thanks