New to Grain and Brewzilla at the same time

[NightFlight]

So I dove in with both feet. I've got a kegerator and a keg ready at the bit. Its currently holding a gallon of nice cider/dry apple wine I made - its actually quite good!. Then I have an all grain kit and a Brand new brewzilla 35L still in the box.

I've never done grain. Period. I only have a couple LME kits under my belt and bottled, none of which I have managed to really enjoy. I tried some all grain results at my local shop and .... wow.

So here I am. I figured buying all the stuff over time to get to all grain will actually have higher costs over the long run. With guidance from my local shop I can see the value in starting right away with a Brewzilla.

Looking for some guidance. I can't find a good guide that goes from start to finish for a completely novice all grain brewer that starts with something like a brewzilla or grainfather right off the hop (no puns intended).

Everything demonstrating an electric like this assumes you're already familiar with all the mash/lauder/boil steps. I'd like to just see it done start to finish - no steps missed.

I've managed to pretty much screw up every one of my LME kits somehow, but I'm still hanging in there. I am determined to get my 10,000hrs in and dream of going bigger in retirement. Even though I've been making mistakes, I've been learning from them.

Note, in Canada a Grain kit is around $40, LME can kit is around $20-$25. Grains are expensive, but I assume if you want better beer - you should try all grain. Anyone know where to get cheaper grains?

 

[OG-wan Kenobi]

All grain beer is superior to extract beer, I did extract for 5 years and when I made the switch the result was obvious.

here is a video of the Brewzilla being used



Making beer is easy get your water to temp, add grain, let it mash take the grain out and it's just like extract after that, sanitation is key

 

[speavler]

You'll be surprised at how easy it is. Is your grain already crushed? Make sure to stir a lot as you dough in to avoid clumps. Modulate the pump flow with the ball valve during the mash. don't have the heating element on without the pump also on during the mash. take your time sparging.

 

[NightFlight]

yeah, they milled it for me, as I have no milling tool. My LHBS included a free kit with the brewzilla. It all looks easy. I hear the HLT doesn't actually need to be up to mash out temp for sparge, but will just elongate your boil time if it is not. Is this true? I've been holding off on that point.

Other advice I've gotten is that you need to get your post boil temp down to around pitching temp within 15 minutes. Shouldn't be an issue right now with my ground water being near freezing.

Need to do a dry run with just water to get the setup/process understood I think.

 

[OG-wan Kenobi]

Doing a dry run with water is a good idea

15 minute chill time is ideal don't drive yourself nuts just do your best the more you nail down your process the better you will get at all stages of brewing

You want to be a little over your mash in temp before adding the grain as the grain will cool off the water a bit you can always heat it up or stir to chill to dial in temps 5 degrees should be a good starting point just keep notes of your observations and you will dial in your process in just a few brews


I do BIAB and do not sparge I just drain the bag and move on

 

[NightFlight]

Doing a dry run with water is a good idea

You want to be a little over your mash in temp before adding the grain as the grain will cool off the water a bit you can always heat it up or stir to chill to dial in temps 5 degrees should be a good starting point just keep notes of your observations and you will dial in your process in just a few brews

Your talking about strike temperature I suppose. It's the thermal delta the mash water? Step 1 in my kit says be sure to calculate the correct strike water temperature. Instruction is to hold the mash at 150F for 60min and to sparge 170F with enough to bring to 6.5G. Boil, add bittering hops at T-0:00 and aroma at T+45:00. Stop boil at T+60:00

I think I need a proper temp probe for the above strike. You're speaking 5 degrees F or C? As for dry runs, I was thinking of making 9.25lbs of oatmeal that would give me an idea of the temperature offset required on strike. Thanks for the 5 degree starting point. What would I do with 10lbs of oatmeal afterwards?

I do BIAB and do not sparge I just drain the bag and move on

Do you start with enough water minus mash bag? Your saying not enough of the OG comes out of the sparge process to bother...

My last extract batch was boiled. My wife was ready to kick me out. She's nose sensitive - she was ready to toss her cookies because the "stench" was so strong. She doesn't care for beer either. .... sigh.

Thus the need for garage/outdoor solution. I have high hopes for this summer.

 

[TwoHeadsBrewing]

Also a proud Brewzilla 3.1 owner here, and I think you'll love it. It's not a perfect system, but I've brewed some damn good beer on it. It's also nice to have an all in one setup. Here's my basic brew day:

1. Filter water for mash in, usually about 5 gallons for a normal 5-6% beer
2. Turn on the Brewzilla and set the temp to 158F and hit start
3. Once up to temp, mash in and mix well (also hit pause so it doesn't keep heating)
4. Set the temp to desired mash temp. 152F is pretty standard for a medium body beer. I only use the single 500W burner for this.
5. Let the well-mixed mash sit for 15 minutes, then start the pump (if you have the pump version) and recirculate slowly(!)
6. While mashing, get another 2-3 gallons of hot water. I heat mine up on the stove to 170F, but it's not necessary.
7. After 60 minutes, lift the grain basket.
8. Set the temperature to 2F above boiling and turn both burners on
9. Pour hot water evenly and gently over the grains, keeping the liquid level 1-2" above the grain bed
10. Sparge until you reach 6 gallons of wort
11. When the boil starts, add hops. Keep adding at intervals specified in your recipe.
12. 15 minutes before the end of the boil, put the chiller in to sanitize it. I also turn the pump on to make sure the pump and lines are all sanitized as well.
13. When boil is complete, turn off the unit and turn on the chilling water. Leave the pump on, since this helps to chill it down faster
14. At 75F or so, turn off the chilling water, pump into your sanitized fermenter and pitch the yeast.
15. If you've taken the chance to clean up the grain basket during the boil, you really don't have the much to clean.

 

[NightFlight]

Yep, pump version. I should get it out of the box and put it together. Its been sitting in the box since last weekend. My grains are stored in a nearly perfect sized tupperware container I swiped from the wife's pantry.

Well, that process seems pretty sweet. Once comfortable, lots of opportunity to watch, relax, throw darts and have a brew.

I think I'll just heat up some water on the stove to the sparge temp and use it and not worry. I'm thinking I was going to get a cooler and drill in an electric heater - maybe later. If the sparge water temp drop is not critical then I'll not worry.

As for chilling, I don't have the re-circulating one, just the one supplied. Again, maybe later if that makes a difference. I may be able to rig up an ice bath from a cooler - but that might be too much effort - I'm lazy.

 

[NightFlight]

1. Filter water for mash in, usually about 5 gallons for a normal 5-6%

Do you bother with the mash calculation? I've got got a calc of 9.25lb or using KG multiply by 3 for how many Litres of water to use.

Brewzilla First Run Notes
Mash water calculation
multiply grain bill kg x 3 in Litres
lbs = .453592KG
9.25 * .453592 = 4.195729KG * 3L = 12.587187 Litres

 

[NightFlight]

Lautering... the Brewzilla uses the pump during the mash period rather than it being an extra step after mash in standard HB setup?

 

[hopjuice_71]

Hi there, congrats on taking the leap to all grain. I think you will find it rewarding. I'm a Grainfather user, which is similar, and considering this is your first batch on your new equipment and your first all grain batch I'm going to make a friendly suggestion to hopefully make things go more smoothly.

I would suggest doing this as a no-sparge batch. In this case you simply combine the total volume of water (mash+sparge), bring it to an appropriately calculated mash temp for that full volume, then mash in. After the allotted period of time, pull the mash pipe and let it drain into the kettle. Easy-peasy. Its the all-in-one version of brew-in-a-bag (BIAB). I do it in my Grainfather with smaller grain bills. You have more capacity so it should work with your 4kg grain bill in the Brewzilla (Off the top of my head I'm guessing you would need around 29-30L of mash water and around a 32-33L capacity). The upside is that it really simplifies things for a first go around with no sacrifice in quality. The downside is that you may take a small hit in efficiency, meaning you may undershoot the target gravity of the kit a bit, but that is not a big deal. Other downside is that heating the large volume of mash water will be a bit slower, but these units can handle it.

Sparging is not difficult, but it does mean farting around with an extra volume of water, usually heated by an additional external source, then monitoring volumes etc. Again, for the first go at it, the no-sparge approach will keep it a bit simpler. Then in future batches you can build in more complexity to your methods, if you even want to.

Cheers

 

[NightFlight]

Well I like the stepped approach. No sparge it is. Though, my instinct would be that sparge in a larger volume would be more efficient.... but aahhhhh your missing the fresh water running through the grain... I don't mind a smaller beer really - I just love the taste of beer. If it didnt' have alcohol, I wouldn't care one bit.

And no, my carboy is only 23L, and my Keg is 19L, so I'm going to shoot for around 20L and bottle whatever extra I get.

Whatever makes it easier the first time around, the better! I really appreciate the guidance.