I just got a brewzilla 65. I have brewed 2 5 gallon batches and third 10 gallon batch. The problem I had was the pump plugged up with material during cooling to 60F with immersion cooler. Is this something I can expect with this all in one system?
details
18 pounds pilsner
1 pound rice hulls mixed by hand prior to dump
mash 122 20 min, 149 60 min, 158 45 min, 170 10 min 10.5 gallons. Sparge 3.5 gallons.
The mash was multistep because that’s what instructions said. I extended the mash times because gravity was not where I thought it should be. That was not necessary as I got 1.056 vs target of 1.048. Mash went well flow was good had a whirlpool going on top distribution plate.
Conventional boil at 2000 watts started with 11.5 gallons. whirlfloc added at 10 min left. 2 ounces tradition at 60 2 ounces hersbrucker at 30 min.
cooling with coil was going normally with a whirlpool going using the brewzilla pump. I noticed the temperature hung at 80 F for some reason. Noticed pump was not working and while it was 80F under the false bottom, wort was at 60F. Tried to drain using pump and it was plugged. Used drain valve and it was plugged as well. sanitized arm lifted false bottom and it had an inch of crap on it with real fine material on top. There was no flow through false bottom due to all the material and the hot break stuff below the false bottom had plugged it as well.
Is this normal for such an all in one system or did my extending the mash times make this problem. Or something else. I have never seen so much crap drop out while cooling after boil.
Their instructions say 1 pound rice hulls for 5 gallons. With 18 pounds I think you should at least double that. You played around with the flow rate ball valve during the process I assume
Seeing the comment about the hop spider screen made me think OMG I did not use the hop spider. I did another brew with same grain bill just different hops (pilsner vs kolsch) using hop spider and that may have solved the problem. Thanks for the mention of hop spider!
Details below
I started using a hop spider during the boil. I run the recirculation pump continuously during the boil and have it discharge into the hop spider. Out of habit, I added the 60 minute hops into the pot not the spider by mistake. The hops made it through the false bottom into the spider where they were removed. The other hop additions at 30 and 15 went into the spider.
At 10 minutes left in boil I added the whirlfloc. The hop spider (325 mesh?) started to plug up and fill up with wort. I had to scrape spider with a spoon to get the hop spider to drain. I had to switch to another discharge pipe which made a whirlpool. The end result is that a lot less crap wound up on the false bottom and less under the false bottom. There was also a lot less of that light brown precipitate that forms during boil.
But also this was not a 10 gallon brew like previous brew only 5 gallon. However I looked at photos I took of the false bottom and the amount deposited appeared to be far less than 50%.
My hop basket is a 400 mesh… yes, it plugs up too… I quit putting the recirc hose in that basket… In fact, I have a whirlpool port down at the bottom that the wort goes through into the kettle. I also have a hi-temp rubber spatula for scraping the hop basket… Also makes cleaning the hops out of the basket simpler…
Sneezles61
