Large Grainbill

[Mark Weusten]

I heard Imker say on one of the demo vids that the GF could hold up to 9kg. On saturday my grainbill was 7.6kg and I calculated my mash volume using the supplied calculation in the handbook. I dont know how much more it would handle. The recirculated water was going down the handle holes and taking debris with it. The instruction video says to place the top perforated plate above the grain line and not to compress. Anyone done larger than 7.6kg so far?

[Peter Smith]

Mark,   why not stop/start the recirc....    more like a grant would stop/start  etc

[Mark Weusten]

Yes, that would work. After a while the grain compacts so could leave recirc on after that.

[Mark Weusten]

I am going to try an iStout clone which being a massive beer needs shizzle loads of grain. Going off the can you brew it recipe, it has 11.67kg bill which aint goint to happen. I was thinking about splitting the grainbill and doing two mashes without sparging. Add them together for the 120 minute boil. What do you reckon?

[Chris]

Could you do a smaller version like a 7kg mash and sparge and then BIAB the additional 4.67kg.

If you have a spare big pot then combine for the boil.

Would be good to know the limitations

[David R]

Kinda cheating perhaps, but could you replace a portion of the base malt with dry/liquid malt extract to boost the gravity after the mash?

[Mark Weusten]

Trial iStout recipe going in the GF tonight 9kg, should be interesting....

[Mark Weusten]

Interesting wasn't the word more like unmanageable. Firstly water calcs go out the windows and I found I had added 5 litres too much. I ended up pumping 5 litres out so ended up with 22.5 litres for 9 kg of grain. I heated this up in a pot to 75 and used it to sparge after the mash. Other cock up was because this was a small batch, preboil 23 litres, my coathanger spider bag wasnt long enough so I had to throw the hops in all 210 grams which made it pretty sticky down there. The lower volume made for a ferocious boil and ended up after losing the deadspace to getting 15 litres in the fermenter. Due to all the shagging around and my wifes anger to find me brewing in the kitchen when she got back from dinner at a friends, I forgot to take an OG reading. For the time involved and the amount of beer you get in the fermenter I am going to stick to the manageable grainbills. I think the real iStout will need to be done on your 50 litre keg system Peter!

[Mark Weusten]

[Peter Smith]

post of the year....    rofl     no matter how much you clean she is going to find sticky malt spots mate....

Due to all the shagging around and my wifes anger to find me brewing in the kitchen when she got back from dinner at a friends

[David R]

So 9kg is too much, where do you think the comfortable limit will be?

[Mark Weusten]

My third brew in the GF was 7kg and that was comfortable, reasonable sparge times. At a push 8. Also depends on the grain, I had more problems with a smaller batch of Golden Promise  than larger Gladfields Pale Ale.

[David R]

What sort of efficiency have you been getting with larger grain bills? What sort of OG does 7-8kg translate to without reducing the batch size?