The general consensus based on feedback in forums and Facebook groups is that the limit on the amount of grain you can comfortably use in a 35L BrewZilla is around 7kg. The BrewZilla manual states that the malt pipe is designed to take up to 9kg of grain, however if you were to try and use this volume of grain you'd likely suffer from poor efficiency.
This is a rough guide and will depend on a few things like the type of grain being used and how much water you're using to mash with.
If you're looking to make a high gravity beer with your 35L BrewZilla and need to use more than 7kg of grain, you can look into doing a reiterated mash. Reiterated mashing involves taking the wort from your first mash, then using it as the strike/mash water for your second mashing - using a second batch of grain. This would be a technique to use for high gravity beers such as 'Imperial' style beers, Double/Triple IPA's etc.
If you're looking at increasing your volume or the amount of grain you can use in your BrewZilla, it's worth checking out the BrewZilla Boiler & Malt Pipe Extensions. These are add-on attachments for the BrewZilla, made by KegLand as a cost effective way to upgrade and increase capacity.
5kg larger been largering 6 weeks so far another 6to go
ReplyDeletenice one, I haven't made a lager yet, don't think I have the patience to wait that long!
ReplyDeleteWhat if you add the 12l extension to it?
ReplyDeleteif you add the 12L extension you can fit more water/liquid in the BrewZilla but you'll still be limited by the size of the standard steel malt pipe. The alternative would be to use a bag instead of the malt pipe that would allow you to utilise the extra 12L of space for grain as well.
DeleteI managed to fit the verdant hazy IPA recipe in.
ReplyDelete7.93kg of grain in total plus ~5 handfuls of rice hulls.
Took some "massaging" that's for sure!
It looked big in the bag so used a bowl to gradually add my grains to the strike water. Recipe also had lots of oats and wheat malt.
Started without the top screen and needed the conical overflow extension on the malt pipe to make sure it wasn't buried.
Grain bed went almost all the way to the lifting eyelets.
I have it extra time to settle before starting my mash time.
After about 30 minutes of careful recirculation (had the pump off more than on for most of it), it settled enough to remove the extension and get the screen on. From there on it went smoothly.
May will have been a good opportunity for a retreated mash. It would have been a lot less fuss that's for sure!
Final gravity was low but the mate who passed on the recipe uses a custom setup for double (65l+) batches and his was similar.
Extension would have been handy for the 29l boil volume, but got it through the foamy action at the beginning eventually.
Awesome machine the Brewzilla. Very happy.
7.93kg is pretty impressive - no doubt it would have been very sticky with that much grain, and oats and wheat included! Not surprising it didn't recirculate particularly well, but sounds like you got there in the end!
DeleteWell I know that I mashed 21kg yesterday in my 65l with the extension using a brewbag. 75.7l of 1.065sg wort into the fermenter.
ReplyDelete