ctfoust
New to All Grain
Has anyone brewed 13% 5 gallon batch with a Brewzilla 65L gen 4 system. If so what steps did you take to complete this?
Looking for suggestions on reaching > 13% alcohol with a Brewzilla Gen 4 65L system to create a big stout. My recipe calls for 41 lbs of grain
- Thread starter ctfoust
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G_robertus
Well-Known Member
Even though freedom units don't come naturally to me, this sounds like extremely poor efficiency for what you're trying to achieve. Or are you aiming for a pastry stout with an OG of 1.180-1.200? In that case think thrice about using an AIO for this recipe.
Regardless I'd go for a double or reiterated mash, maybe even triple. In a nutshell: Mash 40-50% of your malt, sparge until you get back to the correct amount of brewing liquor and mash with the rest of your grain. Then mash, sparge and boil as usual. This will get you a very decent efficiency for the gravity you're trying to achieve. You can vary a bit with what you do like adding 30-40% of your malt early on to maximise your sparge efficiency and doing 60-70% in the second. You can also add roasted malts later for better efficiency and managing water chemistry. I've gotten 70-80% efficiency on high ABV beers using an AIO this way. You will probably have to boil quite a long while and I tried many things to maximise efficiency. You might want to consider adding malt extract, sugars and or maltodextrin to get the OG/FG that you're aiming for. If you can post your recipe and are interested in extra pointers just let me know. I'm interested in a recipe with this grain bill any day.
Edit: this all advice on the hot side, but there are also plenty of things to manage on the cold side. Like (step) feeding sugars, pitching enough yeast, keeping yeast healthy and having immaculate temperature control.
Regardless I'd go for a double or reiterated mash, maybe even triple. In a nutshell: Mash 40-50% of your malt, sparge until you get back to the correct amount of brewing liquor and mash with the rest of your grain. Then mash, sparge and boil as usual. This will get you a very decent efficiency for the gravity you're trying to achieve. You can vary a bit with what you do like adding 30-40% of your malt early on to maximise your sparge efficiency and doing 60-70% in the second. You can also add roasted malts later for better efficiency and managing water chemistry. I've gotten 70-80% efficiency on high ABV beers using an AIO this way. You will probably have to boil quite a long while and I tried many things to maximise efficiency. You might want to consider adding malt extract, sugars and or maltodextrin to get the OG/FG that you're aiming for. If you can post your recipe and are interested in extra pointers just let me know. I'm interested in a recipe with this grain bill any day.
Edit: this all advice on the hot side, but there are also plenty of things to manage on the cold side. Like (step) feeding sugars, pitching enough yeast, keeping yeast healthy and having immaculate temperature control.
Last edited:
DuncB
Well-Known Member
Using my Guten 70 which is a similar vol AIO.
Last barley wine was batch 23 litres, BHE 68%,
OG 1.127 and FG 1.028
Grain bill total 14.3 kg, WLP 099 big pitch starter, oxygenated, roused, nutrients, no reiterated mash, 27 mash water and 9 litre sparge.
Made a 20 litre 1.044 partigyle best with the remnant sugars from the grain bill.
Should be straight forward provided you cope with the foibles of the BZ 4.
Last barley wine was batch 23 litres, BHE 68%,
OG 1.127 and FG 1.028
Grain bill total 14.3 kg, WLP 099 big pitch starter, oxygenated, roused, nutrients, no reiterated mash, 27 mash water and 9 litre sparge.
Made a 20 litre 1.044 partigyle best with the remnant sugars from the grain bill.
Should be straight forward provided you cope with the foibles of the BZ 4.
jerrylotto
Well-Known Member
Iterative mash. Pull half of your base grains aside and mash those normally. Then use that as the liquor to mash the second half with the remaining base grain in all of your adjuncts.
Yeah, a lot more info needs to be provided.
I'd think of how much grain I can reasonably fit, with enough water to hit around 1.25 quarts per pound, and enough space above it all to be able to stir and not slop it all out. I'd have it all in a huge mesh bag. I'd also probably think of an efficiency I could hit, which might be... 65% if I'm lucky. After that I'd ask how much DME I needed to add to get to my final numbers.
I've started putting DME into my Imperials when I use my AIO Foundry, 3 pounds in a 5 gallon batch. Makes mashing so much easier when I can pull about 5lbs of base malt out.
I'd think of how much grain I can reasonably fit, with enough water to hit around 1.25 quarts per pound, and enough space above it all to be able to stir and not slop it all out. I'd have it all in a huge mesh bag. I'd also probably think of an efficiency I could hit, which might be... 65% if I'm lucky. After that I'd ask how much DME I needed to add to get to my final numbers.
I've started putting DME into my Imperials when I use my AIO Foundry, 3 pounds in a 5 gallon batch. Makes mashing so much easier when I can pull about 5lbs of base malt out.
DuncB
Well-Known Member
Yeah, your'e right. I missed 5 gallons the first time. and thought maybe it was 10 but didn't know. Oops.
41 pounds is a stupendous amount of grain for that. I'd guess more like 25, possibly less. Something is still not right. 65L size is no longer a concern for not being big enough!
