Mash and Boil for 250.00

[mashani]

Thanks guys. I owe my wife a Berliner Weiss that I normally do as a 3g DME batch but I'm thinking I might use this for it since I can 'kettle sour' in it at 90.

Just remember to set the timer so that it doesn't turn off long before you want it to. By default it will only run 3 1/2 hours or something like that.

What do you mean by that? I did read about the 3 1/2 hour run time so how can it be set to keep say 90 degrees for 48 hours?
Or is that 3 1/2 hours CONTINUAL run time meaning I can set it for 90 and it will hold for 48 hours assuming it doesn't run for 3 1/2 hours continuously?

It will *only* run for 3 1/2 hours and then turn off no matter what, unless you program it for more hours. Doesn't matter if it's mashing, boiling, or whatever, if it's ON then it's counted as hours. When you hit "set" you can change the hours as well as the temp, fiddle with it with some water in it and you will see.

The max hours you can set it for is 24 I think (maybe 23:59, I've never gone above 7 so not really sure). So what you will have to do for 48 is to go back the next day and hit "set" again and then crank it back up to another 24 hours... not too bad, but you need to remember to do it.


Make sense?

[Kealia]

Yep, thanks. Got that answer on the M&B FB group last night, too. Seems my reply here to ignore that question didn't take but it never hurts to hear things twice.

I feel like a kid who has a new toy but no batteries!

EDIT TO ADD:
I went to play with it this morning and I actually don't have the menu option to set a runtime, just the delayed start. I have an email out to Brewer's Edge to ask about this.....grr.

I'm sure it will all work out fine once I use this, but at the moment between this and the fact that I have to deal with buying a new chiller and sell my Hydra I am a bit frustrated.

[Kealia]

Since it's Sunday and I likely won't hear back from B.E. until Wed I decided to run my own test. I put in 3G of water and set the temp to 90. Almost 6 hours later it is still on and maintaining the temperature. I plan to check again in the morning and see where it is. If it runs for 24 hours it should run until 1:00 PST tomorrow. Heck, as long as it gets through the night I'll be happy.

[mashani]

Since it's Sunday and I likely won't hear back from B.E. until Wed I decided to run my own test. I put in 3G of water and set the temp to 90. Almost 6 hours later it is still on and maintaining the temperature. I plan to check again in the morning and see where it is. If it runs for 24 hours it should run until 1:00 PST tomorrow. Heck, as long as it gets through the night I'll be happy.

That is interesting, mine for sure does not work that way. I wonder if they changed the controller?

[bpgreen]

Since it's Sunday and I likely won't hear back from B.E. until Wed I decided to run my own test. I put in 3G of water and set the temp to 90. Almost 6 hours later it is still on and maintaining the temperature. I plan to check again in the morning and see where it is. If it runs for 24 hours it should run until 1:00 PST tomorrow. Heck, as long as it gets through the night I'll be happy.

That is interesting, mine for sure does not work that way. I wonder if they changed the controller?

I've read that the newest versions don't have as many options.

[Kealia]

I got a reply from Brewer's Edge this morning:

Due to popular demand, the run time feature has been eliminated. What this means is it will run as long as you want, which customers demanded for things like making sours or heated ferments in the winter.

And I can confirm that my own test of 90 degree water is still on and holding at 23 hours.

[berryman]

I got a reply from Brewer's Edge this morning:

Due to popular demand, the run time feature has been eliminated. What this means is it will run as long as you want, which customers demanded for things like making sours or heated ferments in the winter.

And I can confirm that my own test of 90 degree water is still on and holding at 23 hours.

Cool, one more less thing to deal with as on the older ones. It has not been a issue with the way I use it but could see how it could be on what you want to do. Looks like they are to gen 3 now, Mine is 1 and I think the rest here besides you and the professor are gen 2.

[berryman]

Did my second test with a full volume mash on 2.5 gal and was a lot better. Same grain but crushed it myself. did a little longer mash and let it drain for 30. With a 5.250 grain bill got 1.043 0n 3.5 gal preboil and 1.056 og 0n 2.5 gal. was at 5.5 ph. Things I am learning on using this machine with this method, I have more boil off at 3.5 then at 6.5 the way I have been doing it. It is a lot faster and easier to make a small batch of beer and no pump or hoses. I still will make my 5 gal batches the way I have been, but if I want a quick and easy this is not a bad way to go. Not even sure what this will taste like because just wanted to use up some leftover hops I had in the freezer .5 fuggle @60, .5 Hallertau @15 and .5 Saaz @2 mins. 05 yeast.

[Kealia]

Today is my first batch so I'm capturing notes here for any feedback, input and for my own records.

5-gallon batch, aiming for:
- 6.5G pre-boil
- 6G post boil
- 5.5 in the fermenter

12.25lbs of grain and 4.2G of water for mash in (0.34G per pound)
- I find the mash too thick
- Strike water was 160 and grain was 62. I lost 15 degrees ending up with a 145 mash in temp (aiming for 150)
Normally my grains are room temp (~68) and I didn't account for the 5-degree difference)
Out of curiosity, how many degrees are you guys losing during mash in (difference between strike water and mash in temp)?
- Spent 30 minutes recirculating and playing around trying to get temp up - finally added 1/2G water to stabilize at 150 or so
- Ended up mashing in for somewhere around 1:45 (lost track)
- I found the top of the mash to have a pretty good variance from the bottom as well as the sides - I think because the mash was too thick. I plan on using my normal 1.5Q/lb (or 0.375G/lb)
- Pulled the basket and started the sparge aiming to hit 6.5G pre-boil

More to come...

[Kealia]

Time to sparge and bring to a boil (for 6.5G) was just under 45 minutes - not bad at all IMO.

I didn't play with the boil-off myself, so just going with what others have posted at .5G - .6G/hour so I should be dialed in.
Just checked the pre-boil gravity and I'm 5 pts higher than expected. We'll see what final gravity looks like when all is said and done, though. (My BS profile is set for 72% BH Efficiency which is what I have always used.

If I do end up high, it could very well be because of the long ass mash

I do have a nice boil going. It's just odd to be brewing in a new location after 10 years - AND on new equipment.

[berryman]

Interesting to hear this. Not sure why you did such a long mash.

[mashani]

Interesting to hear this. Not sure why you did such a long mash.

I think maybe because he was fiddling around trying to get the temp where he wanted it.

Out of curiosity, how many degrees are you guys losing during mash in (difference between strike water and mash in temp)?

I am not a good example, because I either have done full on BIAB like mashes, and when I can't, *as close* to a full on BIAB mash as I could pull off, and then a minimal sparge (at most say 2 gallons for say a 6 gallon batch).

But doing that it's rare that I lose more then 5 degrees with room temperature grains.

- I found the top of the mash to have a pretty good variance from the bottom as well as the sides - I think because the mash was too thick. I plan on using my normal 1.5Q/lb (or 0.375G/lb)

This isn't the case for me, but again I'm a bad example, because I have a lot of extra thermal mass from the volume of water to grain.

Just checked the pre-boil gravity and I'm 5 pts higher than expected.

I am using 72% Brewhouse with my theoretically less efficient BIAB mashes and hitting that.

The Mash & Boil people say that their stupidly thick seeming mash (kind of like what you did) produces higher efficiency then a more "normal" mash.

So, maybe it's true and all of the "off" things that you mentioned don't matter in that regards.

[Kealia]

Interesting to hear this. Not sure why you did such a long mash.

I think maybe because he was fiddling around trying to get the temp where he wanted it.

This is exactly right.

And we'll see about the efficiency after my next brew when I go back to my normal water volumes. If It's lower, then I can assume it's the thicker mash that helped but I also doubled my mash time on this one - which may or not be contributing since we know most conversion happens pretty quick.

In any case, I'm taking good notes so I know how things went and what to adjust.
My new chiller dropped the temp from boiling to 160 in about 15 - 20 seconds. Wow. I overshot my goal of 180 but no harm done for the hopstand. I figure anywhere between 160-180 is fine.

SO today's brew day will be longer than ones in the future as I work out kinks. But I have nothing else to do today so it's all good.

[Kealia]

All in all I'm pretty happy with this. Aside from dialing in my mash temp it worked exactly as I hoped it would.
I hit my numbers (actually beat my numbers) so I can't complain about the efficiency.
I ended up with ~5.3G of 1.060 wort when I was targeting ~5.5 of 1.057 wort. I could have tipped the unit to get the remaining 0.2G out but it was the trubby mess so I opted for some water to dillute down to my 1.057 target as that was what I based my hops/recfipe on and I've brewed this before and wanted it to be the same in all aspects.

So, I'll play with my strike water temp and amounts and I should be ready to go. I love having the water ready for me when I wake up - although overall my brew day was at least as long as normal due to messing with the water.

I expected a bit of a learning curve so with the strike water being the only 'issue' I'm happy with the first run. Plus, you know, I made beer.

[berryman]

I hit my numbers (actually beat my numbers) so I can't complain about the efficiency.
I ended up with ~5.3G of 1.060 wort when I was targeting ~5.5 of 1.057 wort. I could have tipped the unit to get the remaining 0.2G out but it was the trubby mess

Yea I try not to either and have that figured in the kettle loss. I have a little more boil off then most are stating.

I expected a bit of a learning curve so with the strike water being the only 'issue' I'm happy with the first run. Plus, you know, I made beer.

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