Klarstein electric brewing kettle question

[Bubbles]

I just did my first brew (Double Diamond) using my new Klarstein "electric mash tun" (I don't use it for boiling, just mashing), and ran into a couple of problems. The first may be similar to other such devices -- there's two gallons of mash water below the lower screen plate which means that to get the right water:grain ratio for the grist you have to add two gallons of mash water to the calculations. This means you'll have two less gallons available for sparging and I'm not sure how you'd sparge with that much less liquid -- I like to batch sparge, so I'm not sure the grains would even be covered with two fewer gallons of liquid. BTW, my efficiency turned out to be several percentage points below what I got previously using my previous water cooler mash tun.

The other problem is that the pump returns the mash water to the mash over a top filter plate, but I got tunneling under that spot and the grains around the tunnel were considerable warmer than the surrounding grain bed. I'm thinking of securing a spoon or something like that to better disperse the pumped mash water.

Does anyone have any suggestions to address these problems?

 

[Donoroto]

Recirculate at a far slower volume. Adding a tube with holes or other device to spread the recirculated liquid out cannot hurt.

I don't have a good answer about the unusable mash volume. My brewzilla has the same issue, so I (mostly) ignore it.

 

[Minbari]

I had The same problem. i now use a brew basket in The mash Tun. it Allows The wort To Drain along the sids as Well as the Bottom

 

[Sammy86]

I own a Brewzilla 65L, had it for two years now, one full year with 10 brews on it due to twins.

I don't worry about the dead space because it gets recirculated back to the top so I don't add additional water.

First thing I do is mash thin...2-2.5/qts per pound. Once i dough in i let it rest for ten minutes then start recirculating. I also stir my mash at 20 minutes and 40 minutes thoroughly and again let the grain bed rest and then recirculate.

I literally dump 2-3 gallons on top for the sparge at once and make sure to mix to get out all the good stuff.


I've had really good success so far been getting about 84-89% efficiency since I've made these changes.

 

[AlexisMori]

HI...I dont know anything around this specific pot, but by the sounds of the cost its a expansive one 50L? Something this estimate and your not getting to be able to utilize your kitchen hob as you won't get a rolling boilwhen doing a full length 23L brew. You'll either got to see at other warming choices (gas burner or acceptance hob) or in case your only have the choice of utilizing your kitchen hob your looking at a littler pot and either reaching to got to do littler clumps or go the maxi-biab course like me (deliver a littler concentrated sum of wort which is at that point weakened within the FV.

 

[Cattledog]

Hi there, I also have a Klarstein and I am wondering about using the pump to transfer into the fermenter. After chilling the wort if I put a stainless steel tube 18" - 24" into the hole on the bottom for the pump and attached tubing to the end out of the wort long enough to put back into the wort to siphon from the top of the wort down. That way avoiding all the trub in the bottom of the brewer.

 

[GFHomebrew]

Hi there, I also have a Klarstein and I am wondering about using the pump to transfer into the fermenter. After chilling the wort if I put a stainless steel tube 18" - 24" into the hole on the bottom for the pump and attached tubing to the end out of the wort long enough to put back into the wort to siphon from the top of the wort down. That way avoiding all the trub in the bottom of the brewer.

Don't worry about transferring trub into your fermentor it won't detriment your beer in any way not worth the hastle has been my experience.

I agree with @Sammy86 I find a thin mash serves me well with my hop Hodge recirculating E BIAB brew rig. Don't get hung up on grist/water ratio too much it doesn't effect your efficiency nada on the thin mash.

 

[Mark Farrall]

The trub contains food for the yeast, proteins, fatty acids and the like. So transferring some will actually improve the health of your fermentation and give you a clearer beer as the yeast will finish more quickly and be much more likely to drop to the bottom. If the yeast aren't as healthy they don't drop to the bottom in the fermenter as readily. And a really clear wort will make it harder for the yeast to be healthy

As with so many things in brewing, there's a point where some is good, too much is bad. The trub contains various things with either unwanted flavours or oxidative materials, effecting the shelf life and taste of the beer. Though getting to the point of too much isn't that easy.

Personally I'm with Ben on the trub side. I don't stress about how much makes it into the fermenter. If you do prefer clearer wort think about using some yeast nutrient and make sure you've pitched enough healthy yeast. Even though I don't stress about the trub I also use yeast nutrient. It's pretty cheap insurance.

 

[GFHomebrew]

The trub contains food for the yeast, proteins, fatty acids and the like. So transferring some will actually improve the health of your fermentation and give you a clearer beer as the yeast will finish more quickly and be much more likely to drop to the bottom. If the yeast aren't as healthy they don't drop to the bottom in the fermenter as readily. And a really clear wort will make it harder for the yeast to be healthy

As with so many things in brewing, there's a point where some is good, too much is bad. The trub contains various things with either unwanted flavours or oxidative materials, effecting the shelf life and taste of the beer. Though getting to the point of too much isn't that easy.

Personally I'm with Ben on the trub side. I don't stress about how much makes it into the fermenter. If you do prefer clearer wort think about using some yeast nutrient and make sure you've pitched enough healthy yeast. Even though I don't stress about the trub I also use yeast nutrient. It's pretty cheap insurance.

Amen I think of it this way. The trub can either settle out in the kettle or the fermentor.
Anyone with a half clear fermentor will see that break material and such settle out prior to fermentation beggining.
I still whirlpool the kettle prior to the transfer over.