Basic mashing query

[rheiny]

G'Day All,
I have just started all grain brewing after years doing tweaked kit and kilo brews. I have a Robobrew and got a recipe from Beersmith. After adding the stated hot liquor I put the grains in and noticed the liquid is below the top of the mash. Should I add more liquid or just keep recirculating whats in there (with a jug at this stage) to keep the top of the mash wet.
Cheers,
Rheiny

 

[mtb]

Top it up and increase your boil time (Beersmith has a boil off calculator to help you achieve your target OG). Recirculating in my experience won't quite cut it in this instance.

 

[rheiny]

Cheers mtb. I've put in a couple of litres and will see how I go.

 

[Bribie G]

Was the Beersmith recipe designed more for a traditional mash tun plus sparging?

On the Keg King site there's a YouTube "RoboBrew water calculations"

 

[rheiny]

I had to make a Robobrew profile so it's probably for a traditional mash tun. I'll check out the Keg King site and see what it says.
Generally speaking, the liquor should be over the grain without recircing shouldn't it? I haven't found it actually said one way or the other anywhere.

 

[mtb]

Absolutely. You can't maintain mash temp in grain not immersed in liquor, it'll cool very quickly and you won't get the extraction you're after

 

[GalBrew]

Not to mention you won't extract anything from dry grain.

 

[Droopy Brew]

First things first- how much grain and how much water was put in?

 

[rheiny]

It was 5kg of grain with 13 litre of water. When I put liquid on top it seemed to stay for a while but the liquid outside the grain pipe was below the grain level by about 5cm. A bit of trial and error whith water volumes should sort it out. I managed to hit my OG estimate of 1.050 so it should go OK.

 

[S.E]

Was the grain cracked coarse as in barely cracked?

If so you may have had a floating mash. Air trapped in the husk will make the grain bed float high and slightly above the liquor. You should get good extraction and very clear wort in to the kettle.

 

[Bonenose]

Have started my last couple brews with 18 litres of water seems to be working a lot better and have now set up a pump to recirc makes things a lot easier.

 

[rheiny]

I got the grain pre cracked and don't think it was overly course. There was some glour in the bag. It definately wasn't floating. Next time I think I'll start with 16 or 17 litres with some extra water at temperature on hand to top up at the start as necessary. A pump is on my list to get, just not at the top yet.

 

[Sidney Harbour-Bridge]

here is quite a large dead area in the robobrew outside and below the malt pipe, using 4/l/Kg seems to work about right.

 

[kaiserben]

It was 5kg of grain with 13 litre of water. When I put liquid on top it seemed to stay for a while but the liquid outside the grain pipe was below the grain level by about 5cm. A bit of trial and error whith water volumes should sort it out. I managed to hit my OG estimate of 1.050 so it should go OK.

Dunno if Robobrew is exactly identical to the Grainfather, but for the GF for 5kg grain it'd be 17L mash water and 15L sparge water.