FVM in a GF?

[aamcle]

I'm looking at doing some smaller batches 12-13 litres (two crates of bottles) and I've been wondering about full volume mashing using my pre-Bluetooth GF.

I brewed with a recirculating BIAB for a couple of years before my boiler finally gave out and I bought the GF so I'm happy with biab.

I have some questions:-
Do I need to line the malt pipe with a biab bag to allow me to use finer crushed grain?
Do I need to keep the top of the central overflow above the liquid level?
Is it even worth the bother?
Should I just use the small batch pipework?

Thanks All. Aamcle

 

[MHB]

We had a bit of a discussion about FV brewing back in January in this thread Full Volume Efficiency Questions, might be worth a read through

You don’t need to crush finer to do BIAB; you can which makes getting the extract out of the malt easier. If you can recirculate through the malt pipe, its fine to use it, if it’s hard to do and you are isothermal (one temperature) mashing, then lining the whole GF with a bag will work well to.

Worth noting that FV mashing favours lighter bodied more delicate beers, so if you were brewing a pale ale, lager, Weiss or anything else that is meant to be a bit of a summer throwdown it’s a good idea.
Not so good for big ballsy malt driven beers.
Mark

 

[aamcle]

Thanks Mark I'll read through that thread.

Aamcld