[Saccharomyces]

I  am in the process of brewing my first batch of beer in over 4 years.   While I owned a March pump before I took my hiatus, I never used it, so it was one of the first things to be sold.  I purchased a RipTide pump this time around, so today was the first time in 28 years that I have used a pump (a pump is not a necessity when brewing 5-gallon or smaller batches).  I also tried underletting for the first time.  Other than needing to adjust my strike temperature calculation to factor in the heat loss during pumping between my kettle and my mash tun, I like the how uniformly the grist is saturated with this technique.  I used to mash-in with a 1/2 gallon of boiling water to cover the false bottom before dumping my entire grist bucket into the mash tun. I would then add strike water slowly until the grist was completely saturated before adding the remaining hot liquor and stirring. My transfer heat losses used to result in the mash coming rest two degrees lower than my calculated strike temperature.  I had been using the same process for so long that I knew the strike liquor temperatures for all of the rests I performed.

[BrewBama]

+1. I have been underletting for a while now. In my experience it has eliminated dough balls.

[rburrelli]

I also had been underletting and capping my mash prior to getting my Anvil Foundry. Easing into ways to do those procedures with it. Would have to heat strike water, pump it out of AF, put grist in and pump it back in through the valve. Also, since I now recirculate I need to figure out a way to try and cap the mash.
I too had some strike temp issues when I first started underletting.

[Saccharomyces]

My extraction rate was 28 PPG, which is not bad for a completely new brew house and a mill that I have never used before.  I set the gap to 0.040, but I think that I am going to reduce it to 0.039 or 0.038 because the crush is not as good with the Monster Mill set at 0.040 as my old fixed-gap Schmilding Model P.  Jack claimed that the Model P was gapped at 0.040", but it produced a finer crush than the Monster Mill set at 0.040.  I think that the difference is due to the rollers on the Schmidling mills having finer knurling.

A bonehead move I made today was that I used my 5-gallon mash tun to mash 12lbs of grain with 4-gallons of strike liquor.  That grist works with 3.75 gallons of strike liquor, but that extra quart pushes things into the danger zone with a 5-gallon industrial Igloo cooler.  I also built a 10-gallon mash tun using an industrial Igloo cooler for bigger beers, so I will use that one next time I mash 12 or more pounds of grist.

[BrewBama]

+1. After some recent mash equipment changes, I kept closing my JSP mill until I got to a consistent 30 PPG. I ended up at 60% on top of a No14 sieve, 40% in the tray.

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[Saccharomyces]

Thirty points per pound per gallon was my benchmark with my old mill. However, I had that brew house dialed in.

[ynotbrusum]

I also had been underletting and capping my mash prior to getting my Anvil Foundry. Easing into ways to do those procedures with it. Would have to heat strike water, pump it out of AF, put grist in and pump it back in through the valve. Also, since I now recirculate I need to figure out a way to try and cap the mash.
I too had some strike temp issues when I first started underletting.

For the Anvil Foundry or other all in one systems, one can underlet,effectively, by simply loading the mash basket with the milled grains and slowly lowering it into the strike water...I line my mash basket with a brew bag and drop the lined mash basket slowly into the strike water - works well.

[rburrelli]

I also had been underletting and capping my mash prior to getting my Anvil Foundry. Easing into ways to do those procedures with it. Would have to heat strike water, pump it out of AF, put grist in and pump it back in through the valve. Also, since I now recirculate I need to figure out a way to try and cap the mash.
I too had some strike temp issues when I first started underletting.

For the Anvil Foundry or other all in one systems, one can underlet,effectively, by simply loading the mash basket with the milled grains and slowly lowering it into the strike water...I line my mash basket with a brew bag and drop the lined mash basket slowly into the strike water - works well.

Thanks. I may try that method.

[Richard]

The same is true for BIAB brewing. I have heard of people who mill their grain directly into the bag inside a bucket, then lower the bag into the water. I haven't tried that, but I am considering it for my next batch.

[filipp]

(a pump is not a necessity when brewing 5-gallon or smaller batches)

Can you detail a little?

[Saccharomyces]

(a pump is not a necessity when brewing 5-gallon or smaller batches)

Can you detail a little?

While amateur brewers have found multiple uses for brewing pumps, their primary use is to move hot liquor and wort around.  Until the Brutus-style, single-tier brewing sculpture was developed, most brewers used some kind of three-tier, gravity-fed design.  For years, my three-tier setup was my kitchen countertop, a kitchen chair, and my kitchen floor (I mashed in my kitchen and boiled outside or in a garage).  My hot liquor back was placed on my kitchen countertop.  My mash/lauter tun was placed on a kitchen chair (usually with a saucer used as a wedge to level it), and my kettle sat on the floor on top of thin telephone book to insulate the kettle from the floor.  Most healthy men in the their twenties, thirties, forties, and sometimes into their fifties, can lift and move a kettle with 7.25 gallons of run-off in it (to my astonishment, I discovered that I can still do it and I will 60 this year).  However, that is not remotely possible for all, but the strongest brewers when we are talking about 10-gallon batches.  Ten gallon batches are where a pump pays dividends because of the weight of the liquids.  Thirteen gallons of runoff for 11 gallons end of the boil at a gravity of 1.050 weighs 8.33 * 13 + 12 = ~120lbs and things just heavier as the batch size increases.

People will argue that a pump is needed for hopback usage and counterflow chilling, but I have done both using just gravity.  Many old British breweries only use a pump to pump water up to the hot liquor back.  Everything else uses gravity.  I have never owned a plate chiller, but I believe that gravity would work for plate chiller as well.

[filipp]

Many healthy years ahead!

[BrewBama]

I’ve seen guys jam a hose down to the bottom of the dry grain and use gravity to fill the MLT in a sort of underlet.


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