You can use smaller grain bills but you need to make adjustments to your water calculations if you are using a grain bill below 4.5 kg (10 lb).
- Please use our brewing calculators to work this out or the specific instructions in your manual for small grain bills.
- We wouldn’t advise going lower than 2.5 kg (5.5 lb) of grain. The overflow pipework only goes down to a certain point. The top plate is designed to fit into the overflow inlet which sits on the overflow pipework. So, this means the top plate only goes down as far as the overflow pipework does. So, with a smaller amount of grain (less than 4.5 kg/5.5 lb) the top plate will sit a bit higher than the grain bed. You will need to fill it with more water until you see the water reach the top plate. Be sure to record this extra water amount and change your calculation as appropriate as you will need to reduce your sparge volume by this amount.
- Or alternatively you can use the micro pipework available designed specifically for small grain bills. You should use the standard calculations when using this pipework.
The maximum is 9 kg (20 lb).
With a grain bill this size the key is to add the grain very slowly while stirring to avoid dough balls forming. Because there is more grain it will also take a bit longer to gelatinise. You can try and add half of the grain, recirculate and then add the other half.
Do this by;
- Pouring in half your grain, slowly stir and then attach your recirculation pipe.
- Do not add the top perforated plate at this stage, start to recirculate making sure that nothing goes through the overflow pipe.
- Recirculate until the grain level goes down. The grains will start to gelatinise.
- Once the level has gone down, add the other half of your grain bill – fit the top perforated plate and recirculation pipe and recirculate as normal.