I have used my 6.5 Anvil for 26 batches now (it is the first generation purchased back last July). I don’t know what I can do to make the controller stay at the temp its set at. Based on my experiences though, I am very afraid this will lead to stuck mash. I am also going to try a grain bag inside the basket. I hope that will eliminate some of the waste. I have ordered a hop spider basket to use with this is the future. That little clamp they give you to restrict the flow is cheap though and I have found it doesn’t work well. On the positive side, that little pump is the best thing ever. My finished beers have been decent, but not better or easier than anything I was making prior to buying this, despite the supposed exact temperature control. Its designed to hang on the lip of the kettle and only about 1/3 of it reaches the wort at 3 gallons. Thats significant for a 3 gallon batch and I find I have to calculate my recipes as 4 gallon recipes to get 3 gallons out at the right gravity. The 6.5 has about 1/2 gallon dead space and losses due to hops, waste and trub. I have taken to scooping out the trash manually with a fine strainer before I start the boil and this takes me a half hour. I get lots of junk carried into my wort, despite running the pump back through the grain bed for the entire mash. I have to keep messing with it, lowering the temp to get it to stop.

my controller seems to have a mind of its own and rarely holds temp “within a degree” as they state. the silicone gasket they put in the lid is another pita.

It is very, very easy to dislodge and it happens all the time. Just crank it up until the wort fully 'umbrellas' off the tip and you're good.I’ve made 5 batches now with my 6.5. Not only does it disperse the wort better to help prevent tunneling but you get a much better visual of the flow rate. I also added an aerator tip to the end of the hose I use inside the AF while circulating. First thing I did was get the flow where I wanted and then marked the clamp so I could find that sweet spot again quickly. Crushed it.Īs for the restrictor they send with the pump, I can't really understand all the hate. It originally ran at 69% with the LHBS doing a double mill for me, but this just didn't cut it given that half the bill is white wheat.įast forward to today's batch, grains all milled at 0.030' was the only change from the first batch and I hit 80.2% mash efficiency this morning. The neighbors also destroyed the keg in less than 3 nights so there's that. So with a new mill in the house I figured a second run of my Bad Neighbors White Ale was in order as it was my lowest mash efficiency by far to date on the AF. I think though that the appropriate answer depends on several things: 1) composition of grain bill (lot of sticky grains in there like oats?), 2) magnitude of grain bill (16-19lbs?), and 3) recirculation rate. Remember that stirring the top third of the grain bed is simply a recommendation by Anvil and doesn't have to be a rule. Given your grain composition and/or grain bill size, you may want to stir more of the grain bed or less overall. So stirring the top third I think is a nice compromise to ensure the top of the grain bed is still loose and doesn't create channeling (again - recirc slowly). Also, if you do not have a bag in the malt-pipe I imagine that you would get more grain particles into the boil, but I use a bag so this doesn't concern me as much. If you sparge, having a nice and well settled grain bed helps for sparging. If you have a LOT of grains and/or its sticky, I have tended to stir the whole grain bed with the exception of the last 20 or so minutes (I use a 90 minute mash schedule). IMHO, you don't need to recirc at a high rate just to get good temperature stabilization. Since the anvil is tall and narrow, if recirculating at too high a rate, the grain will compact and you will get a stuck mash. Click to expand.Remember that stirring the top third of the grain bed is simply a recommendation by Anvil and doesn't have to be a rule.

Anvil foundry max grain bill