trueclimber
Member
Has anyone brewed or own one of these? We have one and just started using it this last Sunday.
Our mash temp was 148 and the first gravity reading was 1.050 second reading a week later was 1.012....should I be worried?
My friends bought this from a brewery that closed down and never used it...and my friends never used it until I convinced them to bring it over and for us to figure out how to brew. None if us brewed before this. We figured go big or go home!
View attachment 87852
I have been using it for our little brewpub we just opened, and I am still dialing stuff in with this.
First- burners take a while to heat up sparge/boil water. Use as much hot water as you can to save your propane and time.
Second- volumes are tricky, since the out posts for HLT are below where water comes out you need to account for that. Sight glass may read 12 gallons, but subtract 2 gallons which is the amount of liquid below the outs.
Third-Watch for vapor lock with valve 5 and turning of 3 and or to 4. Pump is not the most robust, but you have to ease on #5 to get it to go at times.
I did a dry run, but still had some brew day trial and errors. I have brewed 6 batches and the mash has kept the temp for the most part at where you set it.
Best part of this system was their chiller. It goes straight in the fermentor at 60* from boiling.
We did not get their kegs, but for cleaning, sanitizing they seem like a great option. We are using sixtels, but if we could have afforded the cost and the space in our cooler we may have bought them too.
Overall it is a good system, but I can already see us outgrowing this and needing to upgrade within a year at the pace we are at. Do some research, count your money and make the best decision on what you need.
Cheers!-Bryan @ The Other Farm Brewing Company.
Enter your email address to join: