Brewie

That's provided there's no hangups with the manufacturing process. I'm not confident they've even received proofs yet. They seem to have contracted out China, where many manufacturing companies are notorious for trying to cut corners to increase profits. Unless Brewie is diligent about inspecting the process and proofs, I would expect a few more hiccups to occur.

uberg33k said:

Is there anyone here that can say for certain they're able to attend the German event?

Click to expand...

I'm new here and no I didn't register to promote Brewie ;-)
I've been reading along for a good year, brewing from the great database of recipes on here. I'm more active in the German forums. Anyway, I will attend the brewday this Saturday. I've also been in frequent contact with the company. They do seem to be serious, replying quickly on Facebook or in the German forums. I do think the entire machine is legit. There's no magic. Why shouldn't it work? I believe there will be numerous similar machines showing up from different manufacturers.
These will probably however go more in the direction of art brew rather than Brewie, Speidel Braumeister or Grain Father. These still require manual labour - you need to have a fermentation vessel. I think people are hoping for the magic "press a button and get beer" machine. Like artbrew. Mind you I don't think artbrew will be any good, but the idea itself is.

So anyway, if I'm allowed to by Brewie I'll post pics on here and if you guys have questions I'll ask them. Mind you this will be a prototype machine which they are using to test recipes. So I expect it to be a little rough around the edges ;-)

sunnyville said:

I'm new here and no I didn't register to promote Brewie ;-)
There's no magic. Why shouldn't it work?

Click to expand...

Because they have yet to show a working demo in public. They've only shown non-working models and video of a working prototype. It's unknown how "real" that prototype is and the delays in manufacturing don't do much to bolster confidence. Keep in mind, according to the original crowdfunding campaign, it should have already shipped. By the time it supposedly launches, they're over a year behind schedule. AND they went back and asked for more crowd funding dollars without having an actual working product. That's why people are skeptical. As Ethanfox points out, moving production to China might make QC a bit more dicey. That's two big hurdles to overcome.

All that said, I think anyone posting in this thread really wants the product to be real and to work as advertised. Part of building that confidence will be this demo event to show off a working model to the public. Actually posting mfg updates rather than pics of beer in scenic locations would also be nice. Releasing pre-production demo units to bloggers and journalists for hands on reviews would also be good.

I would personally love any and all info you could post from the demo event. Video would really be best. Just film the brew start to finish or at least as much as you can. Tell us what's good and what's bad, what's real and what's marketing smoke and mirrors.

Here is why I am not surprised about the delays and feel a strong sense of caveat emptor: everything is custom designed on this. That means soooo many moldings, machined parts, circuits boards, etc. This would be a major undertaking for an established small appliance maker like, say Breville. For a small company without the resources, facility, design and validation staff, it is a very, very lofty goal.

Well, since they're outsourcing everything, it's certainly achievable; however, it's rare that everything comes together on the first shot, especially out of China. It also comes with high costs, making the $2k price tag another point of concern.

I am not saying that anything below is possible or not, nor am I stating that its not real; I am just pointing out something I scratched out on paper thinking about the Brewie design.

I am a big fan of the Brewie concept and I am also one of the ones who can't wait for it to actually ship to me.

I have been playing around with just the dimensions and a few things come to mind: first if a tub of about 12" x 12" x 12" is a minimum to slightly rumble/simmer 5 gallons of a liquid,the 29" x 13.3" x 18.4" of the Brewie specifications. This would only leave 5" in length, less than an inch front to back, and 6.4" in height (obviously the dimensions do not need to be symmetrical). That means that the 4 hop addition vats, a minimum of two pumps, a liquid to air chiller, a fan, pcb with touchscreen, several electro-mechanical valves, fair sized power supply, two 2000W electric heating elements, at least two temperature sensors and a bunch of wiring are all packed in to the small left over space.

But the two 2000W electric heating elements are very interesting to me because they are not visible in the two tubs. So does that mean they heat from below or do they heat in-line with a recirculation pump? Either way this means additional real estate needs.

Lastly what about any chances of boil over? If I was designing the tub with regard to boil over I would aim for a bit bigger but maybe not much more than the above 12"^3. But what about regards to mashing and hitting higher O.G.? Some say a minimum of a 9 gallon container is required for average O.G. targets for mashing/lautering, others say 13 gallons are required for higher gravities and others suggest 15 gallon containers for the higher end gravities. That would now lean towards a tub size of approximately 15.5" x 15.5" x 15.5" which would really stress the real estate of the Brewie specifications if it was really possible to brew all beer styles, especially high ABV goals.

I really believe the Brewie will launch, I am just not sure if what we have all not seen is actually more telling and because they seem to still be in final design or recently finished design. So final specifications may be dead on or may need of be tweaked a bit further.

Ship me my Brewie once it's ready!

mlinharesjr said:

But the two 2000W electric heating elements are very interesting to me

Click to expand...

They've since downgraded it to 1800 watts

As for the boil, they claim the lids prevent boil over. I'm skeptical. I think foam control will be necessary.

Just to point out something here .. it's stated the Brewie runs on 110V. If that's the case, they're not utilizing dual elements of 2000 or 1800W ... at least not at the same time. My guess is one is in the heating loop for the mash section and one is in the heating loop for the boil.

Where do they claim that lids prevent boil over? That's like the opposite of what's true.

It was posted on the Indiegogo campaign page. There's a short discussion earlier in this thread. Supposedly, the magic comes from the vents in the lid.

I have magic too... It's called fermcap.

Ok, so here goes. - Mind you this is one of the first working machines from early on so visually it may differ from the final product.

I have been "burnt" by kickstarter & indiegogo campaigns in the past. The product wouldn't arrive or if it did it was no where near as amazing as had once been advertised.
The opposite can be said for the Brewie.
Back in last fall, I was completely new to brewing, had done a few 5 gallon batches with pots etc, but wanted something to automate just the cooking part to some extent. Obvioulsy I wanted the Speidel Braumeister. Especially because it had the fancy new screen. And at the same time, Brewie was on Indiegogo. It looked to good to be true, but after much debate, I pulled the trigger.
Today I saw it live.
The machine totally lives up to its expectations. The guy who did the demo with us, was so extremely open about everything - there was no question about any issue that he refused to ask. As a matter of fact he wanted to get as much feedback as possible from us and forward it to his team.

So this is how it went:
The hops are put in hops containers, not bags, and added to the hop compartments. These are still rough around the edges and could look nicer, but he said the new version was already in the works.
Next he dropped in the Malt, in a tight meshed bag.
The machine was hooked up the water faucet and turned on. He then proceeded to manually enter the recipe, which was a bit of a pain, but said that this would usually be done through the smartphone or their website (to load / design recipes). The screen was very crisp, not at all sluggish, and the UI design, even though nowhere near finished according to our host, looked great!

The machine then began filling the left compartment, which has a heating device installed in the bottom. The water was heated, then pumped into the other compartment where the water was then constantly "pushed/ciruclated" through the Bag until mashing was complete. The water is routed through underneath the left compartment somehow at the stage, where it also is heated to keep the desired mash temperature.

After mashing is complete, new heated fresh water (from the left tank) is also added to the right tank to help wash out all the goodness from the grains. Eventually everything ends up in the left tank, where the boiling begins. Hop additions are automatic depending on how you program them. They work by circulating hot wort through the individual hop containers. There are tiny servo motors underneath each compartment that regulate the flow rate through each compartment, so as to create a "pulsing" - don't know exactly why this is good, but I reckon for better extraction.

The cooling down then happens with a plate chiller which is hooked up the fresh water supply, and then the wort is dumped into whatever fermentation vessel you have.

We then ran a quick cleaning cycle, where the water was heated and circulated, pumps ran forwards and backwards, and then the water was drained. It is in actual fact drained to the extent where there is zero water in any parts of the machine, be it tubing or anyything else. I have no idea how that works though. This has been a very recent (as in 1 week old) development in the design.
Concerning the effectiveness of the cleaning cycle we witnessed, he told us we are runnign the very basic of all the cleaning cycles, and these are still being tested with various chemicals or cleaning aids to see which cycles really do remove all of the beer remnants.

I've attached some photos to this post, hope they're not too large. I will add some videos soon too. Enjoy!



EDIT: can't figure out how to upload videos here, keeps saying "invalid file"

here are the videos:
https://youtu.be/HtVONuMGvwU
https://youtu.be/YCEv6jQQQFw
https://youtu.be/k78ZsNejVQg
https://youtu.be/RbidUrWgUKc

ignore our cheering ;-) It was exciting to see the machine in action for the first time

and one more pic of the 4th hop addition:

note: the rough edges of the hop compartments which now of course could collect dirt, will be made from one complete piece of metal in the final iteration of the machine.

Want to be the first to say thanks! It's really nice to have someone reporting on a real life working version, and much appreciated!

Me too, thanks sunnyville! I have started getting worried about them being able to deliver and this does ease my mind somewhat. Why are there 3 hose connections on the back. I get water in and water out, is the heat exchanger external?

Edit: Nevermind, I guess the 3rd one is for wort out.

Thank you so much for the pics and nice write up. I was getting a little worried. I would hope they would throw more of stuff like this on Facebook, why not right? Anybody else have more pics to share about this? I'd love to see somebody other then a user just made this month (hey maybe it's legit, let's hope so!) with some pics/hands one with Brewie. Seems like a great product, I would just expect some more buzz about it if it's indeed just a few months away.

sunnyville said:

After mashing is complete, new heated fresh water (from the left tank) is also added to the right tank to help wash out all the goodness from the grains.

Click to expand...

Do you have video of how the sparge works with just two tanks?

sunnyville said:

The cooling down then happens with a plate chiller

Click to expand...

This is new. I don't remember reading anything about a plate chiller previously. Is it an external plate chiller or internal in the Brewie? Does the wort constantly circulate through the chiller until temp is reached, thus shutting off the pump and water flow? How does it chill if the Brewie isn't connected to a faucet ... Or is this required now?

Also, do you have video of how the magical vented lid prevents boilover? Video of the boil? Any video/photos of how much hops material and hot/cold break stayed in the boil side after transfer? Or does it all go in the fermenter?

Actually, after watching your fourth video on the second hop addition, it looks like the Brewie can't maintain a full boil ... The wort is completely stagnant. Was it this way during the entire "boil?"

ccbadd said:

Me too, thanks sunnyville! I have started getting worried about them being able to deliver and this does ease my mind somewhat. Why are there 3 hose connections on the back. I get water in and water out, is the heat exchanger external?

Edit: Nevermind, I guess the 3rd one is for wort out.

Click to expand...

yup you solved it yourself ;-) I was told at the very beginning of the project, the guys were still thinking of a solution where you would bow air over a heat exchanger, hence you didn't have that many ins and outs at the back of the machine in the campaign videos. Now it's a plate chiller through which the wort ist constantly pumped until the temperature that you have set in the menu, is reached. That in turn really depends on how cold your tap water is.

sniperd said:

Thank you so much for the pics and nice write up. I was getting a little worried. I would hope they would throw more of stuff like this on Facebook, why not right? Anybody else have more pics to share about this? I'd love to see somebody other then a user just made this month (hey maybe it's legit, let's hope so!) with some pics/hands one with Brewie. Seems like a great product, I would just expect some more buzz about it if it's indeed just a few months away.

Click to expand...

Well this was the first ever Brewie brewday with people outside the company. They are however thinking about doing this more often. Some might even be at public events.

Ethanfox said:

Do you have video of how the sparge works with just two tanks?



This is new. I don't remember reading anything about a plate chiller previously. Is it an external plate chiller or internal in the Brewie? Does the wort constantly circulate through the chiller until temp is reached, thus shutting off the pump and water flow? How does it chill if the Brewie isn't connected to a faucet ... Or is this required now?

Also, do you have video of how the magical vented lid prevents boilover? Video of the boil? Any video/photos of how much hops material and hot/cold break stayed in the boil side after transfer? Or does it all go in the fermenter?

Click to expand...

1) Sparging - Sadly no - and that is down to an issue we had during the brewday - the person who hosted it and invided Brewie over, plugged the machine into a wall socket - while there was one of those wireless sockets in between that you use to switch lights on and off. Well, while the machine heated the sparge water in the left tank, the small little socket fried with a bang. It smelt burnt (coming from that plastic socket). We removed it, turned the machine back on - and discovered a small feature, which is very important but still missing - the ability to press "skip" on some of the steps in your brewprogram. So we had to program a short mash in of a few minutes in order for the machine to continue as it should.
So had we plugged the machine straight into the wall socket, things would have worked out. The guy told us lots about how the sparge works and was a bit saddened that at that key moment the electricity failed. Essentially he described it as pumping the water in vertical figure of eight - wort gets drained from the bottom of the right tank, pumped across to the left tank where it mixes with the sparge water, and pumped back in through the upper hole in the right tank which is half way up - essentially pushing the water straight through the grains.

2) magical lid / boilover - not everything worked as planned here. Because of a few miscalculations on our end (too much water), the lid was left open for most of the brew so as to have more evaporation - to reach the desired Plato level.

3) I didn't take any pictures of the wort when it landed in the fermenter. However I'll post the link to the german forum, where another user has posted a few pics (no vids). He's a very nice guy, who also hosted the event, but at the same time a huge skeptic of these "automated machines"

Ethanfox said:

Actually, after watching your fourth video on the second hop addition, it looks like the Brewie can't maintain a full boil ... The wort is completely stagnant. Was it this way during the entire "boil?"

Click to expand...

The machine can maintain a rolling boil quite well - which we saw earlier when the machine decied to heat the water too much in one step (again a software issue which will be resolved) - why the boil is not rolling in my video I have no idea.

This brings me to my last and most important point - As it's easy for me to contact the representative of Brewie who brewed with us, I could send him a list of questions in german, which you guys come up with - and I'll post the replies translated here. How's that sound?


edit: forgot the link to the german forum: http://hobbybrauer.de/forum/viewtopic.php?f=20&t=8457&hilit=brewie

I echo everyone's thanks for taking the time to share this info and adress questions. Your write up, pictures and videos confirm much of what we have heard about the machine's processes, but we still don't know much about how well it actually brews. Did the representative share much about expected brewing efficiency, hop utilization, etc?

Thanks for taking the time to share the info. On the German site, I noticed a picture of the right side after the grains had been removed. There appears to be a lot of grain in there. Not having brewed all grain (yet!), is that considered normal? I would think that would clog the pumps and the chill plate. Is there a filter in-line someplace to prevent that? I can't tell if that is a screen on the drain plug.

Thanks again!

404Error said:

Thanks for taking the time to share the info. On the German site, I noticed a picture of the right side after the grains had been removed. There appears to be a lot of grain in there. Not having brewed all grain (yet!), is that considered normal? I would think that would clog the pumps and the chill plate. Is there a filter in-line someplace to prevent that? I can't tell if that is a screen on the drain plug.

Thanks again!

Click to expand...

well spottet. That was down to user error - one participant wanted to take the grains home to make bread. And she opened the bag over the machine - bad idea. We spent a while cleaning everything, then ran the cleaning cycle which ran very well. The pumps did not get clogged. However I'm sure they would have been if we hadnt cleaned 99% of the grains out first.

JamieP said:

I echo everyone's thanks for taking the time to share this info and adress questions. Your write up, pictures and videos confirm much of what we have heard about the machine's processes, but we still don't know much about how well it actually brews. Did the representative share much about expected brewing efficiency, hop utilization, etc?

Click to expand...

Their brewing efficiency has been at least 65% at the moment, a number that I would have expected.

sunnyville said:

Their brewing efficiency has been at least 65% at the moment, a number that I would have expected.

Click to expand...

I wonder if a little brewer interaction could boost the efficiency ie: keeping the mesh bag open, clipped to the lip, so that dough balls can be broken up.

How high up is the output for the mash recirculation? Does the wort recirculate over the grain bed or right to the side of it? If it's too low, that could hinder efficiency. An option to connect a silicone tube to the output so it could lie on top of the grain bed would be preferable so the brewer could adjust to the size of the grain bed.

sunnyville said:

I could send him a list of questions in german, which you guys come up with - and I'll post the replies translated here. How's that sound?

Click to expand...

Just a solid video of all the entire process (editing out periods of inactivity ie 60 minute mash) would answer most questions, I think.

I definitely would like to see that efficiency come up as the machine and recipes get optimized. I do better than that with no sparge biab. Will hard to make high og beers with that efficiency unless you limit the batch size.

According to this chart, a 7.13 gallon mash tun can create a ~1.084 OG brew if achieving 70% efficiency. Brewie has been claiming ~1.1 OG capability. They must be obtaining this by using extract to bump it up. No disclaimer on this mentioned though.

Hello!

I saw Brewie in England at the Gadget Show? I really liked their beer and the machine seemed convincing. They say on their website that they have a discount till 30April. Do you think it is worth buying it? Has anyone bought one? Thx.

Ethanfox said:

According to this chart, a 7.13 gallon mash tun can create a ~1.084 OG brew if achieving 70% efficiency. Brewie has been claiming ~1.1 OG capability. They must be obtaining this by using extract to bump it up. No disclaimer on this mentioned though.

Click to expand...

I'm sure they are still refining the brew process and will continue to do so via SW updates once the unit is selling so I can understand why the representative said that 65% efficiency is easy to achieve - I'm sure they're achieved higher efficiencies too at some point. There was no mention of havin gto bump stuff with extract. Mind you on my setup my brewhouse efficiency is between 58-62% and I have brewed beers with very high OGs.

Ethanfox said:

Just a solid video of all the entire process (editing out periods of inactivity ie 60 minute mash) would answer most questions, I think.

Click to expand...

See this is something that's hard to provide - the machine we had was a prototype and yes, thinking about it now, it would have been smart to set up the phone on a tripod etc and hit record - but then again it would have been boring as hell to watch. I filmed the interesting parts (in my opinion anyways) - which show when new steps begin, such as heaitng water, pumping liquids around, how the hop additions work...
This allowed me to also take pictures. Maybe when they do their next brewsession somebody there can do a complete video.

on another note - the representative said that once they have their final units, which I can't imagine being many months away as they plan to deliver in July, they will make lots more videos showing the brewing process in detail. These videos should also be of a higher quality than the stuff I shot on the phone ;-)

Kane68 said:

Hello!

I saw Brewie in England at the Gadget Show? I really liked their beer and the machine seemed convincing. They say on their website that they have a discount till 30April. Do you think it is worth buying it? Has anyone bought one? Thx.

Click to expand...

It's risky, as always with a product that hasn't been reviewed by many people, that hasnt been used for hundreds of brews by customers to show how it holds up over time. I ordered it, because I liked the concept and believe the guys are serious. The brewday this weekend showed me that the machine isn't vapourware, it is real, even the prototype looks sleek (still rough around the edges if you look close of course) and it worked.
I can't however tell you "buy it it's amazing" ;-) because the price tag requires a fair amount of trust that needs to be put in this startup - and everyone needs to decide that for themselves.

Ethanfox said:

I wonder if a little brewer interaction could boost the efficiency ie: keeping the mesh bag open, clipped to the lip, so that dough balls can be broken up.

How high up is the output for the mash recirculation? Does the wort recirculate over the grain bed or right to the side of it? If it's too low, that could hinder efficiency. An option to connect a silicone tube to the output so it could lie on top of the grain bed would be preferable so the brewer could adjust to the size of the grain bed.

Click to expand...

The wort is recirculated in a figure of eight. So there's a hole in the middle on the bottom of the right chamber (where the grains are), and a hole on the left side half way up. The wort is pumped down through the middle hole and then psuhed back through the upper hole, flowing straight through the bag.

However when it comes to the technical questions you have, I can't answer them - I only brewed with it once ;-)

sunnyville said:

Ok, so here goes. - Mind you this is one of the first working machines from early on so visually it may differ from the final product.

Click to expand...

Dude, thank you so much for posting this and the videos. It's really cool to see the product in action and it's somewhat real. It is a bit disturbing that a product that was supposed to be shipped a year ago is still undergoing design changes, but at least it's getting closer to finally being released.

sunnyville said:

note: the rough edges of the hop compartments which now of course could collect dirt, will be made from one complete piece of metal in the final iteration of the machine.

Click to expand...

I like the newer hop containers, but it leaves me wondering why they wouldn't just make a larger version of this for the grains.

Ethanfox said:

Do you have video of how the sparge works with just two tanks?

Click to expand...

I'm fairly sure it's going to be similar to a Brutus10 type design. Some of the water will stay in the "boil chamber" until sparge time. Then it'll flush through the "mash chamber" while pumping the wort into the boil chamber. This circulation pattern continues until the wort is uniform and clear.

Ethanfox said:

This is new. I don't remember reading anything about a plate chiller previously.

Click to expand...

Not exactly. They did say there was some kind of internal chiller, but they were a bit dodgy on how it worked. Some of the documentation seemed to imply it was a TEC, some seemed to make it sound like a plate chiller. I would like to see the plate chiller and understand how they think they're going to keep it clean over the long run. All it takes is a few grains like the ones spilled in that one pic to catch in the chiller and have it get partially clogged up.

sunnyville said:

The wort is recirculated in a figure of eight. So there's a hole in the middle on the bottom of the right chamber (where the grains are), and a hole on the left side half way up. The wort is pumped down through the middle hole and then psuhed back through the upper hole, flowing straight through the bag.

Click to expand...

It would be nice to see some of the internals. If Brewie considers that "secret sauce", then perhaps a mock up animation that shows the flow and components without giving secrets away.

sunnyville said:

However when it comes to the technical questions you have, I can't answer them - I only brewed with it once ;-)

Click to expand...

Right. Do you think you can get the person who hosted the event to stop by and answer some questions? That really might be best instead of all of us pestering you. If they really want feedback, I'm sure there are more than a few people that would love to provide them with it here

I've relayed the questions & suggestions to the representative and pointed him towards the forum. I offered to be the go-between if there is a language barrier - this means that infos might not always be provided in a timely manner ;-)

Hey guys,

This is Csaba from Brewie!
We are delighted that there is so much interest in our product and therefore, we are working hard satisfy you. Mass production will start in July, so you can get your own Brewie in a couple of months. Feel free to write if you have any questions.

Regards,

Csaba- thanks for joining the forum. Your willingness to address questions is appreciated. From the info that was shared from the brew session in Germany, my main question is about the brewing efficiency. What efficiency is expected from final unit using typical mashing parameters? I'd also appreciate hearing what is being learned from the prototype that is being improved for the production units. Lastly- any update on what type of mini-kegs will come with the units that were pre-ordered?

Cheers!

Brewie_team said:

Hey guys,

This is Csaba from Brewie!
We are delighted that there is so much interest in our product and therefore, we are working hard satisfy you. Mass production will start in July, so you can get your own Brewie in a couple of months. Feel free to write if you have any questions.

Regards,

Click to expand...

Hey Csaba, welcome to the forum! I think there's still a lot of unanswered questions regarding your product. Here's a few questions/concerns that I have - any insight would be greatly appreciated!

How high up is the output for the mash recirculation? (Does the wort recirculate over the grain bed or right to the side of it? If it's too low, that could hinder efficiency. An option to connect a silicone tube to the output so it could lie on top of the grain bed would be preferable so the brewer could adjust to the size of the grain bed.)

How were you able to achieve 1.1 OG for a 5 gallon batch in a 7.1 gallon mash tun? Since your company has also said that the max grain bill is 8kg, I'm assuming you used extract to achieve 1.1 OG - can you confirm? What's the max OG you've been able to attain using only grain, without additional extract/sugar?

For the cleaning cycle, can Oxyclean (sodium percarbonate) be used?

Since the machine is marketed to be fully automated, if it encounters a stuck mash, will the pumps burn out? Will that be covered under warranty? How often have you had a stuck sparge in tests?

Do you have any video or photos showing how the vented lid prevents boilover? With such a small kettle side, I'd imagine something like foam control would be necessary - but your company has indicated the vented lid prevents the boil over. Skeptics out here would love to see it in action.

Can the Brewie receive firmware updates over the internet? Can it SEND updates over the internet (ie: brewing status)?

Are the heating elements and pumps available on the market to purchase as a replacement if one (it?) stops working?

Do you have video of the Brewie maintaining a strong boil? The video posted in this thread looks like it wasn't boiling at all during one of the hops additions.

Does the wort chiller recycle back into the boil side of the brewie or does it drain into the fermenter?

What's the maximum capacity for hops in those hops addition containers?

What is the expected hops utilization of the Brewie - there's concerns it will be low due to the small hops containers it uses.

I'm sure there's more out there - but those are the ones I have at the front of my mind. Thanks!

Great questions!!!

I only have two questions right now...
1. Will there be any demonstrations in the US similar to the event in Germany?
2. Was Brewie always designed with a plate chiller or was it originally a TEC plate? For the chiller to work, you're requiring the unit be plumbed, correct? Could you expand a bit on how this plate is being tested for long term viability? Every plate chiller I've seen eventually gets clogged and needs to be baked in an oven to turn the blockage to ash. How is Brewie avoiding this fate?

Thank you!

uberg33k said:

2. Was Brewie always designed with a plate chiller or was it originally a TEC plate? For the chiller to work, you're requiring the unit be plumbed, correct? Could you expand a bit on how this plate is being tested for long term viability? Every plate chiller I've seen eventually gets clogged and needs to be baked in an oven to turn the blockage to ash. How is Brewie avoiding this fate?

Click to expand...

Will be interested to hear the official answer, but I think the key is the "brewie pad". With all the grains in a bag, much like BIAB, stuck sparge and clogged chiller shouldn't be an issue. Now if a bag were to tear or spill...

I'm also wondering what other BIAB concepts can be applied here. For example, using the pads you should be able to use a finer crush and get better efficiency.

JamieP said:

Will be interested to hear the official answer, but I think the key is the "brewie pad". With all the grains in a bag, much like BIAB, stuck sparge and clogged chiller shouldn't be an issue. Now if a bag were to tear or spill...

I'm also wondering what other BIAB concepts can be applied here. For example, using the pads you should be able to use a finer crush and get better efficiency.

Click to expand...

Well I remember the representative telling me that, similar to the Braumeister, the grain should not be crushed all too fine. It makes sense, because if you have too much of the "floury" substance, it would eventually clog the plumbing I would imagine.

JamieP said:

Csaba- thanks for joining the forum. Your willingness to address questions is appreciated. From the info that was shared from the brew session in Germany, my main question is about the brewing efficiency. What efficiency is expected from final unit using typical mashing parameters? I'd also appreciate hearing what is being learned from the prototype that is being improved for the production units. Lastly- any update on what type of mini-kegs will come with the units that were pre-ordered?

Cheers!

Click to expand...

Hello Jamie!

Thank you for your questions. Here is the answer:
The typical efficiency is 65%. Since the beer brewing process hasn’t been automated in such small size before, we had to figure out everything by ourselves. We had to make many minor modifications to the machine in order to maximize the efficiency and lifetime, minimize the risk of damage (both to the machine and to the user), to make the best quality beer the easiest way. The algorithms controlling the machine can prevent boilover, sense and abolish constipation, control the water flow and measure the evaporation of the beer just to tell you a few examples. We will give 4 party kegs with the pre-ordered units.

Ethanfox said:

Hey Csaba, welcome to the forum! I think there's still a lot of unanswered questions regarding your product. Here's a few questions/concerns that I have - any insight would be greatly appreciated!

How high up is the output for the mash recirculation? (Does the wort recirculate over the grain bed or right to the side of it? If it's too low, that could hinder efficiency. An option to connect a silicone tube to the output so it could lie on top of the grain bed would be preferable so the brewer could adjust to the size of the grain bed.)

The height of the output is the height of the top of the mashing bag filled with 5 kilograms of malt. Of course you can attach a silicone tube to the outlet if you want


How were you able to achieve 1.1 OG for a 5 gallon batch in a 7.1 gallon mash tun? Since your company has also said that the max grain bill is 8kg, I'm assuming you used extract to achieve 1.1 OG - can you confirm? What's the max OG you've been able to attain using only grain, without additional extract/sugar?

We brewed a classical belgian tripel recipe, which contains candi sugar in the fermentables. The OG of that batch was 1.108. Before we added sugar, the OG was somewhere around 1.085 - 1.088


For the cleaning cycle, can Oxyclean (sodium percarbonate) be used?

Yes of course

Since the machine is marketed to be fully automated, if it encounters a stuck mash, will the pumps burn out? Will that be covered under warranty? How often have you had a stuck sparge in tests?

The pumps have internal protection so if they stuck, they shut down. In this case Brewie notifies you that the pump is stuck and you should run a cleaning cycle. If you use Brewie as intended, the mash can’t go to the pipe system. Sparging works fine for us but even in the demo brew at Germany, the sparge failed only because of a blackout. We are still working on power outage issues. The warranty will cover those problems which occur when Brewie used as intended. The details of it will have written down in the user manual.


Do you have any video or photos showing how the vented lid prevents boilover? With such a small kettle side, I'd imagine something like foam control would be necessary - but your company has indicated the vented lid prevents the boil over. Skeptics out here would love to see it in action.

We experimented a lot with the proper size of the vents until the got the perfect ratio of the acceptable coverage to prevent boilover plus we elaborated an algorithm which controls the boil. We don’t have any footage of it yet, but it will come soon.

Can the Brewie receive firmware updates over the internet? Can it SEND updates over the internet (ie: brewing status)?

Via our brewing site you can monitor and control your brewing process real time and you can also apply OTA update.


Are the heating elements and pumps available on the market to purchase as a replacement if one (it?) stops working?

If anything stops working on Brewie, we can provide spare parts for your device. Our manufacturer promises to keep spare parts on stock for 5 years after Brewie’s life cycle.


Do you have video of the Brewie maintaining a strong boil? The video posted in this thread looks like it wasn't boiling at all during one of the hops additions.

The heating element maintains the full boil throughout the whole boiling process. Maybe it seems like it’s not boiling because of the wort runs. If you stir a pot of boiling water it will act the same way however apparently it won’t decrease the temperature.


Does the wort chiller recycle back into the boil side of the brewie or does it drain into the fermenter?

The wort chiller pumps the wort back to the vessel. Nothing can comes out from Brewie without manual approval to avoid the unwanted accidents (like pouring out your precious wort to the kitchen’s floor)


What's the maximum capacity for hops in those hops addition containers?

If you use pellets, we recommend not to use more than 50 grams of hops per containers (according our experiences above 30 grams, the utilization of hops may slightly reduce). If you want to add more hops in the same time, you can open more containers simultaneously.


What is the expected hops utilization of the Brewie - there's concerns it will be low due to the small hops containers it uses.

Vide above.

I'm sure there's more out there - but those are the ones I have at the front of my mind. Thanks!

Click to expand...

Very good questions indeed. You can see the answers in the quotation.
Cheers!