theredviper
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I wonder if that's the intended use? There's not much mention of it anywhere, nobody doing brews online seems to use it for anything.
Brewzilla Gen4 Discussion/Tips Talk
- Thread starter stealthfixr
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rtstrider
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I see all this mention of top plate. You want to know something knee slapping hilarious? I've been using the top plate (the plate with feet) on the bottom this whole time. I mean I didn't know and had no clue that was supposed to be the top plate. Live and learn. Anywho the new brew bag is here but the ferment fridge is being used to hold our Christmas feast stuffs so won't be brewing until next week some time.
agentbud
Well-Known Member
You have it right, unless I am misunderstanding. The plate with the 3 feet is the bottom plate and should go at the bottom of the boiler (tight fit). The top plate is the one that looks like the malt pipe screen but has 2 small metal tabs and a small hole in the middle of the screen for a temp probe.
Wayne1
Well-Known Member
View attachment 808206
KegLand Part Number: KL08747
Stainless Counterflow Chiller
(havent seen them in US, but current conversion rate says they're only about $130 US. Coolossus - Passivated Stainless Steel Counter Flow Chiller Heat Exchanger )
KegLand Part Number: KL08747
not sure what you were trying to say, but as it turns out this is available in the US. i had no idea. but for quite a bit more than what the Australian dollar equivalent is per their site. (regular price) which i guess makes sense, these suckers are typically pretty heavy, take up a decent volume in a box. not to mention not cheap to mail on the last-mile part of the delivery either. morebeer out of stock, but northerbrewer says 144 "with code". so maybe you can get for ~$150 if its in stock anywhere and using what i assume is a xmas sale code.
Bottoms_Up
Well-Known Member
I think we're saying the same thing. I didn't mean it retains each and every entry, but just the last two points. Each time it seems to improve the slope.
I brewed today, and I could live with the 2 degree difference. It was so much more satisfying than trying to remember a 7 degree difference.
Thanks for emailing Kegland! Let me know what they say. Hope they don't tell you that you are the only person who has reported this problem!
Bottoms_Up
Well-Known Member
So I brewed with the Brewzilla today and ran into a couple of new issues. During the mash, everything went as hoped. I used the PID and it kept the increases within reason.
But when I was finished mashing, I set the target to 169 F (mashout). It didn't take too long to get there, but while the Brewzilla was telling me the temperature was 169 F, the temperature of the mash was actually still down to about 154 F! (The mash temperature had only increased a by a couple of degrees). This was while the pump was recirculating. I then decided to stir the mash during the recirculation. After 5 minutes, the Brewzilla still said 169 F and the actual temperature of the mash was still at 154 F! It was NOT going up in temperature, at least not noticeably. (I had kept a separate meat probe thermometer in the mash duurign the entire mash).
Has anyone else experienced something similar? Is there an explanation? It just doesn't make any sense!
The other issue is that a LOT of grain went through the two filters and through the pump. In the end, the pump was clogged with grain, preventing flow. The two screens do not seem fine enough to prevent a lot of grain from going through.
But when I was finished mashing, I set the target to 169 F (mashout). It didn't take too long to get there, but while the Brewzilla was telling me the temperature was 169 F, the temperature of the mash was actually still down to about 154 F! (The mash temperature had only increased a by a couple of degrees). This was while the pump was recirculating. I then decided to stir the mash during the recirculation. After 5 minutes, the Brewzilla still said 169 F and the actual temperature of the mash was still at 154 F! It was NOT going up in temperature, at least not noticeably. (I had kept a separate meat probe thermometer in the mash duurign the entire mash).
Has anyone else experienced something similar? Is there an explanation? It just doesn't make any sense!
The other issue is that a LOT of grain went through the two filters and through the pump. In the end, the pump was clogged with grain, preventing flow. The two screens do not seem fine enough to prevent a lot of grain from going through.
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agentbud
Well-Known Member
I did not experience this on my second brew. Learning from my first brew, I had increased my crush a little and added rice hulls and and had zero problems with mash circulation and drainage. The bottom screen caught a lot of grain debris but it never clogged and I had no issues with the pump.
theredviper
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I also did both of these things and had no issues. I may try to drop the grain crush a little again next time and see what happens.
Firstly I will say we are new to this forum. As we are based in Australia we have not kept track of forums outside of Australia but with that said it’s probably a good idea for us to jump on and clear up some questions here.
Is RAPT and KegLand the same company?
The RAPT controller is managed by the KegLand team so it’s one and the same. It’s just got it’s own brand. The only reason that the RAPT control devices are under a different brand is because KegLand also have requests from other industries to supply the temp control and RAPT connected devices to other industries that are not beer or brewing related. For all intensive purposes the RAPT and KegLand are all run as the same business.
- The Limitation of Single Point Temperature Probes in Breweries
For all breweries especially RIMS design breweries (all single vessel breweries are RIMS) it is important to have a temp probe near the element at the bottom of the brewery. This is explained in this video we did some time ago here. Although this is an old video it’s still very relevant to the discussion as it describes the limitation of having a single temperature probe:
Once you have watched this video you can start to appreciate that simply having a single temperature probe at the bottom of the brewery is a limitation. KegLand has known of this limitation for a long time which is why we were so keen for the BZ Gen 4 to also have Bluetooth. Bluetooth has made it much easier for us to bring out multiple different Bluetooth sensors such as additional temperature probes that allow us to take not only a reading down the base near the elements but also put a probe in the top and take the temperature reading of the core mash temp where we really want to control the temp. This process and Bluetooth probe is described in this video here:
To my understanding we are the only single vessel in the world that has this type of solution. We are also making ongoing software updates to the BZ to further improve the functionality of this Bluetooth probe as well as come up with many other accessories too. I should not that BZ Gen 4 can |”bond” with up to 8 Bluetooth sensors which I think will be more useful in the future when we come out with more hardware for things like distillation etc.
I should also say we are also considering making a change to the probe placement. At the moment the temp probe in the base is at the outer edge but we are looking to move this 50% between the outer edge and the drain hole. We have found this does give a better “average” temperature of the base. With that said the probe itself is very accurate once you do the calibration process and it’s not that the probe is inaccurate but more so important that you understand how the temperature differential works between the top, bottom, and core mash. You will always have different temperatures in different parts of the brewery and there is simply no perfect single position to put a probe. To get the best resolution of what is going on we need more probes in general.
- The PID Settings
In my opinion PID can be useful but I genuinely think the additional Bluetooth probe and heat exchanger dish is far more useful than PID and if you get the bluetooth probe and head exchange dish you really do not need PID. Also every time you change the batch size, mash volume or water volume you need to tune the PID. We could have made a much more simple PID but the reality is if we make it too simple it doesn’t work that well so we felt that it’s best to include a PID function that can be tuned and you have access to the “P” “I” and “D” coefficient. More on this is also described in the video above.
- RAPT Documentation Deficiency
Yes I would agree that at the moment we do not have a lot of the RAPT stuff well documented. We do not have many printed manuals and PDFs as the platform is changing quite a bit. For instance on the BrewZilla Gen 4 this is not even 12 months old and we are up to firmware build 6 and we are continuing to add more features. Similarly on the Rapt.io portal/website we are doing ongoing upgrades. In fact we just did a new upgrade today that allows for more complex profile management. Due to the speed of the upgrades and various changes taking place it’s difficult to keep PDFs and manuals up to date but with that said we have an active RAPT users group that you can join which is here:
RAPT Users Group | Facebook
This group will enable you to keep up to date with the lates releases. I should also say we have a Gitlab site that will allow you to log any bugs or put in feature requests here:
Log in or sign up to view
We are continually working through this list and many of the feature requests that customers are posting here are getting processed fairly quickly. One thing I would ask you guys to do is read the current feature requests first before posting a new one just so we do not have multiple requests of the same nature. Alternatively if you see a current request you can “upvote” the request and this will place the request at a higher priority to get resolved faster.
- Alerts and New Profile Management
At the moment we have an alert system via email but if you download the phone app you also get alerts to your mobile phone. You must install the phone app and allow the app to give you push notifications. I should also say we have a new phone app that we are working on in the future that will also allow for easier and faster registration of the devices and connecting to WIFI. We are also working on a new profile management system that gives you more control over alerts too. Hopefully in the next couple of months we have the next major update released which will allow you to put different alert types into different points in the profile. For instance you can have an alert for reaching a certain step, or certain temperature or certain time elapses or one where the temp has been held for a certain number of minutes etc. The new profile system will allow you to turn off alerts to your phone and also turn on/off the audible sound on the actual brewery itself. This new profile management system will also allow more control for different RAPT devices to talk to each other. For instance on the new profile system we will also be able to set a temperature on the RAPT Temp Controller based on a fermentation velocity that is received from the Pill RAPT Hydrometer. So this new profile system will essentially allow for more interconnectivity between totally different RAPT devices so new levels of automation are easier to configure and this has always been one of our long term goals.
Most of all thanks for all your support. We do spend a lot of time reading comments from our customers and we are continuing to develop and improve all the gear that we make. Many of the ideas and new products that we develop come from discussions like this so we really have to thank you guys for this. We are absolutely committed to making brewing easier and helping you guys brew better beer(and other beverages) more easily. We will try to be more active on this forum moving forward.
Is RAPT and KegLand the same company?
The RAPT controller is managed by the KegLand team so it’s one and the same. It’s just got it’s own brand. The only reason that the RAPT control devices are under a different brand is because KegLand also have requests from other industries to supply the temp control and RAPT connected devices to other industries that are not beer or brewing related. For all intensive purposes the RAPT and KegLand are all run as the same business.
- The Limitation of Single Point Temperature Probes in Breweries
For all breweries especially RIMS design breweries (all single vessel breweries are RIMS) it is important to have a temp probe near the element at the bottom of the brewery. This is explained in this video we did some time ago here. Although this is an old video it’s still very relevant to the discussion as it describes the limitation of having a single temperature probe:
Once you have watched this video you can start to appreciate that simply having a single temperature probe at the bottom of the brewery is a limitation. KegLand has known of this limitation for a long time which is why we were so keen for the BZ Gen 4 to also have Bluetooth. Bluetooth has made it much easier for us to bring out multiple different Bluetooth sensors such as additional temperature probes that allow us to take not only a reading down the base near the elements but also put a probe in the top and take the temperature reading of the core mash temp where we really want to control the temp. This process and Bluetooth probe is described in this video here:
To my understanding we are the only single vessel in the world that has this type of solution. We are also making ongoing software updates to the BZ to further improve the functionality of this Bluetooth probe as well as come up with many other accessories too. I should not that BZ Gen 4 can |”bond” with up to 8 Bluetooth sensors which I think will be more useful in the future when we come out with more hardware for things like distillation etc.
I should also say we are also considering making a change to the probe placement. At the moment the temp probe in the base is at the outer edge but we are looking to move this 50% between the outer edge and the drain hole. We have found this does give a better “average” temperature of the base. With that said the probe itself is very accurate once you do the calibration process and it’s not that the probe is inaccurate but more so important that you understand how the temperature differential works between the top, bottom, and core mash. You will always have different temperatures in different parts of the brewery and there is simply no perfect single position to put a probe. To get the best resolution of what is going on we need more probes in general.
- The PID Settings
In my opinion PID can be useful but I genuinely think the additional Bluetooth probe and heat exchanger dish is far more useful than PID and if you get the bluetooth probe and head exchange dish you really do not need PID. Also every time you change the batch size, mash volume or water volume you need to tune the PID. We could have made a much more simple PID but the reality is if we make it too simple it doesn’t work that well so we felt that it’s best to include a PID function that can be tuned and you have access to the “P” “I” and “D” coefficient. More on this is also described in the video above.
- RAPT Documentation Deficiency
Yes I would agree that at the moment we do not have a lot of the RAPT stuff well documented. We do not have many printed manuals and PDFs as the platform is changing quite a bit. For instance on the BrewZilla Gen 4 this is not even 12 months old and we are up to firmware build 6 and we are continuing to add more features. Similarly on the Rapt.io portal/website we are doing ongoing upgrades. In fact we just did a new upgrade today that allows for more complex profile management. Due to the speed of the upgrades and various changes taking place it’s difficult to keep PDFs and manuals up to date but with that said we have an active RAPT users group that you can join which is here:
RAPT Users Group | Facebook
This group will enable you to keep up to date with the lates releases. I should also say we have a Gitlab site that will allow you to log any bugs or put in feature requests here:
Log in or sign up to view
We are continually working through this list and many of the feature requests that customers are posting here are getting processed fairly quickly. One thing I would ask you guys to do is read the current feature requests first before posting a new one just so we do not have multiple requests of the same nature. Alternatively if you see a current request you can “upvote” the request and this will place the request at a higher priority to get resolved faster.
- Alerts and New Profile Management
At the moment we have an alert system via email but if you download the phone app you also get alerts to your mobile phone. You must install the phone app and allow the app to give you push notifications. I should also say we have a new phone app that we are working on in the future that will also allow for easier and faster registration of the devices and connecting to WIFI. We are also working on a new profile management system that gives you more control over alerts too. Hopefully in the next couple of months we have the next major update released which will allow you to put different alert types into different points in the profile. For instance you can have an alert for reaching a certain step, or certain temperature or certain time elapses or one where the temp has been held for a certain number of minutes etc. The new profile system will allow you to turn off alerts to your phone and also turn on/off the audible sound on the actual brewery itself. This new profile management system will also allow more control for different RAPT devices to talk to each other. For instance on the new profile system we will also be able to set a temperature on the RAPT Temp Controller based on a fermentation velocity that is received from the Pill RAPT Hydrometer. So this new profile system will essentially allow for more interconnectivity between totally different RAPT devices so new levels of automation are easier to configure and this has always been one of our long term goals.
Most of all thanks for all your support. We do spend a lot of time reading comments from our customers and we are continuing to develop and improve all the gear that we make. Many of the ideas and new products that we develop come from discussions like this so we really have to thank you guys for this. We are absolutely committed to making brewing easier and helping you guys brew better beer(and other beverages) more easily. We will try to be more active on this forum moving forward.
rtstrider
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Right I was using the plate with the two tabs as the bottom plate
agentbud
Well-Known Member
Well done, Kegland. Glad to see y'all get involved in this discussion.
agentbud
Well-Known Member
Yikes!. I could see that not working so well. LOL.
rtstrider
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To be fair the two tabs were pointed towards the bottom lol Those were being used as "legs" per se. That's how I thought this should be used
agentbud
Well-Known Member
Just out of curiosity, if you were using that as the bottom plate, what were you doing with the actual bottom plate?
FYI, we have both the 35 Liter 110 volt and 65 Liter 220 volt Brewzilla's in stock for immediate shipment.
https://www.williamsbrewing.com/Hom...ent/All-In-One-Wort-Making-Machines/Brewzilla
https://www.williamsbrewing.com/Hom...ent/All-In-One-Wort-Making-Machines/Brewzilla
Whisky River
Well-Known Member
Does anyone have the heat exchanger plate, CIP rotor, or Bluetooth thermometer available in the us yet?
agentbud
Well-Known Member
Not that I have found. Morebeer claims they will stock the HED and has assigned product ID AG545 to it but so far I have not seen it listed on their site. Don't know about the CIP or thermometer.
I certainly appreciate your rather candid input to this forum, albeit rather late given the number of posts/concerns detailed. Especially since many have posted rather negative comments re Your response to their queries on a number of issues.
It seems you have a great product with a lot of potential that you launched before all the “bugs” and supplemental accessories/features were ready for prime time.
Personally, I had been making plans to revamp my 3 vessel, 15 gallon propane brewery to utilize the BZ Gen 4 65L system by the end of the year.
However, given the issues detailed in this thread and the unknown timeframe for a complete, proven release of what is to this point “vapor ware” I’ve delayed any changes and I’m reviewing other systems even though they might be considerably more expensive but proven.
I do wish you had been more forthcoming sooner.
rtstrider
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I thought the actual bottom plate was the top plate so it just sat in the brew cabinet with my other gear. It was never used
Its best to check the arrival date of the heat exchanger plate and bluetooth thermometer with:
https://www.williamsbrewing.com/
and
https://www.morebeer.com/
These are our distributors in America.
With respect to the CIP device we found a way to make the jets work more efficiently so we changed the design and ended up re-tooling for this product. It was a bit expensive but ultimately due to these changes we have delayed this product. The new CIP head is awesome though as it works really well with low wattage pumps. Historically the big issue with CIP is all current CIP spray balls in the marketplace are designed to work with high flow and high pressure pumps which are way larger than what home brewers have in small breweries. For this reason we really felt there was a need to optimize the CIP head so it works on low wattage and low volume pumps that are more commonly used. Sorry about the delay but hopefully you guys find it's worth the wait. I estimate the new CIP device will be available in Australia in Feb 2023 and then for American distributors they will probably get stock in April 2023.
That is extremely well explained. Mash temperature to me is very important for my different brews. Kegland - You have a very well designed, all in one Brewzilla Gen 4 brew vessel. Please give us home brewers accuracy with temperature measurement and temperature display plus an actual PID controller for temperature set point control. With your new measurement and PID controller, it is essential that you supply easily understood documentation. Thank-you and Merry Christmas with your family and friends. Cheers, Dave
Yes I am sorry we did not get involved on this forum earlier. We really should have been more involved on this platform. Being in Australia we have primarily been communicating on our own local forums up until now.
I am not sure it's accurate to say the BrewZilla is not proven though. Even though the BrewZilla Gen 4 has only been out for a short period it's already made prize winning beers in several home brew (BJCP) comps in Australia so from that perspective I am absolutely sure people are getting good results on the system as it is.
I dont think any microbrewery system is ever "finished" either. We have been in this business for some time now and many of the products we make are constantly under review as we change and optimize them. We did launch the BrewZilla and certainly we did find some software bugs but at the same time we also are actively working on the code and any bugs found have been fairly quickly resolved. The nice thing about having an internet connected brewery is that it's easy for us to implement firmware upgrades. In fact the latest firmware just got released last week. In the next few years I am quite sure we will also continue to keep producing more firmware upgrades too so customers who do have the Gen 4 now will continue to get these firmware upgrades as they are released.
We do have quite a few new accessories for the BrewZilla Gen 4 but I am not sure that it's the best idea to delay the sale of the brewery just so everything can be purchased at one time. If we did that we would never release the product as we are constantly working on new accessories for the Gen 4 and many of the accessories are a result of people using the BrewZilla and requesting a certain upgrade part. For example I we got an email from Portly Gentleman (this youtube channel here https://www.youtube.com/c/PortlyGentleman). He requested that we make a new extension cable for the BrewZilla screen so you could mount it on the wall next to the brewer rather than have it attached to the brewery. This is a good idea but I guess this request never would have come in unless he tried the brewery. This new extension cable accessory will be available in a few months.
DuncB
Well-Known Member
Good to hear that portly gentleman still alive. I enjoyed his content but no new material for over a year, so hope his request was recently received by kegland.
I haven't had the chance to update the firmware this month. Are temperature calibration points saved between firmware updates or do the factory settings get restored? If they aren't then it'd be nice to be able to reinput the values without physically changing the temperature or just have a settings export/import feature on RAPT.
Also can we get release notes when firmware updates come out? A post on the gitlab page would be fine.
Also can we get release notes when firmware updates come out? A post on the gitlab page would be fine.
For those who have one of these, how is it going? It looks like stuck sparges has been taken care of with more water and calibration issues as well. I am thinking of getting one. Do you like yours?
Bottoms_Up
Well-Known Member
Great questions! I hope the Kegland people can answer these.
Whisky River
Well-Known Member
Funny you should ask…I just did my first brew on mine the other day and there are definitely still some issues. Overall I think I like my old Grainfather better but I’m hoping the experience with the Gen 4 will improve over time as I like a lot of the ideas they are trying to incorporate into this system.
- Mash, I had my first stuck mash ever with the G4, despite using 5-6 handfuls of rice hulls and adding the extra 2.7l of strike water. In all fairness the grain bill had a lot of flaked maze and flaked rice so that was a factor for sure. Be warned, because there is so little dead space under the grain basket you have to move pretty fast when you get a stuck mash so you don’t run the elements and the pump dry.
- Rapt platform, The controller and digital environment are both terrible. Hopefully they will improve that over time with new updates, so I just did the brew manually. About 5 minutes into the boil, the controller shut down the heating elements and would not restart them. I had to use the app to turn them back on which was fine until about 10 minutes later (80 mins into the session) when I got a screen warning saying a software update had been downloaded and the system needed to restart in the middle of my boil, causing me to have to hit a “delay restart” button every few minutes for the rest of the brew.
- Controller, location is terrible! The controller seems to be optimized for the ideal viewing angle of all users under 4 feel tall, for the rest of us it’s totally unreadable. It can only tilt up a small amount, even with the G4 on a milk crate it wouldn’t tilt up enough to be readable unless you are standing 3-4 away from the unit and then the 2 inch screen was too small for me to see. Easy solution you say, just lift the controller off the mount and angle it so you can read it,….is what you would do, if the chord was long enough to bring the screen above waist height. Which it is not (even with the unit on the milk crate). Resulting in a second version of the, its too far away to read the tiny little screen situation (at least for my tired eyes).
- Temperature readings, after reading all the difficulties others had I measured temp with 2 manual thermometers before brewing and my unit read 8f below actual at room temp and then about 5f high at mash temp.
- False bottom, blocked about 1/4 of the 2oz pellet hops I used, 1/4 was left on the kettle bottom and about 1/2 went into the fermenter. Definitely use an inline filter on this system if you can, I’ve never had as much trub in a fermenter before.
- Cam Lock, minor gripe but the female cam lock fitting on the recirculating arm has drain holes in the sides just above the level of the gasket. Because the pump doesn’t always drain down completely, a little stream of wort tends to run out of the fitting and down the pipe every time you take the recirculation arm off, promptly drying on to the arm and the jacket if it’s being used.
- Build quality, this one is really subjective and I didn’t think anything on the unit was substandard….however it all felt cheap compared to my old Grainfather. The metal seems thinner, the clips feel thin and rattle, the jacket is not nearly as nice as the GF, and for some reason when the pump runs the whole unit vibrates a little bit and the buttons on the controller feel cheep and often need to be pressed twice to register. Don’t get me wrong, None of these are a big deal or effect the brewing process, but they do make everything feel like a system made to a price point more than a really solid system.
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jtrainer
BeerCzar I am
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@KegLand
While I ready my new BZG4 environment for brewing and preparing to debunk these sparge issues ppl are complaining about, can you answer me this... Why did you choose to affix the NEMA 6-30P on the BZG4 35L when its documented for 11 AMP?
Surely a NEMA 6-20 would have been fine or a 6-15 perhaps. The added cost of the circuit install for a fully ready 30 AMP continuous draw increases pretty fast if we have a longish run to make.
While I ready my new BZG4 environment for brewing and preparing to debunk these sparge issues ppl are complaining about, can you answer me this... Why did you choose to affix the NEMA 6-30P on the BZG4 35L when its documented for 11 AMP?
Surely a NEMA 6-20 would have been fine or a 6-15 perhaps. The added cost of the circuit install for a fully ready 30 AMP continuous draw increases pretty fast if we have a longish run to make.
Again, I appreciate Keglands replies, albeit, somewhat delayed. I know they are in Australia but I would presume that the US market would represent a significant opportunity and in ignoring this they are missing out on future opportunities.
I waited and studied many responses and You Tube presentations and despite some “glowing” reviews I cannot help but feel that sadly this is a system designed to meet a price point and not necessarily address the needs of the customers.
I had budgeted for a 65L system with condensation hood and other accessories to replace my 15g, 3 vessel, propane system but the shortcomings others have repeatedly reported give me pause.
My choices are to either wait for this system to approach its promised levels of performance or to look elsewhere.
I’m leaning toward the latter even though the cost difference is substantial, it is better designed to actually perform to its level as promised.
I waited and studied many responses and You Tube presentations and despite some “glowing” reviews I cannot help but feel that sadly this is a system designed to meet a price point and not necessarily address the needs of the customers.
I had budgeted for a 65L system with condensation hood and other accessories to replace my 15g, 3 vessel, propane system but the shortcomings others have repeatedly reported give me pause.
My choices are to either wait for this system to approach its promised levels of performance or to look elsewhere.
I’m leaning toward the latter even though the cost difference is substantial, it is better designed to actually perform to its level as promised.
hey @KegLand
i have no desire to set up an account on gitlab just to be able to make a complaint. what i will tell you is that as of a few weeks ago, your "app" for mobile phones isnt an actual app as far as i can tell. at least not on iphones/ios16. i can "download" the app from the app store, but there is no "app" anywhere on my phone. the app store says i have it, but it doesnt seem to exist on my phone. i just finished transfering to a newer iphone, and still the same issue. i literally have to go the app store, search for rapt.io, and the when i get to its results, i have to hit the "open" button to get it to open on my phone. (it says open, not "get" which is how i know i "have" it already) so cant speak for everyone, but its now been two iphones in past month with same result. i'd say that's probably an issue that should be at the very top of your list for correction.
second- the alerts have disappeared from your profile entry on rapt. tried on the phone, desktop, etc. doesnt matter. its gone. i used it a few weeks ago, i got it to work by setting up an email relay to text my phone. so i know it was there. but now its gone. here's my profile step setup.
saved it. went back in to edit, thinking maybe i need to add a second "step" and maybe that can be the alert option, no luck.
so as far as i can tell, its disappeared. please confirm.
and as an aside- what's the diameter of the wort tubing inside the coolossus? if outer tube is 1/2", inside is 3/8? 1/4?
thx
i have no desire to set up an account on gitlab just to be able to make a complaint. what i will tell you is that as of a few weeks ago, your "app" for mobile phones isnt an actual app as far as i can tell. at least not on iphones/ios16. i can "download" the app from the app store, but there is no "app" anywhere on my phone. the app store says i have it, but it doesnt seem to exist on my phone. i just finished transfering to a newer iphone, and still the same issue. i literally have to go the app store, search for rapt.io, and the when i get to its results, i have to hit the "open" button to get it to open on my phone. (it says open, not "get" which is how i know i "have" it already) so cant speak for everyone, but its now been two iphones in past month with same result. i'd say that's probably an issue that should be at the very top of your list for correction.
second- the alerts have disappeared from your profile entry on rapt. tried on the phone, desktop, etc. doesnt matter. its gone. i used it a few weeks ago, i got it to work by setting up an email relay to text my phone. so i know it was there. but now its gone. here's my profile step setup.
saved it. went back in to edit, thinking maybe i need to add a second "step" and maybe that can be the alert option, no luck.
so as far as i can tell, its disappeared. please confirm.
and as an aside- what's the diameter of the wort tubing inside the coolossus? if outer tube is 1/2", inside is 3/8? 1/4?
thx
DuncB
Well-Known Member
I'm away from my coolossus but from memory I would say internal about 10mm.
I would say outer is more like 20mm.
rtstrider
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Wanted to mention I brewed a Helles Friday evening and wanted to try the real false bottom this time. There was no change and the mash recirculation was stuck the entire mash. I had to constantly futz around with it every 10 minutes or so as the pump was running dry and needed to have the grains opened up for recirculation. I doughed in at a 1.8 qts per lb grist/water ratio. This was basically the 1.5 qt per lb plus 2.7 liters to add in extra liquid for the dead space. The grain bill was 9.75 lbs with a half lb of rice hulls. I ended up adding another .25 lb to the mash after it first got stuck. I really feel this could be avoided by borrowing an idea from the Clawhammer system. Have to wonder if using a fine steel mesh (say maybe 400 micron) instead of the pre drilled holes on the side of the mash pipe and false bottom would resolve this? I'm going to test that theory in 2 weeks or so on the next brew using a brew bag. Another idea would be to suggest a recommended mill gap and grist to water ratio. I have not seen this mentioned in any instructions for the Brewzilla where the Foundry has at least the water suggestions mentioned. I'd like to provide this for reference as Kegland is now in this thread
https://www.blichmannengineering.com/pub/media/wysiwyg/UpdatedManuals/ANV-Foundry_V8.pdf
Page 7
My grind is currently set to .032. Is there a preferred mill gap? Also looking at the Foundry chart is 1.8 qt/lb ratio still too little water? Are there any good reference materials for the Gen 4? I did find the following tips and tricks recommendations on the Kegland site
https://www.kegland.com.au/blog/post/the-10-tips-every-new-brewzilla-owner-should-know
I also found the manual here
https://www.manualslib.com/manual/2546288/Kegland-Brewzilla-35l-Gen-4.html#manual
I've also attached a pic of the brew bag setup I'll be using for the next brew. I'm really curious to see if the bag does indeed help with the stuck mash during recirculation. I'll update with the results of the next brew which will involve quick grits (American Lager).
https://www.blichmannengineering.com/pub/media/wysiwyg/UpdatedManuals/ANV-Foundry_V8.pdf
Page 7
My grind is currently set to .032. Is there a preferred mill gap? Also looking at the Foundry chart is 1.8 qt/lb ratio still too little water? Are there any good reference materials for the Gen 4? I did find the following tips and tricks recommendations on the Kegland site
https://www.kegland.com.au/blog/post/the-10-tips-every-new-brewzilla-owner-should-know
I also found the manual here
https://www.manualslib.com/manual/2546288/Kegland-Brewzilla-35l-Gen-4.html#manual
I've also attached a pic of the brew bag setup I'll be using for the next brew. I'm really curious to see if the bag does indeed help with the stuck mash during recirculation. I'll update with the results of the next brew which will involve quick grits (American Lager).
Attachments
agentbud
Well-Known Member
@rtstrider :
1) did you use the return-pipe valve to restrict the flow from the pump during mash recirc?
2) did you use rice hulls
3) did you have a lot of flaked grains?
I had the same issue as you on my first brew. But on the next brew, I made some changes and it re-circulated with no issues. On that second round, I increased the strike water to about 1.6 qts/lb + enough to cover the deadspace. I set the valve to about 1/2 open and added about 1/2 to 3/4 lb rice hulls. I also increased my grind from .025 to .05 which caused a big loss in efficiency so next time I am going with .038
rtstrider
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1. Yes I used the ball valve to restrict the flow
2. Yes I started with a half lb of hulls in 9.25 lbs of grains then moved up to .75 lbs and still no go
3. No it was 95% Heidelberg malt and 5% Bestmalz light munich
My guess is it's one of two things. Either my crush is too fine or I'm not using enough water in the mash. I'm crushing at .032 currently but I'm not sure what is best for these systems so a brew bag was purchased. I'm not going to touch the crush size on the next few batches so the only change in the brew day is the bag. Will report back with results of the subsequent brew days
Ok, got it. but then it expands to basically 1/2” where you thread on a connector?
DuncB
Well-Known Member
The 1/2 inch T is welded onto the outer steel pipe sort of flush so I'd say outer same diameter as the external of a 1/2 inch T.
But I'm about 11700 miles from coolossus to confirm.
space_hutch
Member
Can anyone confirm that *any* bluetooth temp probe is supported or only the Kegland product? Well maybe not *any*, but I see Thermoworks has a bluetooth temp with a waterproof probe. If there are other compatible BT temp probes, please let me know.
Since a grain pipe and false bottom is basically a metal BIAB setup couldn't you do a full volume mash maybe leaving enough volume for a 1 gallon sparge? I have found a couple stirs during the mash and lifting the grain pipe and lowering it back a couple times gives good efficiency.
tgbruiser
Member
I did my second brew (Pilsner) on the 65L Gen 4 Brewzilla and had better results than my first one. Please note that I have not calibrated the temperature yet; was planning on doing so once the Blutooth thermometer was available.
Here's a comparison of the two brews (both 5.5 gal batches):
First brew:
More Haze all grain kit from More Beer with 13 lbs 2-row, 1 lb flaked wheat, 1 lb flaked oats, 1 lb white wheat and about two large handfuls of rice hulls in the mash
Mill: ~0.038 in.
Mash was done directly in the basket with 6.1 gal of water (assuming 1.294 qt/lb absorption) @ 153F. Tried to get the PID set up beforehand, but still needed to play around with it. I would see anywhere between 152.8F and 156F.
Sparged with 2.9 gallons of water
Mash efficiency: 64% (added 1 lb of DME to get the ABV closer to the kit)
Mash experience: Didn't have any issues with the mash or the sparge getting stuck. Had the pump on at 100% and the ball valve at about 50%. I need to better figure out how to set the PID to get it more stable.
Hops: Total was 2.75 oz was put directly into the wort.
Yielded 6.1 gal in the fermenter
Taste: Great!
Clean up: A lot of the hops and some finer grains made it through the false bottom and clogged the pump making the transfer to the fermenter a little problematic. Unclogging the pump was lot very difficult, but annoying. The rest of the cleaning went very smoothly
Second brew:
Italian Pilsner with 9.75 lbs of Pilsner malt and 1.5 oz of Caramunich II in the mash
Mill: ~0.025 in.
Mash was done in the MoreBeer bag (BAG29, which is big enough to go outside the basket as well) inside the basket with 8.4 gallons of water (assuming 1.5 qt/lb absorption) @ 149F. Temperatures varied between 148.9F and 152F. Still need more finetuning of the PID.
No sparge was done
Mash efficiency: 85.4%
Mash experience: Everything went very smoothly at 100% pump and 50-60% open ball valve. Only need to improve the PID.
Hops: Total was 1.5 oz put into a mesh bag
Yielded 6.1 gal in the fermenter
Taste: Have not kegged it yet. Probably tomorrow.
Clean up: Very, very little hops and just a little grain made it through the false bottom. No issues with the pump and transfer went well. Clean up was much smoother and the grain bag and the hops bag weren't that much trouble.
During both brews, I would lift the lid and give the grain a good stir after 15 minutes, but only stirred the top portion of the mash every 15 minutes thereafter.
Coming from the Anvil Foundry 10.5 gal, I am used to using bags to get the most out of efficiency and don't mind the extra clean up, so I will likely continue to use grain and hop bags. I will continue to mill to 0.025 in., but I'll likely adjust the grain absorption value in Brewfather until I get 5.5 gal into the fermenter. Next time I will spare in addition to the grain bag (forgot to move the water out of the Brewzilla before adding grain in the second batch, otherwise I would have).
Any suggestions on setting the PID? Are people mashing with the heating elements at 100%? Seemed if I adjusted it to below 80%, it couldn't get the mash temp up to the target. If I put it higher, it would shoot past the target occasionally by up to 3F.
How much of an overshoot are you seeing? What's your hysteresis setting?
Here's a comparison of the two brews (both 5.5 gal batches):
First brew:
More Haze all grain kit from More Beer with 13 lbs 2-row, 1 lb flaked wheat, 1 lb flaked oats, 1 lb white wheat and about two large handfuls of rice hulls in the mash
Mill: ~0.038 in.
Mash was done directly in the basket with 6.1 gal of water (assuming 1.294 qt/lb absorption) @ 153F. Tried to get the PID set up beforehand, but still needed to play around with it. I would see anywhere between 152.8F and 156F.
Sparged with 2.9 gallons of water
Mash efficiency: 64% (added 1 lb of DME to get the ABV closer to the kit)
Mash experience: Didn't have any issues with the mash or the sparge getting stuck. Had the pump on at 100% and the ball valve at about 50%. I need to better figure out how to set the PID to get it more stable.
Hops: Total was 2.75 oz was put directly into the wort.
Yielded 6.1 gal in the fermenter
Taste: Great!
Clean up: A lot of the hops and some finer grains made it through the false bottom and clogged the pump making the transfer to the fermenter a little problematic. Unclogging the pump was lot very difficult, but annoying. The rest of the cleaning went very smoothly
Second brew:
Italian Pilsner with 9.75 lbs of Pilsner malt and 1.5 oz of Caramunich II in the mash
Mill: ~0.025 in.
Mash was done in the MoreBeer bag (BAG29, which is big enough to go outside the basket as well) inside the basket with 8.4 gallons of water (assuming 1.5 qt/lb absorption) @ 149F. Temperatures varied between 148.9F and 152F. Still need more finetuning of the PID.
No sparge was done
Mash efficiency: 85.4%
Mash experience: Everything went very smoothly at 100% pump and 50-60% open ball valve. Only need to improve the PID.
Hops: Total was 1.5 oz put into a mesh bag
Yielded 6.1 gal in the fermenter
Taste: Have not kegged it yet. Probably tomorrow.
Clean up: Very, very little hops and just a little grain made it through the false bottom. No issues with the pump and transfer went well. Clean up was much smoother and the grain bag and the hops bag weren't that much trouble.
During both brews, I would lift the lid and give the grain a good stir after 15 minutes, but only stirred the top portion of the mash every 15 minutes thereafter.
Coming from the Anvil Foundry 10.5 gal, I am used to using bags to get the most out of efficiency and don't mind the extra clean up, so I will likely continue to use grain and hop bags. I will continue to mill to 0.025 in., but I'll likely adjust the grain absorption value in Brewfather until I get 5.5 gal into the fermenter. Next time I will spare in addition to the grain bag (forgot to move the water out of the Brewzilla before adding grain in the second batch, otherwise I would have).
Any suggestions on setting the PID? Are people mashing with the heating elements at 100%? Seemed if I adjusted it to below 80%, it couldn't get the mash temp up to the target. If I put it higher, it would shoot past the target occasionally by up to 3F.
How much of an overshoot are you seeing? What's your hysteresis setting?
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