If TLDR - just skip to the pro's/con's at the bottom
This isn't technically a review since I've only used it for two brews so far, my pilsner and amber. Gonna be a few weeks before I use it again so I figured I'd post an initial opinion on it.
For a little bit of background: For years I mashed in a Rubbermaid tun with bazooka screen and with my previous Monster Mill 2 mill (non-Pro) I would get a strongly consistent 86% efficiency. After some life changes and a move to an apartment and hiatus from brewing I started up again with a Robobrew. Didn't care for it so switched back to Rubbermaid & bazooka tube. This time however, and using the MM2 Pro mill, my efficiency tended to swing quite a bit between 76% and 83% which was starting to annoy me. I sometimes noticed when draining ended from the tun I would still see a pocket of pooled wort so I knew I was often leaving wort behind. I double batch sparge and still I couldn't always seem to get out all the wort even though I do tilt the tun forward. I started thinking of a change and I always admired the Ss zero deadspace design with 5° sloped bottom. I figured I can give it a try and if I don't like it either return it or sell it and take a little loss.
Back to the Ss: On the two brews I've used it with so far I got 83% efficiency with the Pilsner and 82% with the amber. I didn't see any wort pooling and when cleaning out the tun the grain was much drier than when I would clean out the Rubbermaid which clearly showed more wort extraction from the Ss. I'll now list some things I noticed using it then put a pro's/con's at the bottom:
Using the Ss I get more fine particles making it through and while I do a vorlauf of two 16oz measuring cups what happens is it stays fairly clear until the runoff is almost done, at which point then a whole bunch of the fine grain particles come through again. So, to solve this I simply use a double mesh strainer going into the boil kettle. Works like a charm but it's an extra thing to have to do. I've also noticed the runoff from the Ss is slower than from my Rubbermaid. I took a measuring tape and measured the drain hole in the floor of the tun and found it's not an exact 1/2" wide. I am guessing that is why the flow is a little slower. Not a big deal at all, especially for fly sparging, but draining does take a slight bit more time when double batch sparging. I definitely prefer welded vs weldless and the only minor grip is my weld is done in a way where the valve is ever so slightly angled upward. It's so minute that I didn't even notice it, but what happens is when draining without using tubing attached, like when I vorlauf using a measuring cup, when runoff almost stops wort starts to run back along the bottom of the valve where it then drips off. Just would be nice if it were level so this didn't happen.
Preheating is essential just like with a Rubbermaid tun and I recommend using a slightly higher temp preheat water. If you do so it holds temps amazingly! I use 4-5 gallons of 170 degree preheat water. When I mashed in with my amber the temp was 153.5. When the mash was over an hour later it still read 153.5, and that was read with my calibrated thermometer. The included digital thermometer works fine but as many reviews have noted it takes quite a bit of time (10-15 minutes?) to reach the actual temp & stabilize. So you cannot mash in and use that as your measure of hitting the proper temp, you will still need to use your trusted thermometer.
I've measured the amount of wort that sits beneath the false bottom to be roughly 50oz, so I always calculate my desire quart per pound ratio (1.33 is what I use) and add another .39 gallon of water to my strike water calculation as that liquid will be sitting under the grain not contacting it the entire mash rest. Now onto the pro's & con's.
Pro's:
1. Holds temperature better than my orange Rubbermaid cooler tun. I did several tests with water and different lengths of time and in each instance the Ss lost less heat than the Rubbermaid. And as mentioned above, with grain in it (extra thermal mass) it holds temp even more solidly.
2. Zero deadspace design gets every last drop out.
3. False bottom design appears to work better than my bazooka tube and not create any channeling as I don't have visible puddles of wort left in the tub when flow has stopped. This has lead to a small efficiency bump/stabilization in efficiency
4. Thermowell is helpful to have - didn't have one for my rubbermaid tun, though it does take quite some time for the digital thermometer to come to temp and stabilize.
Con's:
1. False bottom gasket can be a little bit of a nuisance as sometimes when trying to insert it can pop off. You get used to inserting it correctly (slow and easy) however.
2. It's quite heavy. I can still lift it with grain and water in it but for dumping the grains I scoop them out. Honestly though it's no problem at all and with my Rubbermaid I always had to have another person help to dump it anyway.
3. The rubber feet suck. They pop off super easily. Not an issue if it's going to be keeping stationary and you can simply use without the feet attached. I do wish Ss would change all their rubber feet to hard plastic.
4. The false bottom does let through some finer particles and I did not have this issue with the cooler tun w/ bazooka tube. I mill a bit fine however so depending on your gap setting you might not experience this.
So far I'm liking the tun a lot. I'm very impressed with the heat retention and was skeptical it would outperform the Rubbermaid. Too early to say conclusively but so far it appears to have accomplished what I was going for - 1. Stabilizing efficiency. 2. Stabilizing total volumes. With the Rubbermaid and seeing I was leaving behind wort I also had some issues with meeting the calculated volumes. Since the switch that also is no longer an issue. 3. Getting away from the Robobrew and the possible inherent issues with pump clogging and human error issues. I one time forgot to reset the strike water temp to the mash rest temp and after mashing in soon after saw the temp was climbing to 165. My fault yes, but I wanted to eliminate that possibility.
It's a rather expensive piece of gear and for many the cost is not justifiable and I can completely understand that. I went with it as for me the frustration involved with the Robobrew was just too great and the frustration of efficiency swings and wort volume swings with the Rubbermaid was getting to me. My last two brews with the Ss were the most stress-free I've had in a while.
These are the fine particles of grain that got through the FB and were caught by the strainer:
This isn't technically a review since I've only used it for two brews so far, my pilsner and amber. Gonna be a few weeks before I use it again so I figured I'd post an initial opinion on it.
For a little bit of background: For years I mashed in a Rubbermaid tun with bazooka screen and with my previous Monster Mill 2 mill (non-Pro) I would get a strongly consistent 86% efficiency. After some life changes and a move to an apartment and hiatus from brewing I started up again with a Robobrew. Didn't care for it so switched back to Rubbermaid & bazooka tube. This time however, and using the MM2 Pro mill, my efficiency tended to swing quite a bit between 76% and 83% which was starting to annoy me. I sometimes noticed when draining ended from the tun I would still see a pocket of pooled wort so I knew I was often leaving wort behind. I double batch sparge and still I couldn't always seem to get out all the wort even though I do tilt the tun forward. I started thinking of a change and I always admired the Ss zero deadspace design with 5° sloped bottom. I figured I can give it a try and if I don't like it either return it or sell it and take a little loss.
Back to the Ss: On the two brews I've used it with so far I got 83% efficiency with the Pilsner and 82% with the amber. I didn't see any wort pooling and when cleaning out the tun the grain was much drier than when I would clean out the Rubbermaid which clearly showed more wort extraction from the Ss. I'll now list some things I noticed using it then put a pro's/con's at the bottom:
Using the Ss I get more fine particles making it through and while I do a vorlauf of two 16oz measuring cups what happens is it stays fairly clear until the runoff is almost done, at which point then a whole bunch of the fine grain particles come through again. So, to solve this I simply use a double mesh strainer going into the boil kettle. Works like a charm but it's an extra thing to have to do. I've also noticed the runoff from the Ss is slower than from my Rubbermaid. I took a measuring tape and measured the drain hole in the floor of the tun and found it's not an exact 1/2" wide. I am guessing that is why the flow is a little slower. Not a big deal at all, especially for fly sparging, but draining does take a slight bit more time when double batch sparging. I definitely prefer welded vs weldless and the only minor grip is my weld is done in a way where the valve is ever so slightly angled upward. It's so minute that I didn't even notice it, but what happens is when draining without using tubing attached, like when I vorlauf using a measuring cup, when runoff almost stops wort starts to run back along the bottom of the valve where it then drips off. Just would be nice if it were level so this didn't happen.
Preheating is essential just like with a Rubbermaid tun and I recommend using a slightly higher temp preheat water. If you do so it holds temps amazingly! I use 4-5 gallons of 170 degree preheat water. When I mashed in with my amber the temp was 153.5. When the mash was over an hour later it still read 153.5, and that was read with my calibrated thermometer. The included digital thermometer works fine but as many reviews have noted it takes quite a bit of time (10-15 minutes?) to reach the actual temp & stabilize. So you cannot mash in and use that as your measure of hitting the proper temp, you will still need to use your trusted thermometer.
I've measured the amount of wort that sits beneath the false bottom to be roughly 50oz, so I always calculate my desire quart per pound ratio (1.33 is what I use) and add another .39 gallon of water to my strike water calculation as that liquid will be sitting under the grain not contacting it the entire mash rest. Now onto the pro's & con's.
Pro's:
1. Holds temperature better than my orange Rubbermaid cooler tun. I did several tests with water and different lengths of time and in each instance the Ss lost less heat than the Rubbermaid. And as mentioned above, with grain in it (extra thermal mass) it holds temp even more solidly.
2. Zero deadspace design gets every last drop out.
3. False bottom design appears to work better than my bazooka tube and not create any channeling as I don't have visible puddles of wort left in the tub when flow has stopped. This has lead to a small efficiency bump/stabilization in efficiency
4. Thermowell is helpful to have - didn't have one for my rubbermaid tun, though it does take quite some time for the digital thermometer to come to temp and stabilize.
Con's:
1. False bottom gasket can be a little bit of a nuisance as sometimes when trying to insert it can pop off. You get used to inserting it correctly (slow and easy) however.
2. It's quite heavy. I can still lift it with grain and water in it but for dumping the grains I scoop them out. Honestly though it's no problem at all and with my Rubbermaid I always had to have another person help to dump it anyway.
3. The rubber feet suck. They pop off super easily. Not an issue if it's going to be keeping stationary and you can simply use without the feet attached. I do wish Ss would change all their rubber feet to hard plastic.
4. The false bottom does let through some finer particles and I did not have this issue with the cooler tun w/ bazooka tube. I mill a bit fine however so depending on your gap setting you might not experience this.
So far I'm liking the tun a lot. I'm very impressed with the heat retention and was skeptical it would outperform the Rubbermaid. Too early to say conclusively but so far it appears to have accomplished what I was going for - 1. Stabilizing efficiency. 2. Stabilizing total volumes. With the Rubbermaid and seeing I was leaving behind wort I also had some issues with meeting the calculated volumes. Since the switch that also is no longer an issue. 3. Getting away from the Robobrew and the possible inherent issues with pump clogging and human error issues. I one time forgot to reset the strike water temp to the mash rest temp and after mashing in soon after saw the temp was climbing to 165. My fault yes, but I wanted to eliminate that possibility.
It's a rather expensive piece of gear and for many the cost is not justifiable and I can completely understand that. I went with it as for me the frustration involved with the Robobrew was just too great and the frustration of efficiency swings and wort volume swings with the Rubbermaid was getting to me. My last two brews with the Ss were the most stress-free I've had in a while.
These are the fine particles of grain that got through the FB and were caught by the strainer:
