Hi everyone, I have been a happy BIAB brewer for several years with great success. I recently decided to upgrade to an electric setup so I could free up the kitchen on brew days. I got the Klarstein braueld pro 35l (coobra/agape), similar to most other popular electric kettle/malt pipe setups. The build quality seemed great, so I was excited to have a first brew day on it. So far so good... that is until I tried brewing with it.
First the malt pipe bottom screen allows a ton of grain bits and debris into the kettle. You would think that I has spilled a cup of grain into it. Terrible!
Then, of course, the bazooka filter that comes with it completely clogged toward the end of the mash from the grain debris alone! I had to siphon all the wort out of the kettle after the sparge, so I could remove and clean the filter, then siphon the wort through a hop spider into kettle for the boil. That added at least another 40 minutes to the brew day.
Anyhow, I don't know who designs these machines, but if the malt pipe lets that much debris into the kettle, then why even have one? I just don't get it. I'm already thinking I'm just going to line the pipe with a BIAB for the next time.
Is this very common with these electric/malt pipe setups? Is there a more elegant solution, other than lining it with a BIAB? How do the manufacturers expect people to boil wort that is full of pieces of grain? Why even supply a bazooka filter if it's going to get clogged after the first 30 minutes of use, requiring a major operation to unclog it? Ugggghhh!
First the malt pipe bottom screen allows a ton of grain bits and debris into the kettle. You would think that I has spilled a cup of grain into it. Terrible!
Then, of course, the bazooka filter that comes with it completely clogged toward the end of the mash from the grain debris alone! I had to siphon all the wort out of the kettle after the sparge, so I could remove and clean the filter, then siphon the wort through a hop spider into kettle for the boil. That added at least another 40 minutes to the brew day.
Anyhow, I don't know who designs these machines, but if the malt pipe lets that much debris into the kettle, then why even have one? I just don't get it. I'm already thinking I'm just going to line the pipe with a BIAB for the next time.
Is this very common with these electric/malt pipe setups? Is there a more elegant solution, other than lining it with a BIAB? How do the manufacturers expect people to boil wort that is full of pieces of grain? Why even supply a bazooka filter if it's going to get clogged after the first 30 minutes of use, requiring a major operation to unclog it? Ugggghhh!