Kevin Griffitts
Member
- Joined
- Nov 22, 2017
- Messages
- 16
- Reaction score
- 1
Thank You BrunDog but I doubt they will ever be a reliable machine.
Bummer man. I scorched quite a few brews in my beginning electric days with elements on grain bags and air pockets. Sad to say your beer will be smoky and not very good. I wouldn’t waste my time fermenting it but your call. Thanks for the heads up. I’m still trying to figure out a way to try to prevent air pockets and dough balls. Maybe build a second false bottom and stir during mash in.
I've had mine for several months now and it works great. I did have some issues with pre-1.7 firmware but they all seem to be fixed now. One big thing I learned was just don't touch the machine when you don't need to as that seems to screw up the weight measurement system during water additions. My efficiency is usually around 72% to 75% as I do stir the bag around a few times during the mash.
I ordered my Brewie in June 2017 at Homebrew Con. Finally got it Dec. 21, 2017 and got the Brewie pads I had ordered the following day. (Midwest US)
Most of my experiences were similar to "Hamboner" above. I did not run the test brew. Just ran a full clean which took about 2.5 hours.
Today I ran my first brew, since the full clean I ran last night worked just fine. I was a bit worried after hearing all the horror stories in the fb group.
I brewed the Rusty Rex pad that is available. I stayed nearby the whole time to keep an eye on things, check temps, test gravity, and I was curious to see the whole process in action.
The end result was approx 65% mash efficiency. 1.038 OG from 4kg of munich malt and 19L into the fermenter.
There were zero issues during the whole process, got a nice boil going. It was really nice to just sit around, do mostly nothing and end up with what promises to be a decent beer using all grain. Overall I am very happy with the machine.
I will not be giving up my Grainfather anytime soon but may be a possibility in the future once I run the Brewie through it's paces and see just what it can do.
For now I can just be happy that my wife will be brewing beer now too.
I do wonder how many of the "problems" with the Brewie we've all heard about are due to impatience or user error. I can see how issues could arise by one not paying attention or not having a good understanding of the brewing process, and the control can be a bit sluggish at times.
Hope everyone else has as good an experience with theirs as I did with mine.
I for one am a satisfied customer. It is a great machine if you want to brew all grain but can't dedicate 4+ hours to brewing. You still need to be around but can take care of other things while the machine brews for you.
Cheers
I got a nasty surprise this weekend for my third brew on the Brewie.
I had been keeping a close eye on it for the first two brews.
I decided to let it do it's thing and do other stuff while brewing the Hocus Pocus kit. Luckily I was nearby when the it started to overflow.
The mash got stuck so when the sparge started the wort had no place else to go.
Didn't find out until later the real damage that had been done. The pump actually created a vacuum and bent the false bottom which is 1/16" thick stainless. Since there was no wort circulating it scorched on the bottom of the mash tank, scorched the false bottom, and burned a hole through the grain bag.
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I finished the brew so we'll see how the beer turns out. The OG was pretty low, but that seems to be the norm so far.
At least now I have an idea of how to keep this from happening again.
Going to fashion myself some sort of overflow tube that should at least keep it from overflowing the mash tank again. Hopefully it will also keep the wort flowing so I won't have to worry about scorching anymore.
Will post pics when I have something to show.
As a big fan of automation, I wanted to see this device work. Unfortunately it’s really not that easy... Murphy’s law of “can and will” gets very demonstrated when machines run on their own... not because they are bad, but because the humans who designed & built them missed a possibility or mistaking made assumptions.
That said, I appreciate the technical failures such as @HarkinBanks example above. If the sensors don’t detect the overfill (didn’t) or the vacuum (no such sensors), the machine plods along happily until catastrophe results. This is expected to some degree in my opinion.
However, the real shame is how the brewie team is handling these problems. Communication (lack that is) has been offensive in my opinion based on what I have read here and on the FB page. Perfect example is their absolute absence from both. It’s a case study in how not to treat your prized customers. I hope they figure that out else they will suffer the fate of an alienated community and/or keen competition.
Well, I purchased my Brewie with paypal. However, I happened to have closed the particular Paypal account I purchased the Brewie with. I have another personal Paypal account, just not the one I purchased with.I have been without my brewie for over 6 months. If you bought it through paypal or even if you didn't please let them know of your issues. If enough people complain to them the can and will aply pressure to brewie
I just received my brewie and am having the same issues. Did you ever end up getting this fixed or a response from brewie?We just got our Brewie and it looks like the heating elements aren’t working. Brewie has yet to respond on next steps. What disappointment. Should I have gone with a Zymatic instead?
Well, Paypal sent me a generic response to file a claim with Brewie. Not what I expected when there should be a human answering direct questions.PayPal may not be able to get you a refund. If enough people complain the will lock brewie's acount till they feel the issues are resolved. You don't need to have used paypal you can tell them anyway. It will give them reason to believe there might be credit card charge backs coming . They will want to make sure there are enough funds in there account to cover the charge backs
Well, Paypal sent me a generic response to file a claim with Brewie. Not what I expected when there should be a human answering direct questions.
However, Balint at Brewie got back to me yesterday after 12 days and filed a tech support claim on their website. He asked me to run the unclogging and video it. He said that they'd get back to me after viewing the videos. He said from the video they will determine if it's a clogged or stuck together tubing line, which I will be able to dismantle the machine and fix myself or if it is a broken valve, which will lean to sending the machine into repair.
Well, at least I have communication again.
Now that I have seen a test brew live I think they really should have designed a float valve for the sparge water to prevent overflows and regulate sparge flow. This would have been a pretty easy add like the blichman sparge valve. I’m not really seeing the logic of putting the sparge “in” directly in the middle of the grain bag. I realize they had to drill the hole lower because of the depth of the hop cages, but some method of an overflow shut off would be a lot safer. Pumping the sparge water into the middle of the bag can also lead to air pockets. It’s much better to lay the sparge water over the top of the grain bed.
Well, Paypal sent me a generic response to file a claim with Brewie. Not what I expected when there should be a human answering direct questions.
However, Balint at Brewie got back to me yesterday after 12 days and filed a tech support claim on their website. He asked me to run the unclogging and video it. He said that they'd get back to me after viewing the videos. He said from the video they will determine if it's a clogged or stuck together tubing line, which I will be able to dismantle the machine and fix myself or if it is a broken valve, which will lean to sending the machine into repair.
Well, at least I have communication again.
I just called back in and gave them a update. They did launched a investigation some time ago. I added this thread to there report and the facebook page brewies owner group. I encourage you and others to call in. The more info paypal has about brewies bad customer service the better it is for all of us.
"The problem of our past are behind our back"I find it hilarious that with all the problems the machines are having and their stellar response time that they can send out a newsletter update like this: http://brewie.org/knowledge-center/...t-faster-delivery-mobile-app-and-new-products
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I'm wondering if a connected tube to the sparge hole, run up along the grain bag and lay on top during sparging would run water up and over the grains as one would expect...... self mods of the future.
I find it hilarious that with all the problems the machines are having and their stellar response time that they can send out a newsletter update like this: http://brewie.org/knowledge-center/...t-faster-delivery-mobile-app-and-new-products
Also, I just got an email from a David C. at Brewie and he is asking for a Short Clean cycle to be videoed and sent to them. So, I'll stand there and video a 12-15 minute clean cycle for them.
"The problem of our past are behind our back"
Just wow.
Good to know. Did you send your original unit back and demand a new unit? How did that go about? Do you have emails for Marcel and Bob Daily?Stay on them. I emailed Balint, the CEO Marcel and the North American Distributor Bob daily, weekly, until they sent me a new machine. It is too soon to tell with my new unit, but I really think the first few batches of machines were defective and all needed to be recalled.
Good to know. Did you send your original unit back and demand a new unit? How did that go about? Do you have emails for Marcel and Bob Daily?
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