Definitely some flaws to the unit. I come from 5 years of using mashing in a Rubbermaid cooler with Bazooka tube and boiling in a Blichmann kettle on a proprane burner. In an apartment now so went with the Robobrew v3. So, the issues I encountered.... the most annoying was the center pipe. That upper piece that fits over the bottom one comes off way too easily. I was having an issue where the wort was barely circulating. It was early on in the mash so I figured I'd stir it back up. Took the top screen off which somehow knocked the top tube off sending wort, and some grain, through the center tube. This happened again later after I put it back. So I wound up with a little bit of grain in the boil, like a 1/8" layer and it didn't fully coat the false bottom so I don't think it should be an issue in the final beer. Hydometer sample tasted like it always should so I'm keeping my fingers crossed as I've never had grain in the boil. Stirring the mash always was annoying as the malt pipe tube keeps turning, so your stirring spins the malt pipe.
And that top screen, seems truly pointless in the mash. Maybe for sparging but for the mash it seems to cause more trouble than it's worth. Without it I can also keep a long probe thermometer in the mash so I can double verify the temps. I am planning for next brew to simply keep the silicon cap on the bottom tube and just not put the top tube on. The fact that the center tube allows grains past the screens is just kooky - way too easy to get grains in the boil.
In addition to the recirculation issue sparging also took forever. I'm used to batch sparging... does fly sparging usually take forever with a small trickle coming out of the grains? Sparge took like an hour.
Temperature control is a tremendous PITA. The Robobrew being Australian designed is focused on Celsius and in Fahrenheit mode is merely converts celsius so I can't dial in 155, it's either 154 or 156. Everyone knows the temp sensor is on the bottom and so you kinda have to average between that reading and a reading from the top of the mash with a pen thermometer or buy a long probe to keep in the middle of the mash and adjust the temp from there. temps seemed to fluctuate a lot though. Would probably have been better if the mash didn't seem so compacted. I was using the insulating jacket btw.
The pump arm.... they say never to turn it without first unlocking the cam lock, yeah great I unlock it and wort still in the pipe runs out and down the side of the unit. Anyway to prevent this?? You HAVE to unlock it to lift the basket for sparging. I hated that wort came out of it twice when unlocking to turn it.
Cleaning it is another pita cause of the malt pipe, multiple screens, and tubes.
Positives:
Wort chiller worked very nicely with the pump on to recirculate. Think I got the wort down to 71 degrees from my kitchen sink tap in about 30 minutes or so - this is with warmer than average ground water as the temps were high here yesterday (90F).
Boil, while slow, when fine and while not aggressive it was still a rolling boil.
False bottom kept hops and grain bits out of the fermenter. The hops went straight into the boil.
So, overall I didn't like it for mashing/sparging but I liked it for boiling and cooling. Gonna try one more brew in a month or so and if I still don't like it for mashing I will go back to the rubbermaid cooler for mashing/sparging.
*Edit - also wish they designed it a little smarter as to not have 5 quarts of dead space. When I mashed in I realized I needed more water as I didn't take that dead space into account. Going forward I'll add the extra 5 quarts to the strike water but then that's a gallon and a quarter less sparge water unless I wanted to boil some off before starting the first hop addition
Rev.
And that top screen, seems truly pointless in the mash. Maybe for sparging but for the mash it seems to cause more trouble than it's worth. Without it I can also keep a long probe thermometer in the mash so I can double verify the temps. I am planning for next brew to simply keep the silicon cap on the bottom tube and just not put the top tube on. The fact that the center tube allows grains past the screens is just kooky - way too easy to get grains in the boil.
In addition to the recirculation issue sparging also took forever. I'm used to batch sparging... does fly sparging usually take forever with a small trickle coming out of the grains? Sparge took like an hour.
Temperature control is a tremendous PITA. The Robobrew being Australian designed is focused on Celsius and in Fahrenheit mode is merely converts celsius so I can't dial in 155, it's either 154 or 156. Everyone knows the temp sensor is on the bottom and so you kinda have to average between that reading and a reading from the top of the mash with a pen thermometer or buy a long probe to keep in the middle of the mash and adjust the temp from there. temps seemed to fluctuate a lot though. Would probably have been better if the mash didn't seem so compacted. I was using the insulating jacket btw.
The pump arm.... they say never to turn it without first unlocking the cam lock, yeah great I unlock it and wort still in the pipe runs out and down the side of the unit. Anyway to prevent this?? You HAVE to unlock it to lift the basket for sparging. I hated that wort came out of it twice when unlocking to turn it.
Cleaning it is another pita cause of the malt pipe, multiple screens, and tubes.
Positives:
Wort chiller worked very nicely with the pump on to recirculate. Think I got the wort down to 71 degrees from my kitchen sink tap in about 30 minutes or so - this is with warmer than average ground water as the temps were high here yesterday (90F).
Boil, while slow, when fine and while not aggressive it was still a rolling boil.
False bottom kept hops and grain bits out of the fermenter. The hops went straight into the boil.
So, overall I didn't like it for mashing/sparging but I liked it for boiling and cooling. Gonna try one more brew in a month or so and if I still don't like it for mashing I will go back to the rubbermaid cooler for mashing/sparging.
*Edit - also wish they designed it a little smarter as to not have 5 quarts of dead space. When I mashed in I realized I needed more water as I didn't take that dead space into account. Going forward I'll add the extra 5 quarts to the strike water but then that's a gallon and a quarter less sparge water unless I wanted to boil some off before starting the first hop addition
Rev.
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