Kegland Digiboil

[Cerveza23]

When you reach a boil, do you keep both elements on or drop down to one? If you drop to one, which one? I wonder if you would have to keep both on if you did 5+ gallon batches.

 

[Carolina_Matt]

At 1500W, I'd think you should keep them both on since most people say that just gives a slight (but not vigorous) boil. I should know more next week though. After going back and forth between installing a 240V outlet in my garage and getting the 17 gallon version, or just sticking with the smaller one, I finally placed an order for the 120V version a few days ago. It arrives next Tuesday.

I'll be targeting 4.5 gallons of finished product, to go directly into a keg. I'll ferment, spund and serve out of the same keg. The Top Draw device has been out of stock for a while so I'll try bending the diptube a little and see if that works.

My first batch will be with just the 1500W. Once I get the hang of it, I'll see if I need to add a secondary heat stick. My Anova Sous Vide (900W) would certainly help speed things along, but it probably won't reach down enough for a batch that size. But I'll figure out my options once the device arrives and I can see it firsthand.

By the way, I bought mine through Williams (even though they're across the country and it will take a few extra days to arrive). They have a deal where you get 18 ounces of hops for free with a $75 purchase, so that was the clincher for me. And I also added the neoprene sleeve for $18.

 

[dwightr8]

Not sure exactly, but I have set it to at least 215F. I'll check it out tomorrow and let you know. I do know it boils wort for sure.

Checked it out today. It goes from 32F to 284F.

 

[dwightr8]

When you reach a boil, do you keep both elements on or drop down to one? If you drop to one, which one? I wonder if you would have to keep both on if you did 5+ gallon batches.

Leave both on. I'm not sure it would retain a boil with only one element on.

 

[Cerveza23]

At 1500W, I'd think you should keep them both on since most people say that just gives a slight (but not vigorous) boil. I should know more next week though. After going back and forth between installing a 240V outlet in my garage and getting the 17 gallon version, or just sticking with the smaller one, I finally placed an order for the 120V version a few days ago. It arrives next Tuesday.

Let us know you're initial thoughts when you get the opportunity to use it.

 

[Carolina_Matt]

Let us know you're initial thoughts when you get the opportunity to use it.

It arrived an hour or two ago. I put it together, put the jacket on it, filled it with 6 gallons of water and turned on the burners. Starting water was 86 degrees, and I set it for 156 degrees. It took 36 minutes to increase it 70 degrees, which is more than adequate for me @ about 2 degrees per minute. It's a lot better than micromanaging my kettle when I use propane.

After it hit 156 degrees, I took out my Thermopop digital thermometer and took a reading. It was exactly 156.

I'll brew a batch within the next few days, but so far I'm happy with it.

There's a small hole in the lid. It would probably heat up slightly faster if I covered the hole and insulated the lid, but I won't do that for now.

I also put my Anova Sous Vide on it just to see how far it would drop down. The 'min' line was right at 7 gallons, meaning the Sous Vide won't turn on if I have less than that. Depending on how long it takes to get from mash to boil, I might have to rig something up to get the Sous Vide lower in there if I want the additional 900 watts.

 

[Cerveza23]

Has anyone used the Digiboil as a fermenter? I know there is a sealable lid sold seperately and the product description states that you can use this item as a fermenter. I'm curious to know how well it would regulate your temp while fermenting if you set it to a specific temp and let it go for a week or two.

 

[Carolina_Matt]

Let us know you're initial thoughts when you get the opportunity to use it.

I brewed with it for the first time yesterday and I really like it. I brewed the Fat Tire recipe from Morebeer, but I only used 90% of the ingredients since I was shooting for 4.5 gallons to put into my fermenting keg. I started with 6 gallons of water at 87 degrees.

Strike temperature was set for 156 degrees, as they recommend a mash temp of 150 and I typically drop about 6 degrees when adding grain. It took 35 minutes to increase 69 degrees, so 2 degrees per minute. After it hit strike temperature, I left it on for 5 minutes to see how it would maintain it. 5 minutes later, I checked with my Thermopop and it was right at 156 degrees.

After putting in my bag and the grains, and stirring well, I shut off the device, put on the lid and put a towel over the top of the lid. 15 minutes later I took off the lid to stir, and it was 148 degrees. I put the lid back on and waited for the hour-long mash to end. By the end it was down to 144 degrees, so I lost 6 degrees over the course of an hour. I was losing more like 4 degrees with my old kettle, which was covered by a moving blanket - so maybe I'll put the blanket on during my next batch and see if it maintains temperature a little better.

After removing the grain bag, the temperature was 141 degrees. I set it for 215, put the lid back on, and turned on the heating elements. Again, it raised the temperature by 2 degrees per minute, taking 35-36 minutes to get to a boil. The Digiboil showed 213 degrees when it started boiling. Going into it, I was worried it would take an hour to get up to a boil - so i was pleasantly surprised that it was much faster than that.

Once it got to a boil, the hot break didn't come close to giving me a boil-over. With my gas system, I would watch it like a hawk as it approached a boil because I was guaranteed to have a boil-over if I didn't turn down the gas at the right time. I'm comfortable leaving the Digiboil alone, knowing it won't cause problems.

The boil itself was more vigorous than I thought it would be. It wasn't an enormous rolling boil, but there was rolling going on. I thought it would be a slow simmer, but I wound up losing 0.8 gallons during my hour-long boil.

A few numbers:
I started with 6 gallons, and had ~96% conversion efficiency according to Brewersfriend calculator.
Pre-boil efficiency was in the high-80's (I can't remember the exact number), as I had about 0.5 gallons of grain absorption.
Ending kettle efficiency was somewhere around 78% with 4.7 gallons (after boiling off 0.8 gallons).
Brewhouse efficiency was about 73-74% with 4.4 gallons. I lost 0.3 gallons by filtering my wort.

There was more headspace in the keg than I expected, so I'll likely shoot for 6.25 gallons of starting water next time.

As for filtering, I did a different process than in the past. My last few batches, I would put it through a strainer hanging over the fermenter. That got out all of the big chunks (mainly the hops). This time I also lined the fermenter with a wilser bag to strain out all of the smaller junk. That turned out to be a mediocre idea, at best. It was too fine, and it took a while to strain everything. I wound up having to squeeze the bag in order to get the wort out, which isn't the best idea from a sanitary standpoint. Maybe I'll try a paint strainer bag next time, since it won't be as fine. But by fermenting in a keg, I'd like the clearest possible wort so that I don't have as much trub waste.

I do wish there were more volume markers. It goes in gallon (and liter) increments, but I wish it also had 1/2 gallon markers. As is, I wound up using a Liter-to-Gallon converter and just looking at the liter markings since they were a lot closer together.

Overall I'm very happy with it. Pleasantly surprised by the heating times, to the point where I'm not worried about adding a second heater on a separate circuit. Clean-up was easy, and it was so nice to not have to micromanage the gas flow.

 

[Cerveza23]

Overall I'm very happy with it. Pleasantly surprised by the heating times, to the point where I'm not worried about adding a second heater on a separate circuit. Clean-up was easy, and it was so nice to not have to micromanage the gas flow.

Great to hear! I'm glad that you like it that much. I'm about 99% sure I'm going to pull the trigger myself and buy one; just need to run it by swmbo. For mashing, I plan to continue use of my converted Home Depot 10G water cooler. That should maintain my mash temp within a degree or two.

I'm still curious about fermenting in it and using the heating element to maintain a slightly warmer temp than my cooler temp basement.

 

[lump42]

Morebeer now sells the 17gal version with a malt pipe (mash kit) for half the price of the 17 gal Robobrew/ brewzillla. It doesn't come with a chiller but for under $400 system, someone could buy a chiller and still be a head.

 

[verboten]

I’ve been contemplating selling my 15 and 20 gallon kettles and going with that. I knew it would work, I just didn’t want to spend the money to test it!

 

[Cerveza23]

So I've decided to pull the trigger and make the investment into the 110V 35L Digiboil last week.

It arrived today. I have yet to use it, but my initial thoughts are that it is made of poor quality. Metal shavings on both the spigot and the nut to hold the spigot in place. This device requires a little inspection and maintenance before first use. I intend to perform a more thorough inspection and maintenance later tonight before I test the product. I'll keep everyone in the loop about how my device performs.

Additionally, mine came with only 1 silicone ring to seal the spigot in place. Did everyone else's come with only 1 silicone ring? If so, how did you seal it?

 

[BigChas]

So I've decided to pull the trigger and make the investment into the 110V 35L Digiboil last week.

It arrived today. I have yet to use it, but my initial thoughts are that it is made of poor quality. Metal shavings on both the spigot and the nut to hold the spigot in place. This device requires a little inspection and maintenance before first use. I intend to perform a more thorough inspection and maintenance later tonight before I test the product. I'll keep everyone in the loop about how my device performs.

Additionally, mine came with only 1 silicone ring to seal the spigot in place. Did everyone else's come with only 1 silicone ring? If so, how did you seal it?

Is your Digiboil just the standard or the one with the mash upgrade kit?

 

[Cerveza23]

Is your Digiboil just the standard or the one with the mash upgrade kit?

Standard. I have no need for the mash accessories because I converted my outdoor propane setup to indoor use.

 

[Edward's Beer Cellar]

I'm a bit late to this thread. I wanted to move from propane to electric and was strongly considering the Anvil Foundry when it came out. I wanted the 240v option of the Foundry but did not really want to deal with the mash pipe for reasons others have brought up.

My plan is to use the Digiboil as both a HLT and Boil Kettle using my existing cooler for No Sparge mashing. I have not had a chance to brew with the rig yet (waiting to get into new house). But I have been running some tests on water only.

Here are my first impressions:

1. The 220v plug is an odd design - I replaced it with a standard (USA) 3 wire 220v dryer plug to use with my existing outlet.
2. The build quality seems better than I expected
3. I bought the neoprene jacket (labeled as Brewzilla) offered by More Beer for outdoor use
4. I brew 4.5 gallon batches, so in testing with water the 2400 watt elements bought 3.5 gallons of 42F water to 163F in about 28 minutes.
5. 6 1/2 gallons of 150F to boiling was about 15 minutes - both much faster than my propane rig
6. I calculated about 1.25 gal/hour as a boil off rate using both heating elements - very vigorous boil
7. The temperatures registered on the display were exactly the the same as my thermometer. I did not observe a 5 degree swing as indicated in the literature.

Overall I am pleased with the Digiboil and am looking forward to actually brewing beer in a few months.

In the meantime, I plan to use the Digiboil in our backyard maple syrup production as a sap pre-heater for the evaporator and for finishing and packaging at the end.

 

[ETLMT]

I would think most stovetops can already compete with 1500w power no?

I do Kombucha and get the temperature up to 220° to get all the nutrients out of black tea in an 8 gallon kettle and I am pretty sure that is what cracked our glass cooktop.

 

[Cerveza23]

After about 9 months of use and 7 five gallon batches run through the unit as a boil kettle, I must say that I am quite happy with the product. For those interested in my experience with the product. Definitely worth the purchase imo.