Keg King ROBOBREW 35L SINGLE VESSEL BREWERY

[Bob_Loblaw]

I picked up my robo brew and pump on Friday. Haven't even unboxed it. I got the grains for my first batch milled at the shop and they look nice and course, so I'm hoping this isn't an issue. How fast do you run the recirc from the pump?

Do you have a ball valve for the pump? You need to let the pump push as much as it wants and then you can control output via a valve on the pump. That way you'll never damage the pump by running dry, and you can set whatever flow you want.

Generally I let mine run so that the flow nearly fills the hose ending as it's coming out. It's easy to work out the flow just by doing it and seeing how much you can move without disturbing the wort too much, but also recirculating enough. I use an alligator clip to attach the hose to the rim of the malt pipe, but I've seen guys get away with just resting the hose inside the top.

 

[dropbear85]

I've never had a problem with stuck sparge as I don't crush fine but where do you get rice hulls from?

 

[paulmclaren11]

I've never had a problem with stuck sparge as I don't crush fine but where do you get rice hulls from?

Most LHBS's should have them from my research here in Perth.

What do mm do you crush at mate? I was thinking for going for 1.2mm

 

[dropbear85]

I'll have a look tonight but I don't really look at the numbers. I just make sure everything looked cracked open and not a powder

 

[Siborg]

I don't have a spare ball valve, but I'll be getting one soon. In terms of grind, my LHBS ground at 1.2mm according to their site, and it looks quite course. Still reckon I'll need hulls? I may have some somewhere, but if I don't I'll probably just risk it.

 

[paulmclaren11]

I don't have a spare ball valve, but I'll be getting one soon. In terms of grind, my LHBS ground at 1.2mm according to their site, and it looks quite course. Still reckon I'll need hulls? I may have some somewhere, but if I don't I'll probably just risk it.

I didn't use any rice hulls on my first brew, if you think it looks like a course crush you should be okay.....

You will need the ball valve to control the flow of the re circulation.

 

[bouncingcastle]

To those getting stuck (or slow) Recirculation are you letting the mash settle for 10 minutes at the start or are you pumping straight away?

I have yet to unbox my robobrew but have a keen interest in having a nice maiden run

 

[Bob_Loblaw]

To those getting stuck (or slow) Recirculation are you letting the mash settle for 10 minutes at the start or are you pumping straight away?

I have yet to unbox my robobrew but have a keen interest in having a nice maiden run

Yeah I was letting all dough in and settle and then pumping. IMO it's all down to how coarse the grain is milled. As I don't have my own mill yet the answer was to spend $2.50 on a bag of rice hulls that splits over two brews.

I would still go ahead, but just be prepared to stir a little with a mash paddle to get it to drain better.

 

[bouncingcastle]

Yeah I was letting all dough in and settle and then pumping. IMO it's all down to how coarse the grain is milled. As I don't have my own mill yet the answer was to spend $2.50 on a bag of rice hulls that splits over two brews.

I would still go ahead, but just be prepared to stir a little with a mash paddle to get it to drain better.

Well I'm fortunate enough to have my own mill, so I will heed the warning and go coarse for day 1. Thanks for the tip!

 

[Siborg]

Did my first brew last night on this and, damn it was hard. I'm going to list my problems below. Nothing majorly wrong with the unit, just some headaches I encountered that will need to be rectified for batch #2:

1. I got home from work late, and didn't start heating my strike water until 6;30-7:00
2. I didn't get a ball valve for my pump, so didn't set it up. Instead, I manually recirculated with a 3L jug. Can confirm temperature differences between bottom and top of mash. I think this is mostly due to the "slim N tall" design of the unit. Having the pump running next time will keep the temps more consistent
3. Sparging/volumes. I mashed in with 14-15L. Sparged with like 13-16L and only got a pre-boil volume of 26L tops. And I was still under gravity. Think I'll be more careful with my volume calculations next time
4. Boiling was about the only thing that was a success. With both elements on and with 26L in the boil, it was dangerously close to boiling over. With the calculated 29L in there, it would have boiled over for sure. I did turn the 500w element off, and would have sooner if I had 29L in there.
5. Evaporation wasn't as much as I'd have thought. I only lost about 1L during a 75 min boil, and it was quite vigorous the entire time (see above)
6. The bloody chiller. This was entirely my fault. I didn't have any hose clamps that were small enough to seal the hose properly onto the chiller so I had to use some bigger ones I had lying around. I think I had a very slight trickle into the batch which cost me a few more gravity points by diluting it. Definitely need to invest in some better/smaller hose clamps or look at some alternatives here.
7. It was 10:30 by the time I began chilling. By 11:15, I decided to just put the 59 degree wort into my better bottle fermenter (max heat rating 60 degrees), put it in the fridge and pitch in the morning.
8. Pitched the yeast this morning. The new pure pitch packets from white labs. I cleaned and sanitised my scissors, cut the packet on the indicated line, then got yeasties everywhere. Managed to get the rest of the packet in but, oh... I forgot to aerate the wort...
9. I haven't cleaned anything except the malt pipe and chiller. There is still wort and hot break all over the boiler (lid on). This is not gonna be pretty when I get home tonight....

F**k it. I've never had a brew where I've been as ill-prepared, or gotten to the point of just saying "f**k it". I doubt this will be anywhere near my best brew, let alone whether or not it will be drinkable. I HAD to do it last night because it was my last chance to brew something for beerfest (a personal challenge to enter something). OG is 1.045 and I was aiming for 1.050.

 

[BarnBocock]

Joined this site just now as have been following this thread very closely and wanted to post up my first 2016 brew details (bought the RoboBrew as my first all-grain device).

My pale ale used:

> 5.130 kg of grain
> 17.5 L of mash in strike water
> 13 L of sparge water
> 26 L pre-boil volume
> 20 L post-boil volume (was actually aiming for close to 23 L or 6 gallons)


Jumble of points (my thoughts & methods)...


> I was using a 5 L jug for recirculating and poured around 3 - 4 L every 10 or 15 min back carefully over the top of the grain. To make pouring into the jug easier, and to help with element ventilation, I placed my RoboBrew up on a 12 L solid stockpot with a thick metal grill from the oven resting on top (before lining up and placing the RB). This way the RoboBrew was 20 cm up off the floor, above an open pot + grill, and the 5 L jug fitted under the tap for easy filling.

> To measure the water volume I made a marked measuring brew stick as a reference to figure out my required levels. By measuring down from the top of the RoboBrew with a small ruler (so you don't have to put a stick all the way into the wort) I could then refer to "the magic stick" for the volume. For example, 13 cm down from the rim is equal to 25 L of water by my calculations. The MAX line is at 30 L at 6 cm down.

> I used 62 g of hop pellets in my 60 min boil. I had previously run a simple boiling water test (for cleaning also) of 25 L for 60 min which left me 22 L (3 L lost to evaporation). So it seems the hops absorbed around 3 L of the boil as well as 3 L lost to evaporation ie 26 L vol with 62 g of added hops for a 60 min boil gave me 20 L once cooled and sieved through into my fermenter (including 100 ml 'lost' for OG test).

> I think I need to slightly increase the strike &/or sparge water, but not by too much - the rolling boil was great (vigorous!) and a boil at 29 L to hit the 23 L mark I think would result in a potentially easy boil over if not watched like a hawk. 21 L seems like a good target to hit for my fermenter.

> The lifting of the mash pipe up onto the rack was hot and hard - luckily I had my partner on standby who quickly placed the rack for me, so was completely fine (else, I'd be worried I might struggle or burn myself).




More to come as I think of stuff + the kids need lunch lol...

 

[Siborg]

Did my first brew last night on this and, damn it was hard. I'm going to list my problems below. Nothing majorly wrong with the unit, just some headaches I encountered that will need to be rectified for batch #2:

1. I got home from work late, and didn't start heating my strike water until 6;30-7:00
2. I didn't get a ball valve for my pump, so didn't set it up. Instead, I manually recirculated with a 3L jug. Can confirm temperature differences between bottom and top of mash. I think this is mostly due to the "slim N tall" design of the unit. Having the pump running next time will keep the temps more consistent
3. Sparging/volumes. I mashed in with 14-15L. Sparged with like 13-16L and only got a pre-boil volume of 26L tops. And I was still under gravity. Think I'll be more careful with my volume calculations next time
4. Boiling was about the only thing that was a success. With both elements on and with 26L in the boil, it was dangerously close to boiling over. With the calculated 29L in there, it would have boiled over for sure. I did turn the 500w element off, and would have sooner if I had 29L in there.
5. Evaporation wasn't as much as I'd have thought. I only lost about 1L during a 75 min boil, and it was quite vigorous the entire time (see above)
6. The bloody chiller. This was entirely my fault. I didn't have any hose clamps that were small enough to seal the hose properly onto the chiller so I had to use some bigger ones I had lying around. I think I had a very slight trickle into the batch which cost me a few more gravity points by diluting it. Definitely need to invest in some better/smaller hose clamps or look at some alternatives here.
7. It was 10:30 by the time I began chilling. By 11:15, I decided to just put the 59 degree wort into my better bottle fermenter (max heat rating 60 degrees), put it in the fridge and pitch in the morning.
8. Pitched the yeast this morning. The new pure pitch packets from white labs. I cleaned and sanitised my scissors, cut the packet on the indicated line, then got yeasties everywhere. Managed to get the rest of the packet in but, oh... I forgot to aerate the wort...
9. I haven't cleaned anything except the malt pipe and chiller. There is still wort and hot break all over the boiler (lid on). This is not gonna be pretty when I get home tonight....

F**k it. I've never had a brew where I've been as ill-prepared, or gotten to the point of just saying "f**k it". I doubt this will be anywhere near my best brew, let alone whether or not it will be drinkable. I HAD to do it last night because it was my last chance to brew something for beerfest (a personal challenge to enter something). OG is 1.045 and I was aiming for 1.050.

Oh yeah... Besides all of this. I had no beer to drink during the entire brew.

 

[Yob]

Beer crime!! Shame on you

 

[paulmclaren11]

> The lifting of the mash pipe up onto the rack was hot and hard - luckily I had my partner on standby who quickly placed the rack for me, so was completely fine (else, I'd be worried I might struggle or burn myself).

Yes, I have done this twice on my own now and it sucks! I need a lower brew bench. The second time I pulled the pipe and put it in a pail, then put the stand in place, then lifted the pipe on... not easy!

 

[Ghizo]

Just purchased and received my shiny new robobrew.
Did my first run with it on Friday.
Dr smurtos golden ale.
5kg grain bill
28.5 litres in the fermenter.
22.5 l In fermenter.

My thoughts.
First run too just over 4 hours start to finish.
Missed my gravity by 4 points so not to bad for a first effort.
Easy to use clean up was a breeze,
Lifting the malt pipe is a bitch, I did it on my own and after a couple of brews I think I will get it, but saying that if I have someone around I will use them.
Boil came very close to boil over but east to avert by blowing on the foam.
I used the keg King hop spider, not sure about this
The chiller worked much better than I expected15 minutes to get down to 35c then I put it in the fridge to finish.

Overall I love it, can't wait to do another brew

 

[cliffo]

The second time I pulled the pipe and put it in a pail, then put the stand in place, then lifted the pipe on... not easy!

I like this. Going to do it this way on my next brew.

 

[Siborg]

Anyone used the included chiller? What have you used to attach a hose to it? I had some spare hose clamps, but they didn't do a great job and it was spewing out a little water. I ordered some of the compression fittings from keg king, but I think they are too big and are meant for their separate immersion chiller.

 

[cliffo]

I've been using it and had a similar problem.

Grabed some of the orange handle screw clamps from Bunnings but still ended up having to cut off some of my hose (that sounds painful) till I got a more circular section that provided a better seal.

I think it might be due to how thin the cooler is.

 

[Bob_Loblaw]

I had a box of ALDI hose clamps lying around and luckily found two that were the perfect size for the chiller. Obviously you want to get them as tight as possible and on the right spot of the hose and chiller pipe end.

Re: the malt pipe - if you ditch the stand thing that KK provide and use an IKEA/any other strong trivet it makes it much easier to do it all in one go. I've done two brews with the trivet and both times I was able to lift the pipe and slide the trivet underneath in one fluid motion. I brew on a low workbench that allows me to stand on it next to the kettle if I need to - gives better leverage.

 

[Siborg]

I had a box of ALDI hose clamps lying around and luckily found two that were the perfect size for the chiller. Obviously you want to get them as tight as possible and on the right spot of the hose and chiller pipe end.

Re: the malt pipe - if you ditch the stand thing that KK provide and use an IKEA/any other strong trivet it makes it much easier to do it all in one go. I've done two brews with the trivet and both times I was able to lift the pipe and slide the trivet underneath in one fluid motion. I brew on a low workbench that allows me to stand on it next to the kettle if I need to - gives better leverage.

Have you got a picture of what you mean?