Keg King ROBOBREW 35L SINGLE VESSEL BREWERY

[sparkatron]

Man, I did a brew today and I got the display issue as well. You guys jinxed me! ;-)

Wasn't a big issue though. I just turned it off/on again and I was back in business. That ol' chestnut always works.

 

[tmaybo]

I brewed my second batch today and all is well.

I found that I had a bit of a stuck mash so will try the rice husks for the next go round.

It's my second all grain brew and it makes me very happy to have upgraded from kits and bits!

 

[paulmclaren11]

Will do a short report on my first brew day yesterday which seemed to go well with a new piece of brew gear.

Thankfully the display issue didn't happen this time - will keep an eye out for it. I emailed keg king about and no one has responded as yet.

I used 5.3kg of grain - mash in water was 22lts.

I recirculated using the keg king magnetic pump, highly recommend getting one of these to maintain mash temps and get nice clear wort. I mashed in at 40c like I did with my old braumeister and then started the pump.

I did notice there was about a 2-3 degree drop before the elements would kick in. Eg, I set my mash temp to 66 and it would drop to 63 before the elements would kick in. I had both elements on during the mash. I just upped my mash temp setting to rectify this. After a while it settled and maintained an even temp.

Mashed out at 78c.

Lifting the malt pipe was an absolute ball ache on my own - as I had to have the kettle above the pump to recirculate it was a mighty effort to lift the malt pipe so high and then get the stand in place. Need a lower brew table...

Sparge went well using 8 litres.

The boil was vigorous! I nearly had a boil over with the temp set at 103, I lowered it to 102 and it maintained a good rolling boil through out.

I no chilled and was maybe a ltr or 2 off what I wanted but as long as it fills a keg I don't care. Numbers seemed fairly spot on as well.

Super easy to clean which I like. No mesh or grain bags etc is what I like!

The unit, I think for the money, is great. Need to work on my water calcs some more and look at trying to maintain steady mash temps (insulation maybe) but all in all a simple, easy brew day. :super: :beerbang:

 

[Drick]

Spoke to Kegking today about their possible future Robobrew system which may have a integrated pump and they said it's still in the design stages. I also told them about this thread and the reported LCD issue (which they didn't know about). Hopefully the feedback will help them with designing their next generation.

 

[keifer33]

I agree on the lifting the malt pipe out Paul. Tried it once solo and until I put a winch in place its a 2 person job.

Brewed on mine again yeaterday and had a better brewing experience than the first few. Dialed in my volumes a bit more but after adjusting my crush to get a bit better flow my efficiency went to ****. The increased flow helped alot in getting a consistent temperature throughout quicker.

No display issues and element kicked in when it was supposed to so I call it a success even though it needed nearly a kilo of DME to get my gravity back up.

 

[paulyman]

Spoke to Kegking today about their possible future Robobrew system which may have a integrated pump and they said it's still in the design stages. I also told them about this thread and the reported LCD issue (which they didn't know about). Hopefully the feedback will help them with designing their next generation.

Did they confirm how powerful it would be? I think I posted in here earlier my LHBS had heard it would be the same elements for nearly double the batch size!

 

[lael]

Anyone in Sydney have a Robobrew I can take a look at in person?

 

[dropbear85]

Anyone in Sydney have a Robobrew I can take a look at in person?

Hey Lael,
I'm in Quakers and you are more than welcome to pop around next time I brew. probably won't be for a couple of weeks though.

 

[Drick]

Did they confirm how powerful it would be? I think I posted in here earlier my LHBS had heard it would be the same elements for nearly double the batch size!

sorry I didn't ask and they weren't volunteering information, all that was said is they were designing the next generation which may be a little more like a grainfather. As I say, the person I spoke to wasn't giving much away.

 

[Bob_Loblaw]

Someone in this thread had the idea of using an Ikea trivet for the malt pipe. I'm going to be doing this. Seems much easier than the fiddly thing that comes with the unit.

 

[cliffo]

I used a flat one from my roasting pan on my second brew.

So much easier than the one that comes with the Robobrew.

 

[dropbear85]

After the first brew I thew mine in a vice and bent the legs out a little so it wasn't tight around the urn. still can be a little fiddly sitting the basket on with those ducky little holder things but it's better than it was

 

[paulmclaren11]

I use the now defunct Brewmate, anyone still using this and have their settings to would like to share?

 

[Bob_Loblaw]

Is there a Grainfather profile on Brewmate? I've heard the settings are very similar.

 

[Elz]

About to put down my third brew over the Aus day long weekend. To date my brewhouse efficiency has been realy poor. Is there a consensus yet as to what size the grains should be crushed? Currently milling at 1.1 mm but plan to increased to 1.25mm. I recirc the wort with a pump and I guess there is a fine balance b/w efficiency and also having a stuck sparge
.

 

[Bob_Loblaw]

I can't comment on the grain crush as I buy mine pre-cracked. Rice hulls worked really well to reduce the stuck mash/sparge. I just added 500gms. I guess that doesn't help with efficiency though.

 

[paulmclaren11]

When you say stuck sparge do you mean no drainage at all or a slow trickle?

Do you dump all the sparge water in at once or a litre or 2 at a time?

 

[Bob_Loblaw]

When you say stuck sparge do you mean no drainage at all or a slow trickle?

Do you dump all the sparge water in at once or a litre or 2 at a time?

I generally will pour in 2L at a time. But what I'm finding without the rice husks is that the grains will soak all of this up and hold it.

Before I even got to that point though, I was having trouble with recirculating the wort as it would all end up in the malt pipe and come close to going below drain valve level. When lifting the malt pipe you were basically lifting all wort out of the kettle with it.

It would very slowly drip through - not even a trickle.

With the rice husks - no problems at all.

 

[paulmclaren11]

Wow.. never had that and hope I don't!

How much water are you mashing with?

 

[sparkatron]

Is there a Grainfather profile on Brewmate? I've heard the settings are very similar.

Not as far as I know. I only stopped using brewmate for brewsmith a little while back but there wasn't one before I ditched it. Mind you, I've heard a few say the brewsmith Grainfather profile isn't accurate either (to the actual grainfather).

 

[paulyman]

Not as far as I know. I only stopped using brewmate for brewsmith a little while back but there wasn't one before I ditched it. Mind you, I've heard a few say the brewsmith Grainfather profile isn't accurate either (to the actual grainfather).

From what I understand the Beersmith profile is accurate (as an example: http://back-2-basics.com.au/How-To-Page/GRAINFATHER-profile-beer-smith), if you manually add the deadspace (3.5L) to the mash water volume and subtract it from the sparge volume. Also have to change the grain absorption from the Beersmith default 0.96 ish to 0.8. I'm sure if you did the same using the Robobrew's deadspace it would work fine.

Edited for more detail.

 

[Bob_Loblaw]

Wow.. never had that and hope I don't!

How much water are you mashing with?

I was using the Grainfather online calculator for mash and sparge water which was telling me to add only around 15-16L to mash. I think If I added around 20L this would solve the problem of running dry in the main kettle.

But the rice hulls make it run so much smoother anyway.

 

[paulmclaren11]

Cool might give the rice hulls... my first brew I used 22ltrs in the mash and sparged with about 8 ltrs.

 

[cliffo]

Another day, another 2 brews done on the Robobrew.

About the only issue I have now is with the temperature difference the system displays during the mash.

The display might show (for example) 66 degrees during the mash but when I manually pour off 6-8 litres to recirculate through the system the temp display will drop by 2-4 degrees.

Planning to use a pump on my next few brews but still can't argue with the price point of the unit for what you get.

Overall, I'm still happy with this system.

 

[paulmclaren11]

I generally will pour in 2L at a time. But what I'm finding without the rice husks is that the grains will soak all of this up and hold it.

Before I even got to that point though, I was having trouble with recirculating the wort as it would all end up in the malt pipe and come close to going below drain valve level. When lifting the malt pipe you were basically lifting all wort out of the kettle with it.

It would very slowly drip through - not even a trickle.

With the rice husks - no problems at all.

Well I experienced this yesterday. Had a brew shop mill the grain for me and was obviously too fine even after said they know how to mill for a robo...
Suffice to say I will be milling my own from now on. Courser is the go. First brew no issues at all using the pump. This time the malt pipe wanted to overflow. Rice hulls next time too. Also the temp variations give my the shizens but it is a good system for the price. Just need a few more under my belt to work the system out.

 

[bouncingcastle]

Well I experienced this yesterday. Had a brew shop mill the grain for me and was obviously too fine even after said they know how to mill for a robo...
Suffice to say I will be milling my own from now on. Courser is the go. First brew no issues at all using the pump. This time the malt pipe wanted to overflow. Rice hulls next time too. Also the temp variations give my the shizens but it is a good system for the price. Just need a few more under my belt to work the system out.

Do you run a pump or are you manually recirculating?

 

[paulmclaren11]

I run a pump.

 

[bouncingcastle]

Silly me, missed that in your original post :S

 

[Siborg]

Well I experienced this yesterday. Had a brew shop mill the grain for me and was obviously too fine even after said they know how to mill for a robo...
Suffice to say I will be milling my own from now on. Courser is the go. First brew no issues at all using the pump. This time the malt pipe wanted to overflow. Rice hulls next time too. Also the temp variations give my the shizens but it is a good system for the price. Just need a few more under my belt to work the system out.

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?

 

[paulmclaren11]

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?

Not overly fast as you don't want it to blast the grain bed (my understanding anyways). A nice gentle flow is all I go for (when I don't get a stuck mash!). Just keep an eye on things to make sure it's recirculating well or better still do as other have and get some rice husks to be safe.

Did you get a ball valve for the outlet on the pump?