Keg King ROBOBREW 35L SINGLE VESSEL BREWERY

[pyroboy]

New version of the Robobrew. Was contemplating the GF but now......

http://kegking.com.au/35l-robobrew-with-pump.html

Wow! That's quite an upgrade over the previous model.

 

[Cummy]

Ohh dam. I want a new one. Great price. Just needs to be a little bigger

 

[pist]

35 litres is a bit small for me but the rest of the robos features tick the boxes. You would be pushing **** up hill to punch out a full batch of a higher grav beer like a barley wine or ris

 

[quadbox]

Yeah, you've got buckleys chance of managing something super high gravity. I've managed about 1090 on mine, and that was with both a very stiff mash and completely full to the brim, with all the loss of efficiency you'd expect. I doubt you could go any higher without dropping to a smaller batch size

EDIT - that's for 20L into the fermenter

 

[bwhouse]

The new model is very tempting. I have just got back into all-grain brewing and have been eyeing off the Grainfather, but at half the price the new Robobrew looks very interesting. Anyone know if any of the Sydney Keg King distributors have them in stock yet?

 

[SBOB]

35 litres is a bit small for me but the rest of the robos features tick the boxes. You would be pushing **** up hill to punch out a full batch of a higher grav beer like a barley wine or ris

nothing stopping you doing a double/reiterated mash

 

[bwhouse]

Has anyone got their hands on one of these yet? I am interested in what the build quality is like and if the Grainfather is worth the price premium or not.

 

[el_toro]

Has anyone got their hands on one of these yet? I am interested in what the build quality is like and if the Grainfather is worth the price premium or not.

Would be interested in this too. Maybe a review of the new Robobrew or comparisons with the Grainfather.

 

[pist]

Has anyone got their hands on one of these yet? I am interested in what the build quality is like and if the Grainfather is worth the price premium or not.

the difference in the build quality between the gf and the robo is like comparing a bunnings bbq to say a matador or more expensive brand. The robobrew (bunnings bbq) finish is ok/looks the part but it will get the job done as opposed to the gf which is much better put together and will likely last you alot longer

 

[sieve182]

Hey guys, Have just sifted through the 19 pages and haven't found anything about what I'm about to ask.
Firstly a little background on my brews, I'm running the 1.75L dead space Robo with a magnetic pump, and I recirc throughout mash, sparge and boil. Sparging I have found issues with 2 out of 3 brews now. First was with no rice/oat hulls and 5.5kg grain, second 5kg grain and 500g of hulls, third was a mess with 6kg, 200g hulls and ended with a stuck mash(trying my first step 45C, 55C 65C), sparge was slow as all hell and ended up with the display blanking out numerous times at 78C working towards boiling. I emptied the whole boiler, was about to use my mates kettle and burner set up when I noticed plenty of black charred something on the bottom of the boiler(at the element). Cleaned this off and the RB fired back up and worked a treat after(have had the display cut out maybe 5 times in 3 brews, only to turn back on and no issues after. Haven't had a chance to brew since this last hell day of a brew day to see if I can rectify it with stirring during the mash, mashing with more water(stupid me decided to start the protein rest with 2L/kg, which I think is far too thick for the RB) and more hulls for 5.5kg+.
My question is, I'm going to buy the GF urn for my sparge water, and was wondering if it would be worth using the chiller as a rims to pump wort through silicone tubing through an inline thermometer to the chiller in the sparge water heater set at mashing temps(can adjust with step mashing as well) and then back onto the grain bed until ready to start sparging after having lifted malt pipe onto the rack. Would this be worth it or is it just SUPER overkill with already having the pump and just doing recirc as normal?
Also, any feedback on my trials & tribulations would be appreciated.

Cheers fellow HB's.

 

[Cummy]

Hey guys, Have just sifted through the 19 pages and haven't found anything about what I'm about to ask.
Firstly a little background on my brews, I'm running the 1.75L dead space Robo with a magnetic pump, and I recirc throughout mash, sparge and boil. Sparging I have found issues with 2 out of 3 brews now. First was with no rice/oat hulls and 5.5kg grain, second 5kg grain and 500g of hulls, third was a mess with 6kg, 200g hulls and ended with a stuck mash(trying my first step 45C, 55C 65C), sparge was slow as all hell and ended up with the display blanking out numerous times at 78C working towards boiling. I emptied the whole boiler, was about to use my mates kettle and burner set up when I noticed plenty of black charred something on the bottom of the boiler(at the element). Cleaned this off and the RB fired back up and worked a treat after(have had the display cut out maybe 5 times in 3 brews, only to turn back on and no issues after. Haven't had a chance to brew since this last hell day of a brew day to see if I can rectify it with stirring during the mash, mashing with more water(stupid me decided to start the protein rest with 2L/kg, which I think is far too thick for the RB) and more hulls for 5.5kg+.
My question is, I'm going to buy the GF urn for my sparge water, and was wondering if it would be worth using the chiller as a rims to pump wort through silicone tubing through an inline thermometer to the chiller in the sparge water heater set at mashing temps(can adjust with step mashing as well) and then back onto the grain bed until ready to start sparging after having lifted malt pipe onto the rack. Would this be worth it or is it just SUPER overkill with already having the pump and just doing recirc as normal?
Also, any feedback on my trials & tribulations would be appreciated.

Cheers fellow HB's.

Sounds like your grain is milled to fine. Do you let the mash settle for 10mjns before starting your pump? I have found that there is insufficient air flow under the robo brew which leads to the display over heating and blanking out. Whe I place it on a flat surface it blanks. I now place it on a milk crate and have had
No issues since. Hope this helps.

 

[Bribie G]

"Protein rest" says it all. Easiest way to stuff up a Crown Urn, and I presume that the Robobrew is the same.

If you are ramping up from protein rest to sacch rest, there hasn't been any conversion, or at least very little, so any dust and flour that's settled down onto the element during the protein rest is likely to burn on.

For protein rest in any directly heated device it's best to ramp up using hot water. Once you have rested in the 60-70 range for a short while, safe to switch back on. Plenty of "mixing" calculators out there that give you good accuracy.

 

[sieve182]

"Protein rest" says it all. Easiest way to stuff up a Crown Urn, and I presume that the Robobrew is the same.

If you are ramping up from protein rest to sacch rest, there hasn't been any conversion, or at least very little, so any dust and flour that's settled down onto the element during the protein rest is likely to burn on.

For protein rest in any directly heated device it's best to ramp up using hot water. Once you have rested in the 60-70 range for a short while, safe to switch back on. Plenty of "mixing" calculators out there that give you good accuracy.

Ok, so looking at this chart it's coming back to me, I did the step mash as follows(sorry at work and don't have my book with me): 15 mins 45C(Beta-glucanase rest), 30 mins 55C(Protein(ase) rest), then up to 65C for 50 mins, then 10 mins 68C, then up to 78C Mash out 10 mins.
Recipe was: 2.22kg Maris Otter
2.22kg pale malt
.44kg light crystal
.44kg Cara-pils
.66kg Flaked Oats
.66kg Flaked Barley
.2kg rice hulls
Bribie, would you add all the malt and the adjuncts for the Beta-glucanase, or would you add only a little bit of malt mixed with adjuncts, then add next temperature water and so on until you get to sacch then use the element to heat? To limit the risk of scorched protein on the bottom?

Cummy, I generally start the pump from the word go to keep a constant temp. To be honest, I've never mashed with the lid on, but I'm had a light bulb moment that I will do so from now on. Also, I've built a mobile scaffold with the Robo sitting on top of metal planks with holes under them so it's not like it's TOTALLY starved for air...

 

[Sidney Harbour-Bridge]

Well I've spent the last week bit by bit reading through the whole of this thread.

I got a robobrew for Christmas and have only done one brew in it so far, I didn't like the idea of lifting the malt pipe out and showering/oxidizing the wort into the robobrew, I also didn't like the idea of any grain bits/rice hulls being boiled so I made a NZ lager as follows;

4 kg pilsner malt
1 kg flaked rice
150 g rice hulls.

Heated 20 l water to 55, sprinkled grain and stirred in.

Protein rested at 55 for 15 mins, stirring every couple of mins.

Raised temp to 68 stirring often.

Rested at 68 for 90 mins, stirring every now and then.

Raised to 77, still stirring,

Left the malt pipe in place and sparged with about 15 l of water at 77.

Recirculated (manually) first 5 or 6 l

Collected 26 l of goodness, quite slowly, difficult to remember how long it took as I was working next to the beer fridge.

I could have collected more but I didn't have a container ready.

Emptied and cleaned robobrew.

Proceeded to boil, hop chill etc. without event.

Ended up with 21 l in my fermenter SG 1.064, quite a bit higher than I was expecting.

Is there a reason to lift the malt pipe out?

 

[mtb]

Not having experience with a Robobrew I can't say for sure, but it seems lifting the malt pipe out allows you to sparge properly. If you leave the malt pipe submersed in the wort you're technically not "sparging".
That being said, if you hit (and exceeded) your SG and volume target, aint nobody who can tell you that you've gone wrong. What mash efficiency did you design your recipe to, and what was your actual mash eff?

 

[Sidney Harbour-Bridge]

Not having experience with a Robobrew I can't say for sure, but it seems lifting the malt pipe out allows you to sparge properly. If you leave the malt pipe submersed in the wort you're technically not "sparging".
That being said, if you hit (and exceeded) your SG and volume target, aint nobody who can tell you that you've gone wrong. What mash efficiency did you design your recipe to, and what was your actual mash eff?

I didn't design anything, the recipe was from a book about brewing, I swapped 500 g of malt for 500 g more of flaked rice and I was expecting a SG of 1.045-50, I was quite pleased with myself until I realized the alcohol content could be over 7%

 

[mtb]

Ha, yeah that's a ***** to work around.. but a nice one compared to the opposite (being UNDER your target SG). If you've only just pitched the yeast today/recently you could dilute with sanitised & cooled water to increase your batch volume and bring that ABV down.
I highly recommend that you use software to enter your recipes into to plan your next brew day - that way you can predict bitterness, ABV, OG etc, as well as calculate your mash and brewhouse efficiency. For the sake of supporting AHB's sponsors I will direct you to Brewer's Friend.

 

[BJB]

I didn't like the idea of lifting the malt pipe out and showering/oxidizing the wort into the robobrew,

You won't oxidize the wort before the boil.

 

[mtb]

You won't oxidize the wort before the boil.

To clarify - you will, but it won't matter.

 

[Sidney Harbour-Bridge]

Ha, yeah that's a ***** to work around.. but a nice one compared to the opposite (being UNDER your target SG). If you've only just pitched the yeast today/recently you could dilute with sanitised & cooled water to increase your batch volume and bring that ABV down.
I highly recommend that you use software to enter your recipes into to plan your next brew day - that way you can predict bitterness, ABV, OG etc, as well as calculate your mash and brewhouse efficiency. For the sake of supporting AHB's sponsors I will direct you to Brewer's Friend.

I started on Boxing day SG is down to 1.018 so it is doing a diacytal rest just now.

Thanks for the link, I put the details into Brewer's Friend calculator, I had to adjust the efficiency to 85 % to match my achieved volume and SG it also suggested a FG of 1.009 and 7.2 % alcohol.

I will try it for my next one, hopefully this weekend.