KegLand Questions and Answers

[KegLand-com-au]

I also have a 35L that does the same. One tip I can give is make sure after the boil, it completely stops boiling for 30 seconds.
I'm not sure if this is happening (haven't been bothered enough to check), but I work on centrifugal pumps at work. They don't like any air what so ever inside the pump, causes cavitation, and will never fix itself until purging the pump of air. Turning on and off in essence will help clear a little air pocket, if that's what it is.

For me, it only happens after the boil, not during mash.

Yes it is possible that if you have a very vigerous boil that bubbles from the boiler go back down the pump inlet hole and start to generate a cavitation effect due to steam bubbles.

As Morgz has suggested if you turn off the elements and wait 30 seconds this cause of cavitation might be prevented.

 

[KegLand-com-au]

Do you know what your mains voltage is exactly? Either way, 3600w is 15A approx depending voltage, and it's 15A protected. If you decrease voltage, you increase current. I would ask kegland what they recommend pairing it with. I have no experience with this product, but would hesitate using with 3.6kW.

With these type of power controllers it's necessary to oversize the electronics in order for the system to work reliably. As a result we only recommend this product to control 2400 watts or 10amps (depending on your mains voltage, for instance if you have 220v mains then we only recommend 2200watt).

Also to make sure this product is compatible with as many domestic customers as possible we put a 10amp socket and cable on this device. Had of we used a 15amp cable and socket everyone using this device would have to upgrade to 15amp sockets in their house so this is a pain for the majority of customers only using this device on 2400watts or less.

 

[Vic]

Do you know what your mains voltage is exactly? Either way, 3600w is 15A approx depending voltage, and it's 15A protected. If you decrease voltage, you increase current. I would ask kegland what they recommend pairing it with. I have no experience with this product, but would hesitate using with 3.6kW.

If you decrease the voltage the current draw will also DECREASE as the resistance of the element remains relatively constant.

 

[raybies]

Hey crew. I've just started using a 65Litre brewzilla. Done 2 brews, all is good...and it looks like a handy little unit....however sometimes when I turn my pump on it doesnt pull liquid through and sounds real quiet...I can hear a small noise but not as loud as normal. This happened even before I put my first batch through.
A solid thump on the side seems to help. But I'm a little worried.
I've taken the bottom off and the pump head is clear and the silicone hoses aren't kinked, all electrical connections are solid.
Is it me and it's a priming or airlock issue? Anyone seen this before? Maybe a dud start capacitor in the pump motor?
Any help is appreciated.

I got the 35L last week and on my first brew the pump got stuck or blocked just after putting in the 1st batch of hops during the boil... the best thing I could come up w/ was getting the wet'n dray vac out to suck it through... which worked.
For the next brew I think I'll either use a fine hops bag/container or go completely brew bag and remove the centre post.

 

[raybies]

Yes I am on your side with this one. We have just got a new web developer working with us now and I am confident he will be able to speed the website up. It's embarrasingly slow.

And please use basket cookies, not sessions to store basket items... it's REALLY annoying going to utube for 5 minutes to checkout a product, then going back to the kegland tab and the 23 products in your basket have disappeared.

 

[raybies]

If you are in Australia we will have stock arriving before the end of the year for the BrewZilla Gen 4.0. We will continue to sell both the Gen 4 and the older 3.1.1 at the same time as it will take several months to get the new Gen 4.0 production line up to full speed and also the price of the Gen 4.0 will be about $100 more expensive but have quite a few additional advantages. At the end of the day you can make award winning beer from both of them but the Gen 4 will have the main advantages:

1. Easier to clean with CIP options
2. It can drain out completely
3. It will come with the RAPT controller so you can turn on/off and program profiles remotely using the APP or using a web connected device.
4. It will log the previous brews

We also have a bunch of new accessories too and the accessories will be backward compatible with the older 3.1.1. Some of the accessories include new improved distillation lid, boiler extensionand a few others.

The only thing I really dislike about the Brewzilla is the location of the controller... you have to get on the floor to see/use it.
Why not separate the controller?
Cutting the stainless steel base for the controller has a cost, and the savings could go to making the controller handheld and attached via a standard LAN cable (8 wires like existing solution), with RJ45 on each end. LAN cable will make it user replaceable.
You could also add a magnet on the rear of the handheld controller so it can attach to the side, base, whatever... to calm the people who will jump up and down about not wanting something separate.

 

[Topher]

I got the 35L last week and on my first brew the pump got stuck or blocked just after putting in the 1st batch of hops during the boil... the best thing I could come up w/ was getting the wet'n dray vac out to suck it through... which worked.
For the next brew I think I'll either use a fine hops bag/container or go completely brew bag and remove the centre post.

Yeah mine wasn't blocked though. And its not boil related either. It stopped working before I'd even brewed or boiled with it, just while I was testing it out with water. It's pretty sporadic. I'll do more investigating.....I'm thinking it's air in the line/pump head or its faulty. Maybe this needs a priming routine before brewing or a little valve at the bottom of the recirc elbow to start the flow and fill the pump head.

 

[onemorecell]

Any chance of getting a filter to hide items that are out of stock?

It's a bit painful trying to find a liquid yeast

 

[fdsaasdf]

@KegLand-com-au do you have anything in the works in terms of sparge water (or recirculation) diffusers to reduce splashing and oxygen pickup?

I use an upturned bowl but would be interested in something that was fitted to the bz65L vessel or malt pipe. Stainless would be nice but would be happy with something like HDPE that could cope with water up to 80degC and float on top of the mash bed.

Hi @KegLand-com-au have you had a chance to think about this?

 

[fdsaasdf]

I got the 35L last week and on my first brew the pump got stuck or blocked just after putting in the 1st batch of hops during the boil... the best thing I could come up w/ was getting the wet'n dray vac out to suck it through... which worked.
For the next brew I think I'll either use a fine hops bag/container or go completely brew bag and remove the centre post.

I find this a surprise. I make hop monster beers and regularly put 300g+, sometimes >500g of pellet hops in the BZ65. I have never had an issue with the pump getting stuck (or pumps on any of my previous 3V or 1V systems). Are you using flowers or was there grain stuck in there?

Containing hops in a bag will decrease your utilisation.

 

[DazGore]

@KegLand-com-au how are the digital gauges for the mini inline regulator, spunding valve etc.. coming along?

Thanks

 

[hereforthepill]

Yes it's highly likely that we come up with a method of measuring how much beer you have in the kegs and link this to the RAPT portal. Using a load cell like the Plaato is relatively straight forward and it works abut we want to try and make other methods work first that are less cumbersome than load cells. The RAPT chamber is going to be released soon and also very shortly after the RAPT hydrometer and RAPT Temp Control Box then RAPT BrewZilla. Once all these are finished we will then focus on the RAPT gas controller or maybe the RAPT keg level checker but this will probably be in early 2022.

Do you have new information about how far you've come with the RAPT Pill? Any new ETA?

 

[KegLand-com-au]

Do you have new information about how far you've come with the RAPT Pill? Any new ETA?

We have working units of the RAPT pill that we are using in the office. We made further changes to the design to improve the product and this has slowed us down slightly. Previously we were making the housing from Tritan plastic however after using the product for some time we have been noticing the tritan changing shape slightly over time especially if you continually wash in hot water (such as in the dish washer) so we have now changed to POK and Nylon 12 instead. These changes have now been completed so we think we will have stock sold on our website in about 8 weeks from now. Sorry about this long wait. I think you will find the wait worthwhile.

 

[KegLand-com-au]

@KegLand-com-au how are the digital gauges for the mini inline regulator, spunding valve etc.. coming along?

Thanks

These digital mini gauges are now complete in China. We are just waiting on them to get shipped over now so these are about 1-2 months away from being available online.

 

[KegLand-com-au]

And please use basket cookies, not sessions to store basket items... it's REALLY annoying going to utube for 5 minutes to checkout a product, then going back to the kegland tab and the 23 products in your basket have disappeared.

Yes that is fair enough. We will make sure to allow for long session times.

 

[KegLand-com-au]

I got the 35L last week and on my first brew the pump got stuck or blocked just after putting in the 1st batch of hops during the boil... the best thing I could come up w/ was getting the wet'n dray vac out to suck it through... which worked.
For the next brew I think I'll either use a fine hops bag/container or go completely brew bag and remove the centre post.

Are you using the false bottom screen that sits in the bottom of the boiler. I use quite a lot of hops sometimes and I find this prevents all my blocking issues even with very hoppy IPAs.

 

[KegLand-com-au]

The only thing I really dislike about the Brewzilla is the location of the controller... you have to get on the floor to see/use it.
Why not separate the controller?
Cutting the stainless steel base for the controller has a cost, and the savings could go to making the controller handheld and attached via a standard LAN cable (8 wires like existing solution), with RJ45 on each end. LAN cable will make it user replaceable.
You could also add a magnet on the rear of the handheld controller so it can attach to the side, base, whatever... to calm the people who will jump up and down about not wanting something separate.

Yes this is one of the things that is definitely changing on the new Gen 4. I would tally agree. The current design makes the brewery neat having all the electronics underneath but ergonomically it's not idea.

 

[KegLand-com-au]

Any chance of getting a filter to hide items that are out of stock?

It's a bit painful trying to find a liquid yeast

Yes this is something that has been highlighted as an issue so we will prioritise this once we get the speed upgrades completed

 

[Meddo]

If you are in Australia we will have stock arriving before the end of the year for the BrewZilla Gen 4.0. We will continue to sell both the Gen 4 and the older 3.1.1 at the same time as it will take several months to get the new Gen 4.0 production line up to full speed and also the price of the Gen 4.0 will be about $100 more expensive but have quite a few additional advantages. At the end of the day you can make award winning beer from both of them but the Gen 4 will have the main advantages:

1. Easier to clean with CIP options
2. It can drain out completely
3. It will come with the RAPT controller so you can turn on/off and program profiles remotely using the APP or using a web connected device.
4. It will log the previous brews

We also have a bunch of new accessories too and the accessories will be backward compatible with the older 3.1.1. Some of the accessories include new improved distillation lid, boiler extensionand a few others.

Hey mate, will this come in a "Digiboil" form too, i.e. urn-like vessel without fancy controller, pumps, recirc etc.?

 

[KegLand-com-au]

Hey mate, will this come in a "Digiboil" form too, i.e. urn-like vessel without fancy controller, pumps, recirc etc.?

The digiboil is a simple boiler that works well for what it is and I dont think there is much reason to upgrade this device. Once we start doing upgrades on the digiboil the price will also start to increase and eventually if we add pumps and other recirculating hardware you get to a stage where you may as well just get the BrewZilla as the price will end up similar so we feel that the digiboil should just be kept as it is for the moment.

If you did want to see digiboil upgrades what do you think you would like to see?