KegLand Questions and Answers

[KegLand-com-au]

Hi Kegland, I recently bought a robobrew thinking it was going to be a compromise (didn't have the bank for a grainfather), however I'm thrilled with it for the price, massive improvement over my previous BIAB setup.

What I want to know is when recirculating mash do you need to have a decent flow to not stuff the pump or is it happy as long as some liquid is flowing through it? Also is there a trick to cleaning the groove at the top? Should the ring that supports the malt pipe be removed?

Thanks for your support Milhouse. We appreciate you giving us the sale.

The better the flow rate through the malt pipe the better extraction of sugars you are going to get. If we want to talk exact numbers if you have 1-2 liters per minute going through the malt pipe this is slow but it's acceptable. This is a bit tricky to determine unless you lift up the malt pipe and capture what's going through the malt pipe with a bucket then measure the liquid.

If you get faster flow rates this is even better.

* Rice hulls will help you get better flow
* Dont mill the grain to fine and this will give you better flow
* Don't try to brew absolute maximum volume as this will significantly reduce the flow

Also..
If you use things like rice or oats this stuff can turn into glue so not a bad idea to use rice hulls especially on these.

If you are often brewing maximum gravity beers or filling the malt pipe to the absolute brim you may want to consider upgrading to the 65L Robobrew Brewzilla. The 65L model works great for smaller batches too and you will get excellent flow on one of these. The only thing is it takes up a bit more space in your garage and you need 15amp power socket. The additional power does speed up the brew day which is also nice.

 

[KegLand-com-au]

Looks like this has been fixed. Order placed.

@KegLand-com-au keep up the good work and keep expanding the product line.

Thanks for your support. Really appreciate it. We have heaps of cool stuff still coming out over the next 12 months and by middle of next year we will have double the product lines that we do now so we are most certainly expanding the product lines.

 

[KegLand-com-au]

I'm currently building an upgraded rig and wanted to know what the performance of your counterflow chiller is like? How does it compare to the one sold with the Grainfather?

Also, would love a "New Product" feed on the site so I can easily stay abreast of all new and incoming products.

It's funny that you bring that up. We just released a new stainless steel counter flow concentric chiller this week.
https://www.kegland.com.au/colossus-stainless-steel-counter-flow-chiller.html

I do like the stainless ones as it means I can use really harsh chemicals like caustic and phosphoric acid which can't be used on copper. I dont often use caustic but sometimes infrequently like once a year i do run it through. I mainly use the stellarclean which is much safer to use. Both caustic and phosphoric acid (such as the StellarSan or Starsan) are not a good idea on copper. Arguably you don't need to sanitise as you can just run boiling hot wort through the chiller for 5 minutes before you start flowing the water through the unit and this will heat sterilise the unit. With that said I think i just like the stainless ones anyway.

With that said the copper ones do have excellent heat transfer and we now have a kit that includes the duotight fittings that you can see here:
https://www.kegland.com.au/wort-heat-exchanger-counterflow-chiller-duotight-bundle.html
Previously it was not easy to get garden hose onto the input and output of the chiller but now that we have the duotight fittings to half inch thread this works well so we have a good solution now.

The copper chillers are much cheaper than the stainless and to be honest the transfer heat equally as well. Our copper chiller here I would say is equivalent in performance to the Grainfather chiller but obviously we are far better value:
https://www.kegland.com.au/wort-heat-exchanger-counterflow-chiller.html

I would stay away from the plate chillers. Cleaning these are a pain and they are similarly efficient as the counter flow concentric chillers so no reason to get a plate chiller. Once we sell the remaining stock we will not get plate chillers in again.

So in summary:
1. I would get the stainless chiller if you can afford it.
2. If you want to safe some money they just get the copper chiller with the duotight fittings and it is just as good as the grainfather.
3. Alternatively just hot cube. These plastic cubes are dirt cheap and to be quite honest I have also had award winning beers that come out of a hot cube. You just need to adjust your recipe to account for hot cubing. So this option will save you money and also cuts 45mins off your brew day.

I recon the best way to setup optoin 1 or 2 is to go with camlock fittings. These are reliable, stainless and they are really becoming the home brew standard.

 

[laxation]

Does the 3/8 INCH BSP THREAD WELDLESS THERMOWELL work with/fit Ink Bird?

I'd like something for BIAB with an Urn, to use this, do I just drill into the urn and then push in the ink bird?

 

[KegLand-com-au]

I'm currently building an upgraded rig and wanted to know what the performance of your counterflow chiller is like? How does it compare to the one sold with the Grainfather?

Also, would love a "New Product" feed on the site so I can easily stay abreast of all new and incoming products.

The new product feed would be a good idea as we have new products coming in stock almost every few days now. Probably one of the best ways to get updates on new product is to sign up to our youtube channel. For stuff that is new or innovative we almost always do the youtube video first.

https://www.youtube.com/KegLand

So by subscribing to this channel it might be the best place to hear about new stuff.

sometimes the more technical components are hard to explain in text so the Youtube videos are great in that respect as they explain the new stuff more thoroughly.

 

[sp0rk]

3. Alternatively just hot cube. These plastic cubes are dirt cheap and to be quite honest I have also had award winning beers that come out of a hot cube. You just need to adjust your recipe to account for hot cubing. So this option will save you money and also cuts 45mins off your brew day.

If you whirlpool long enough for the temp to drop to about 82c then add hops, it should drop below isomerisation temps within a couple of minutes, but still be above pasteurization temps for draining to your cube
(admittedly your utilization rate will take a hit)

 

[Milhouse]

Thanks for your support Milhouse. We appreciate you giving us the sale.

The better the flow rate through the malt pipe the better extraction of sugars you are going to get. If we want to talk exact numbers if you have 1-2 liters per minute going through the malt pipe this is slow but it's acceptable. This is a bit tricky to determine unless you lift up the malt pipe and capture what's going through the malt pipe with a bucket then measure the liquid.

If you get faster flow rates this is even better.

* Rice hulls will help you get better flow
* Dont mill the grain to fine and this will give you better flow
* Don't try to brew absolute maximum volume as this will significantly reduce the flow

Also..
If you use things like rice or oats this stuff can turn into glue so not a bad idea to use rice hulls especially on these.

If you are often brewing maximum gravity beers or filling the malt pipe to the absolute brim you may want to consider upgrading to the 65L Robobrew Brewzilla. The 65L model works great for smaller batches too and you will get excellent flow on one of these. The only thing is it takes up a bit more space in your garage and you need 15amp power socket. The additional power does speed up the brew day which is also nice.

Thanks for the response, am definitely considering the brewzilla.

Any tips on the second bit - cleaning the groove at the top that holds the ring that supports the malt pipe?

 

[sixfignig]

Any more powerful / bigger bore pumps on the horizon?

 

[tomjhogwash]

Any plans for 1/4" male thread to Duotight ball valves for use on manifolds?

 

[theSeekerr]

Thanks for the response, am definitely considering the brewzilla.

Any tips on the second bit - cleaning the groove at the top that holds the ring that supports the malt pipe?

It's fairly easy to get out if you work a bit of strong string in behind the ring.

 

[Milhouse]

It's fairly easy to get out if you work a bit of strong string in behind the ring.

I'm a bit concerned about bending it if I take it out each time to clean and it becoming misshapen and not supporting the malt pipe properly. I might just clean it as best I can with a chux in the gaps and pull it out every so often and clean really well.

 

[Paulos]

Any tips on how to attach these to a corny keg? Seems like it'd be hard to get your hand into the keg to attach it to a short diptube?

https://www.kegland.com.au/fermentasaurus-ss-float-60cm-silicone-dip-tube.html

 

[tomjhogwash]

Any tips on how to attach these to a corny keg? Seems like it'd be hard to get your hand into the keg to attach it to a short diptube?

https://www.kegland.com.au/fermentasaurus-ss-float-60cm-silicone-dip-tube.html

I believe what you've described is the recommended way of connecting it. Check out this thread:

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/forum/threads/diy-poor-mans-floating-diptube-for-clear-beer.647284/

I've just purchased one of these floats and a short dip tube so I'll let you know how I go!

 

[theSeekerr]

Any tips on how to attach these to a corny keg? Seems like it'd be hard to get your hand into the keg to attach it to a short diptube?

https://www.kegland.com.au/fermentasaurus-ss-float-60cm-silicone-dip-tube.html

Yeah, it's tricky. It helps to do it outside the keg a few times to put a slight flare on the silicone.

Other than that, no tricks, just keep trying until you get it.

 

[tomjhogwash]

Yeah, it's tricky. It helps to do it outside the keg a few times to put a slight flare on the silicone.

Other than that, no tricks, just keep trying until you get it.

I've just purchased some 7mm ID silicon that I'm hoping will fit snug on the outside of the post and the float connection from eBay:

https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/302856579580

 

[KegLand-com-au]

If you whirlpool long enough for the temp to drop to about 82c then add hops, it should drop below isomerisation temps within a couple of minutes, but still be above pasteurization temps for draining to your cube
(admittedly your utilization rate will take a hit)

Yeah that's a fair point. I think it's not worth the risk. If you go hot into the cube your 0 min hops need to be calculated to 20min hops. Then if you need more aroma just add dry hop in the fermenter later on. I recon that's the best outcome.

 

[KegLand-com-au]

Thanks for the response, am definitely considering the brewzilla.

Any tips on the second bit - cleaning the groove at the top that holds the ring that supports the malt pipe?

You can use something like some packing strap to remove the bar and this makes cleaning the groove really easy. With that said I really dont spend much time cleaning the groove and I dont have any issues so I really don't think it something worth worrying about too much. Have other customers had issues cleaning this part? Would like to get some feedback from you guys?

 

[KegLand-com-au]

Any plans for 1/4" male thread to Duotight ball valves for use on manifolds?

this is not something we have planned at the moment. we will have duotight with 1/4male thread to 8mm push in on the other side available then also have 8mm ball valve duotight fittings separately. So you would be able to do it in two pieces.

We have recently spent quite a lot of money on all the injection molded tooling for a reasonable range of duotight fittings. they seem to be selling really well at the moment so if we continue to see good sales we will probably extend the range so we could consider this new part.

 

[KegLand-com-au]

I'm a bit concerned about bending it if I take it out each time to clean and it becoming misshapen and not supporting the malt pipe properly. I might just clean it as best I can with a chux in the gaps and pull it out every so often and clean really well.

If you are taking it out regularly you can make it a lot easier to remove if you cut a small piece out of the wire. this will shorten the stainless wire slightly but it makes it much easier to get in and out.

 

[KegLand-com-au]

I believe what you've described is the recommended way of connecting it. Check out this thread:

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/forum/threads/diy-poor-mans-floating-diptube-for-clear-beer.647284/

I've just purchased one of these floats and a short dip tube so I'll let you know how I go!

The key is to wet the dip tube before you slip the silicone tube over. This makes it much easer to get the tube on.