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Do you need to sanitise the Wort Bladders before using or are they just good to go as is?

Nah do not worry about it. They come already irradiated so they are sterile when you get them. Would be great to hear what you think of the bladders. Usability, tips, how quickly the wort cools down compared with cube etc. We are looking for some more feedback from our customers on this one.
 
@KegLand-com-au any chance of getting Gladfield Lager Light?


Gladfield Lager Light is a malt that is in the process of being deleted from our range. You can still special order it by phone or email but we were not really impressed with this one and the sales were quite low.

We find that the Barrett Burston Pilsner was better value for money and great quality or if you really wanted to lash out and spend a bit more then the Weyermann Premium Pilsner was a good choice. If you don't mind me asking why do you want this one in particular? Have you had a different experience to us and find it to be better than BB or Weyermann or other light malts?
 
Gladfield Lager Light is a malt that is in the process of being deleted from our range. You can still special order it by phone or email but we were not really impressed with this one and the sales were quite low.

We find that the Barrett Burston Pilsner was better value for money and great quality or if you really wanted to lash out and spend a bit more then the Weyermann Premium Pilsner was a good choice. If you don't mind me asking why do you want this one in particular? Have you had a different experience to us and find it to be better than BB or Weyermann or other light malts?
Cool, thanks for that. In all honesty it was because I saw MrBanks was using it in their hazy IPAs and I love the colour they produce! Haven't used it before though.
 
@KegLand-com-au

I am a bit confused by the digital PH meter especially the buffer solution, on the product listing on the site says to add water and it lasts "almost forever" but in the manual it says to use double distilled water and the solution only lasts 2 months.

Can you use normal distilled water or even tap/ filter water? I can't seem to find anyone that sells double distilled water.

Also on calibration, do you need to calibrate with all 3 solutions or just the closest PH for a particular brew?
 
Nah do not worry about it. They come already irradiated so they are sterile when you get them. Would be great to hear what you think of the bladders. Usability, tips, how quickly the wort cools down compared with cube etc. We are looking for some more feedback from our customers on this one.
I was looking at buying these for no chill emergencies, but am genuinely worried about LDPE bags filled with boiling hot liquid. Considering hot water bottles are subject to mandatory safety regulations and they contain 1L of water, what testing has been conducted to ensure these are safe?

LDPE should not be subjected to heat over 80c, so I'm just concerned it's going to give out or split and give me burns over half my body. Any safety regs or tests to put me at ease?
 
@KegLand-com-au

I am a bit confused by the digital PH meter especially the buffer solution, on the product listing on the site says to add water and it lasts "almost forever" but in the manual it says to use double distilled water and the solution only lasts 2 months.

Can you use normal distilled water or even tap/ filter water? I can't seem to find anyone that sells double distilled water.

Also on calibration, do you need to calibrate with all 3 solutions or just the closest PH for a particular brew?

Yes this is confusing. The solution technically will last forever if you do not get contamination in the solution. The issue that seems to be the case is when customers do not wash the probe well enough and then sugars from the brewing process end up in the solution. This enables stuff to grow in the solution and then renders the solution useless. So if you are good at cleaning the probe before using the solution then it will probably last forever but if you do not clean well then change the solution every now and then.

In Melbourne normal tap water is fine. If your water is not as good as Melbourne water it's probably better to use distilled water. Double distilled is really not necessary. You only need to calibrate with the solution closes to the PH of your brew.
 
I was looking at buying these for no chill emergencies, but am genuinely worried about LDPE bags filled with boiling hot liquid. Considering hot water bottles are subject to mandatory safety regulations and they contain 1L of water, what testing has been conducted to ensure these are safe?

LDPE should not be subjected to heat over 80c, so I'm just concerned it's going to give out or split and give me burns over half my body. Any safety regs or tests to put me at ease?

We have done drop testing on the bags while hot and we have had not issues with them at all.

Please remember that these bags are not just LDPE. We use a laminated bag with LDPE and Nylon. Even though LDPE goes a bit soft the nylon is quite a bit more heat resistant and enables the bag to be used at hot temperatures. If we only used LDPE then I would agree with you but it's not an issue for us so far.
 
Hey @KegLand-com-au, are there any updates you can give on the BrewZilla 4.0?

Yes this is one of our top priority projects at the moment. I think it's likely that this will be finished toward the end of this year. Some of the changes will include:

1. Wifi controller that links to our internet hub where brewing information is logged and you can control the brewery remotely.
2. The controller will be higher so you do not need to bend down to look at the screen.
3. The pump will be more accessible making it easy to take apart, maintain and clean
4. The controller can be removed with plug so you can more easily wash the brewery down.

We are also making a number of other small improvements but we would like to hear what you guys think and let us know if you want any additional features. Now is the time to let us know we can include it in the next model.
 
Yes this is one of our top priority projects at the moment. I think it's likely that this will be finished toward the end of this year. Some of the changes will include:

1. Wifi controller that links to our internet hub where brewing information is logged and you can control the brewery remotely.
2. The controller will be higher so you do not need to bend down to look at the screen.
3. The pump will be more accessible making it easy to take apart, maintain and clean
4. The controller can be removed with plug so you can more easily wash the brewery down.

We are also making a number of other small improvements but we would like to hear what you guys think and let us know if you want any additional features. Now is the time to let us know we can include it in the next model.
PID control please, and an option in software to enable full hardware-only control of the pump (not sure about current BZ software but I hate it in other units when the software arbitrarily decides to enable/disable the pump without override available - I'm looking at you Ardbir/SmartPID).
 
Yes this is one of our top priority projects at the moment. I think it's likely that this will be finished toward the end of this year. Some of the changes will include:

1. Wifi controller that links to our internet hub where brewing information is logged and you can control the brewery remotely.
2. The controller will be higher so you do not need to bend down to look at the screen.
3. The pump will be more accessible making it easy to take apart, maintain and clean
4. The controller can be removed with plug so you can more easily wash the brewery down.

We are also making a number of other small improvements but we would like to hear what you guys think and let us know if you want any additional features. Now is the time to let us know we can include it in the next model.
Also ideal (may not be possible at your target price point) a slightly conical base with flush-welded centre drain to make it drain fully without inverting.
 
We have done drop testing on the bags while hot and we have had not issues with them at all.

Please remember that these bags are not just LDPE. We use a laminated bag with LDPE and Nylon. Even though LDPE goes a bit soft the nylon is quite a bit more heat resistant and enables the bag to be used at hot temperatures. If we only used LDPE then I would agree with you but it's not an issue for us so far.
Who conducted the drop testing, or did you guys just fill them with hot liquid and drop them?
 
PID control please, and an option in software to enable full hardware-only control of the pump (not sure about current BZ software but I hate it in other units when the software arbitrarily decides to enable/disable the pump without override available - I'm looking at you Ardbir/SmartPID).

No problem. This is easy to do in the software. We will have a PID feature. With that said I personally don't see PID as being a necessary feature especially given that our brewery design has quite low watt density. With that said it's a good selling feature and easy to implement so we will get this done for you guys.

With the pump issue I am not 100% sure what you mean. We will be able to turn on and off the pump in the software and we have a button on the display that turns the pump on and off. Irrespective of what stage the process is in you can use the manual button on the display to turn on/off the pump whenever you like. I have not used the Smart PID unit or Ardbir so I am not really sure of how this compares.
 
Yes this is confusing. The solution technically will last forever if you do not get contamination in the solution. The issue that seems to be the case is when customers do not wash the probe well enough and then sugars from the brewing process end up in the solution. This enables stuff to grow in the solution and then renders the solution useless. So if you are good at cleaning the probe before using the solution then it will probably last forever but if you do not clean well then change the solution every now and then.

In Melbourne normal tap water is fine. If your water is not as good as Melbourne water it's probably better to use distilled water. Double distilled is really not necessary. You only need to calibrate with the solution closes to the PH of your brew.

Ok, i am not too sure about the differences in Melbourne and Adelaide tap water, its a lot better than it used to be.

What is the range if you calibrate with the 6.86PH solution? Adelaide tap water has an average PH of 7.5 and most brews are around the 5.6PH level. Will the 6.86PH solution be enough?

Yes this is one of our top priority projects at the moment. I think it's likely that this will be finished toward the end of this year. Some of the changes will include:

1. Wifi controller that links to our internet hub where brewing information is logged and you can control the brewery remotely.
2. The controller will be higher so you do not need to bend down to look at the screen.
3. The pump will be more accessible making it easy to take apart, maintain and clean
4. The controller can be removed with plug so you can more easily wash the brewery down.

We are also making a number of other small improvements but we would like to hear what you guys think and let us know if you want any additional features. Now is the time to let us know we can include it in the next model.

The thing i would include would be a removeable IEC power cable, it makes cleaning a little bit easier not having to lug the cable around with the unit.
 
Also ideal (may not be possible at your target price point) a slightly conical base with flush-welded centre drain to make it drain fully without inverting.

This has been a point of discussion in our office too. by having the pump inlet right at the bottom with a slightly conical base this will cause any junk to settle in the bottom and will greatly increase the chance of getting a blocked pump. So I would be careful asking for this until you are absolutely sure that this is what you want. I understand that other breweries like the Grainfather g70 seem to be promoting this feature at the moment but we also seem to get customers having a lot of blocking with the Grainfather design too. With the current flat bottom design we really believe it works well, saves blockages and I much rather have 2L left in the boiler that I have to tip the brewery sideways to extract rather than having a blockages half way through a boil.

Would be keen to hear from others too. Would anyone else like to share their thoughts on this issue?
 
Who conducted the drop testing, or did you guys just fill them with hot liquid and drop them?

Drop testing is one of the easiest types of testing to do. As much as we do outsource a lot of our testing we always do the drop testing in house as it's a very simple process and requires no particularly complicated equipment so we feel that outsourcing drop testing is simply a waste of money. We did drop tests from 1.5meters with just the bladder and then also in cardboard box. We has some failures on drops above 1.5meters but no failures from below 1.5meters. At 2 meters and above we were starting to see a significant number of failures.
 
Ok, i am not too sure about the differences in Melbourne and Adelaide tap water, its a lot better than it used to be.

What is the range if you calibrate with the 6.86PH solution? Adelaide tap water has an average PH of 7.5 and most brews are around the 5.6PH level. Will the 6.86PH solution be enough?



The thing i would include would be a removeable IEC power cable, it makes cleaning a little bit easier not having to lug the cable around with the unit.

Regarding the IEC plug this is a good point. It will add a small cost but I think this is a good idea. It's good that you bring this up. I will discuss this with the team and we will consider this. It's quite possible that we will have the IEC plug for the 35L and 65L Gen 4 but probably not the 100L Gen 4.
 
is there an update on the rapt fridge when thats going to hit the market ?

no pressure just askin the question
 

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