Brewie B+ Mill's Row II

Perfect brew day for Brewie, except for a really weak boil.  After re-insulating the connections to the boil element, the thermal switch is limiting a full boil.  I am waiting for Brewie to figure out a solution.  In the meantime, I have ordered a Hot Rod Heatstick to supplement the next boil.  I tweaked the parameters of the original Brewie recipe for Mill's Row - a simple pilsner that I can lager for the next 3 months.  The tweaked specs hit the target numbers spot on.


Mill's Row II

Grains                         Additions                                           Results
9.92# pils                    .53 oz Magnum at 60 mins               1048 post boil

                                   .7 oz Saaz at 30 mins                        70% efficiency
                                   .7 oz Saaz at 20 mins               
                                   .7 oz Saaz at 10 mins                                                      

mash at 156 for 75 mins (7.0g total water volume split 4.4g mash and 2.6g sparge)

sparge at 168 for 40 mins

W-34/70 at 66, lower to 55 at start of fermentation, 0 psi ferment
5.2 mash lock

no adjustments

Brewie B+ Blind Pig IPA

I have 5 beers on tap that I am proud to serve, so it is time to start a decent pipeline.  I figure the Blind Pig will replace Pliny or my NEIPA, whichever goes first.  Brewie performed perfectly.  70% efficiency on this one.  When this machine works as it is intended, it is really magical.  What wasn't magical was the fact that I forgot to connect the chill dump hose and ended up with several gallons of water all over my basement floor.  I hard plumbed a line so that won't happen again.

Here is the recipe:

Grains                         Additions                                            Results
10.5# 2-row                1 oz Chinook at 60 mins                    1053 post sparge
.5# C-40                     .5 oz Cascade at 30 mins                  1056 60 min boil
.5# wheat                   1 oz Cascade at 15 mins                   1060 post boil
.5# carapils                .5 oz each Apollo/Amarillo at 5 mins                                                      
  
mash at 150 for 75 mins (6.9g total water volume split 4.3g mash and 2.8g sparge)

sparge at 168 for 40 mins

US-05 at 72, lower to 68, 10 psi ferment
OG 1060 (1.058 target)
5.2 mash lock

1.5 tsp gypsum

Dry hops:
Primary: 1 oz French oak chip, 1 oz Centennial, .5 oz each Apollo/Amarillo
Secondary: 1 oz Centennial, 1/2 oz Cascade, 1 oz French oak chips

Brewie B+ Young's Double Chocolate Stout

Fall is here, so it's time for a stout.  I decided to let Brewie have this one and see if I could program my first recipe into the machine and still manage to add the adjuncts at the right time.  For the most part, I had the timing down based on knowledge gained from my previous brewing systems.  It would be nice if you could program a few alerts into Brewie so that your iphone would buzz at certain points during the brew.  I am beta testing the Brewie app and will have to suggest that.  I was too conservative with my water and efficiency calculations based on prior brews so I ended up with a really strong wort at the end (6.1g total water volume split 4.3g mash and 1.8g sparge).  I adjusted with .8 g of water (6 Dasani bottles) to bring the OG down to the target gravity.  I achieved 75% efficiency, which is an all time high for me with Brewie.  I had really fresh grain, a great crush, and used 5.2 mash lock.  I think these things really helped.  Overall, a great brew day for Brewie!

Here is the recipe:

Grains                         Additions                                       Results
9# Marris Otter           1 oz Warrior at 60 mins                 1059 pre boil
12 oz choc malt          8 oz maltodextrin at 60 mins         1063 pre boil with dex
4 oz C-40                   1 oz cocoa powder at 5 mins         1073 post boil
2 oz roasted barley                                                           1058 with .8 gallon adjustment
2 oz black patent
  
mash at 150 for 75 mins

sparge at 170 for 45 mins

wyeast 1098-British Ale at 66 raised to 68
OG 1058
5.2 mash lock
No water adjustments 

Brewie B+ vs Robobrew v3

My brand new B+ arrived last weekend and after a few restarts updated to the latest software, passed the short clean cycle and passed the test brew cycle. I still had one last free Brewie pad so I figured what the heck, let's do this. It was the Rusty Rex pad. I decided to put the B+ head to head with my Robobrew v3 and brew two beers at the same time. I figured my odds were decent that I would get one beer out of the session. After a bricked screen upon start up, and an unplug it "reset", much to my pleasant surprise, the B+ performed flawlessly. As much as I wanted to grab the mash bag and stir it, I let the machine do its thing. Rusty Rex is 8.8 lbs of Munich malt into 6.9 gallons of total water volume. My pre-boil was 1.038 and my post boil was 1.042, so with .12 gal/lb absorption that is 68% efficiency. I am pretty shocked (in a good way) by this result. Based on my CB20 experience, 68-72% is the max one can expect on a two-vessel continuous sparge system.

A few notes:

-Robobrew brew day beat the B+ by over an hour, including cooling. The Robobrew recipe was 13.25 lbs of malt with 70% efficiency at 1.056 pre boil and 1.062 post boil

-B+ boil is very mild; the Robobrew boil is much more of what I would call a rolling boil
-B+ total brew time was 6 hrs, more with clean-up, but it truly was hands off until clean-up
-B+ app worked perfectly and connected whenever I wanted during the brew session - a big upgrade from the first versions
-Clean-up with B+ is much easier than Robobrew
-Robobrew is messier, both during the brewing process and with cleanup
-Robobrew is much more user intensive, mash in, mash out, temp changes, heavy lifting, hop additions, cooling
-I really think a malt pipe will help the B+ with efficiency so that I could stir at mash-in

So, chalk up one successful brew for the B+.  Here are the recipes:

Brewie B+ - Rusty Rex Brewie Pad - American Amber

8.8# Munich malt

60 - Magnum 5 g (0.2 oz), 
30 - Cascade 10g (0.4 oz), 
20 - Cascade 25g (1 oz), 
10 - Cascade 25g (1 oz)

1.042 OG
US-05 yeast

Robobrew v3 - Haze Craze IPA - New England IPA

10# 2-row
1# flaked oats
1# flaked wheat
8 oz carapils
8 oz wheat malt
4 oz honey malt

60 - .5 oz warrior
5   - 1 oz citra
0   - 2 oz mosaic whole cone
0   - 1 oz citra

dry hops
2 oz mosaic (days 3-7 primary)
1 oz citra (days 3-7 primary)
1 oz mosaic (days 7-10 secondary)
2 oz citra (days 7-10 secondary)

28L total water, 5 gallons mash in water, remainder reserved for room temp sparge

Mashed at 152 for 60 mins

1.062 OG
Whitelabs WLP095 Burlington Ale

Robobrew v3 - Walter Wheat Ale

Testing out the Robobrew v3 again while I wait for my Brewie to be delivered.  The unit performed perfectly.  I really wish this unit was available to me 10 years ago.  It has everything you need to dive into all-grain brewing and keep it simple, all at a very reasonable cost.  The brewing process is so easy, albeit rather use intensive.  The only true hands-off time is during the mash and during cooling.  But I still highly recommend the unit.

Walter Wheat

5# White wheat
3# 2-row
8 oz C-40
4 oz acidulated
4 oz melanoidin
2 oz brewing bad rocks (flavored candy rocks)

60 - .5 oz cascade
10 -  1 oz amarillo
5   - 1 oz simcoe plus rocks
1   - 1 oz crystal

7 gal total water volume, 5 gal mash in at 150 degrees, 60 min mash, mash out to 170, room temp sparge
25 litres pre boil at 1.038
20.2 litres post boil at 1.041
70% efficiency
US-05 yeast

Brewie 2.0, 3.0 Fail - Robobrew v3 Pliny Brewday

Long time off, again.  Brewie finally recalled my first unit and sent me a brand new second unit that lasted two full brewing sessions, and then broke on the third one with a scorched mash tun.  They promised me a new and improved Brewie+ if I waited.  Many more months of waiting and I finally received the new unit a few weeks.  Unfortunately the third unit broke going through the startup process and I had to send it back.  I am waiting for the repaired unit to be sent to me.  The two brewing sessions that did work were next to flawless, however the efficiency was very low (right around 50%, which is terrible in my opinion).

In the meantime, I went out and bought a Robobrew V3 from morebeer and their Pliny recipe.  The machine worked perfectly right out of the box.  It is a really slick setup.  It is not an automatic brewing machine by any stretch, but it is a very easy to use single vessel mashing and boiling machine.  I am hard pressed to find another machine that offers more bang for your buck for easy all-grain brewing.  I highly recommend the unit and will likely keep mine around even if my Brewie ever works consistently.


For the sake of posterity, here is a recap:

Brewie 1st Brew-Call Me Grainy Brewie Pad-ABV was supposed to come out at 6%, but I ended up around 4.75% because of the poor efficiency.  Beer was watery and I wouldn't buy the pad (it was free with the Brewie).   

Brewie 2nd Brew-Hopus Pocus Brewie Pad-ABV was supposed to come out at 6%, but I again ended up around 4.75% because of the poor efficiency.  Beer was rather unremarkable and I wouldn't buy the pad (it was free with the Brewie).  I think Brewie used too much water in their calculations for the machine.  The grain bags are very tight and likely end up with a lot of dough balls.

Brewie 3rd Brew-Rusty Rex Brewie Pad-Fail, smelled burning during the mash and had to shut down and dump the brew.  The mash tun element scorched.  Brewie recalled the unit and replaced it.

Robobrew V3 Brew Day - Pliny the Elder (Morebeer recipe)

13# 2-row
1# carapils
6 oz C40
1# corn sugar added 10 mins remaining

2oz whole Cascade into mash; mashed into 4.25 gallons for 75 mins at 150, 170 mashout

2oz Magnum at 90
1oz Simcoe at 45
1oz Columbus at 30
1/2 tablet whirlfloc at 5 mins
2oz Centennial at flameout
1oz Simcoe at flameout

2 packs US-05 dry yeast

Dry hop-3oz Columbus, 1oz Centennial, 1oz Simcoe

Results-efficiency was low at around 63% because I mashed too thick.  I sparged with 4 gallons of water and hit my intended volume of 6.6 gallons perfectly, but was low on gravity at 1.051.  90 min post boil volume was 5.28 gallons at 1.068, not bad.