Brewie B+ Witbier

Another perfect brew day with my B+. Best rolling boil I have achieved to date. 

75 min step mash from 144, 153, to 161 with a 30 min sparge at 168. My recipe was 8.8lbs of pilsner malt and 2.2lbs of wheat malt into 4.6 gal for mash and then 2.4 gal for sparge. Pre boil was 1047 and post boil was 1053. 65% efficiency. Used 5.2 mash stabilizer. 

Great day, again. 

Witbier

Grains                        Additions                                           Results
8.8# pils                    .18 oz Magnum at 60 mins                1047 pre boil

2.2# wheat                .70 oz Orange peel at 20 mins          1053 post boil

                                  .70 coriander at 20 mins             
                                 . 53 oz Hallertau at 10 mins                                                   
                               

mash in at 143, raise to 144 for 20 mins, 152.6 for 30 mins, raise to 161.6 for 15 mins (7 g total water volume split 4.6g mash and 2.4g sparge)

sparge at 168 for 30 mins

T-58 dry yeast at 70, lower to 65 at start of fermentation, 0 psi ferment
5.2 mash lock

Fermentation started within 6 hrs

Brewie B+ Watermelon SMaSH

Flawless brew day with my B+. Boil made it to 209F. I will take it. I haven’t replaced my thermal switch yet or the wires that Brewie sent me so the wires could maybe get me above 209. 

90 min step mash from 144 to 153 with a 45 min sparge at 168. My recipe was 8.8lbs of marris otter into 4.7 gal for mash and then 2.1 gal for sparge. Pre boil was 1046 and post boil was 1053. 79.15% efficiency. Used 5.2 mash stabilizer. 

Great day. I did so many other things during this brew, I almost forgot I was brewing. 


Watermelon SMaSH

Grains                         Additions                                           Results
8.8# marris               .53 oz Amarillo at 60 mins                  1046 pre boil

                                 .53 oz Amarillo at 15 mins                  1053 post boil

                                 .53 oz Amarillo at 10 mins             
                                 .53 oz Amarillo at 5 mins                                                   
                                  Dry hop: 1.41 oz Amarillo 5 days

1 dram Lorann watermelon candy oil at pitching.

mash in at 129.2, raise to 143.6 for 40 mins, 152.6 for 50 mins (6.7g total water volume split 4.7g mash and 2.1g sparge)

sparge at 168 for 45 mins

US-05 at 72, lower to 66 at start of fermentation, 0 psi ferment
5.2 mash lock

1 tsp gypsum

Brewie B+ Brevienna

Another perfect brew day for Brewie, and I fixed the weak boil issue.  I by-passed the thermal switch in the boil tank and now I get 100% power.  Brewie sent me new thermal switches, heating elements and wires to install at a later date.  I tweaked the parameters of the original Brewie recipe for this beer a bit:





Brevienna

Grains                         Additions                                           Results
7.72# vienna               .18 oz Magnum at 60 mins               1050 pre boil

1.1# munich                .18 oz Magnum at 30 mins               1059 post boil diluted to 1057
                                   .35 oz Amarillo at 20 mins                 92% eff, but volumes likely
                                   .35 oz Amarillo at 10 mins                 off due to calibration                                     

mash in at 129.2, raise to 143.6 for 30 mins, 156.2 for 45 mins, 161.6 for 15 mins (6.7g total water volume split 4.6g mash and 2.1g sparge)

sparge at 168 for 45 mins

W-34/70 at 66, lower to 50 at start of fermentation, 0 psi ferment
5.2 mash lock

no adjustments

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