Denny Conn

[berryman]

He just acquired a Mash and Boil unit and wants to do a review as a total new user. Joined the FB M&B user group and posted a question for advice, how cool is that? For those that don't know the name google search.

[BlackDuck]

Wow...that's awesome. You should direct him to the M&B thread here too!!!

[berryman]

Wow...that's awesome. You should direct him to the M&B thread here too!!!

I think dawg Steve already did, I am not on his friends list but I see Screwy and Steve are. I did reply to his post with my experiences on this unit. I just thought it was kinda cool for him to ask things, but that is how you learn things and he sure does know things.

[John Sand]

That is cool. He's active on HBT, and seems down to earth.

[Beer-lord]

His Wry Smile RyePA was the first time I ever used rye and the 1450 yeast named after him. Loads of experience!

[Dawg LB Steve]

Yes I did direct him to the Beerborg!!! Told him there was a great discussion going on in the advanced equipment thread, not sure if he has checked into it or not though.

[ScrewyBrewer]

I'll have to check out Denny's posts,. I have no idea what M&B is but I remember Denny being an early adopter of a PicoBrew system.

[Dawg LB Steve]

I'll have to check out Denny's posts,. I have no idea what M&B is but I remember Denny being an early adopter of a PicoBrew system.

Mash and Boil system kind of all in one like Grainfather but more reasonably priced, he is testing and reviewing it.

[ScrewyBrewer]

Interesting. I see it also has an optional distilling attachment too. He may be on to something here. For about the same price as a motorized grain mill, the M&B could make a nice pilot system for brewers using a 15 gallon or larger kettle. I will definitely be learning more about this.

[LouieMacGoo]

It looks like he has created an account here on the Borg but hasn't posted anything, yet.

[mashani]

@ScrewyBrewer, the "Mash & Boil for $250" thread on this forum has turned into a full blown discussion of us using the thing, so you might want to read through it.

I'm weird (you already know this) and therefore using it as a 3 gallon full volume BIAB system, except without a bag. It's working nicely for me that way. I like it, it's got me brewing AG almost exclusively again.

[bpgreen]

While I was typing this, mashani replied with some of what I typed, but I'm to lazy to edit my post appropriately.

Interesting. I see it also has an optional distilling attachment too. He may be on to something here. For about the same price as a motorized grain mill, the M&B could make a nice pilot system for brewers using a 15 gallon or larger kettle. I will definitely be learning more about this.

I'm not sure I understand what you mean about the 15 gallon kettle. I think this is too small to help with something that large. The documentation says the maximum grain bill is 16 lbs, but there's a FaceBook group and people on that have been posting that they've used more than that. But I don't think anybody has used enough for a 15 gallon kettle.

The Mash & Boil is an all-in-one electric system, sort of like the RoboBrew or Grainfather, but with fewer bells and whistles*. You heat the water to mash temperature, then add the grains in a basket, then set it to use only 1000 watts. You let it sit for an hour, then pull the basket, set it back to 1600 watts, and do the sparge while the water comes to a boil (unless you're doing a small batch full volume bias-style mash). From there, it's like a regular brew day. There's no need for an additional kettle (actually, you do need something to heat the sparge water, but that can probably be less than a 3 gallon pot).

There's a long thread in the Advanced Equipment forum about the Mash & Boil (The thread title is something like "Mash and Boil for $250). There's a lot of info in that from people who have recently (or not so recently) bought and started using it. If you're interested in it, you should check out that thread. I read it as people were posting to it, and before I did my first batch with it, I read it from the beginning again.

I bought a propane burner and large pot, but never really got around to doing all grain (except for a couple of Mr Beer sized stove-top batches. But this makes it so easy that I don't think it's likely that I'll go back to extract.

*I think both the Grainfather and RoboBrew include chillers, and the M&B doesn't, but most of us probably have chillers, anyway. A lot of brewers have enhanced theirs with recirculating pumps and/or various devices to help with recirculating the wort during the mash. One of the most well known is made by Tyler Brower (who recently joined here). It's a drain pipe that I think gives it features similar to the RoboBrew, but the M&B is double walled, and I think the RoboBrew is not. I recently bought one from him, but won't be testing it out for a few batches, as I dial in my process and figure out how much each change contributes to my improvements.

Edited to correct spelling of Tyler's last name

[ScrewyBrewer]

Thanks, everyone for posting this thread. I've read through all your posts imagining how an M&B could fit into my brewing routine. @bpgreen I was referring to my current 15-gallon system. And how an M&B would allow me to brew smaller 3-5 gallon batches while working on a new recipe. I would still rely on a larger system to brew tried and true recipes.

I've been putting off having another dedicated 110-volt circuit run in my garage maybe it's time I acted on it. I can sense the excitement about the M&B system, especially seeing how so many of the Borg are using it now.

[bpgreen]

That makes sense.

If you put in an outlet for this, be aware that it needs to be GFCI.

[denny]

Hey all! I'm here and looking forward to talking to you all!

And I just saw that I have a NEWBIE badge! So cool!