BeerBorg

I am loving this new system. To be able to set it up the night before, program it like a coffee pot to be ready when you wake up to brew...priceless. I love the no sparge full volume mash, no separate pots of water, no coolers, no extras. Less labor intensive and less physically demanding. Temps hold well during the mash, can ramp temps, the wort circulates well and is nice and clear. 2 brews down and have hit all the numbers pretty well. 70% effeciency is the same I was seeing with a separate sparge. At about 6 hrs from start to finish with complete clean up, pitching yeast and calling it good. I have 2 batches fermenting away, cant wait to try them.

MadBrewer wrote:I am loving this new system. To be able to set it up the night before, program it like a coffee pot to be ready when you wake up to brew...priceless. I love the no sparge full volume mash, no separate pots of water, no coolers, no extras. Less labor intensive and less physically demanding. Temps hold well during the mash, can ramp temps, the wort circulates well and is nice and clear. 2 brews down and have hit all the numbers pretty well. 70% effeciency is the same I was seeing with a separate sparge. At about 6 hrs from start to finish with complete clean up, pitching yeast and calling it good. I have 2 batches fermenting away, cant wait to try them.

You may be able to save a little more time with an overnight mash if the Robobrew can hold temperatures that long. Dojng an overnight mash means that all you need to do is lift the grain basket, add hops, bring to boil, rather than add the grain when you wake up. Granted, it only saves an hour, but it does save an hour.

If you really want to save time, you can do a no-boil batch. I've done one of these, but I think mashani hsa done several. You need more hops than a traditional brew, but if time is a consideration, it's worth thinking about.

Yes, this is why I love the mash & boil too. If you want to try any of the things BP mentioned, IE doing a longer mash but no boil "raw" beer you can search posts by me which describe what I did or I can try to explain. But the short version is it makes really good beer even though it sounds wrong.

bpgreen wrote:

MadBrewer wrote:I am loving this new system. To be able to set it up the night before, program it like a coffee pot to be ready when you wake up to brew...priceless. I love the no sparge full volume mash, no separate pots of water, no coolers, no extras. Less labor intensive and less physically demanding. Temps hold well during the mash, can ramp temps, the wort circulates well and is nice and clear. 2 brews down and have hit all the numbers pretty well. 70% effeciency is the same I was seeing with a separate sparge. At about 6 hrs from start to finish with complete clean up, pitching yeast and calling it good. I have 2 batches fermenting away, cant wait to try them.

You may be able to save a little more time with an overnight mash if the Robobrew can hold temperatures that long. Dojng an overnight mash means that all you need to do is lift the grain basket, add hops, bring to boil, rather than add the grain when you wake up. Granted, it only saves an hour, but it does save an hour. If you really want to save time, you can do a no-boil batch. I've done one of these, but I think mashani hsa done several. You need more hops than a traditional brew, but if time is a consideration, it's worth thinking about.

This process is pretty streamlined, I have heard of the overnight mash but not the no boil. The time goes by pretty fast, I am done before I know it. I think as I get more used to the setup, I can save a bit more time but it's all good. I do not boil in the Robobrew, it is simply a temp controlled recirculating mash tun for me. I boil in my normal kettle, the effeciency of propane saves some time there.

Things went pretty well with these two batches, the system worked great. I like the no sparge but a few adjustments are needed. Both batches are cold, carbonated and drinkable at just passed 2 weeks from grain to glass. Next up I am thinking Ill do a simple Cream Ale for summer.

I've been kegging my lower gravity beers in 2 weeks and drinking them in 3 weeks and they've been pretty good though the sweet spot is about 5-6 weeks. I actually enjoy tasting them age and change. Get a good floccing yeast and grain to glass can be done with a keg in that time and still make decent beers.

Beer-lord wrote:I've been kegging my lower gravity beers in 2 weeks and drinking them in 3 weeks and they've been pretty good though the sweet spot is about 5-6 weeks. I actually enjoy tasting them age and change. Get a good floccing yeast and grain to glass can be done with a keg in that time and still make decent beers.

Exactly. I have upgraded to a floating dip tube to pull beer off the top where it's ready and clearer and that has made the biggest improvement. I sound near the tail end of fermentation so the beer carbonates naturally. Once it's put in the fridge to chill, only a matter of a couple days to come together. But yes, nothing beats a little time for it to come together and be a much better beer.

MadBrewer wrote: I sound near the tail end of fermentation so the beer carbonates naturally.

Can you explain this a little further... I'm curious as to exactly what you're doing.

BlackDuck wrote:

MadBrewer wrote: I sound near the tail end of fermentation so the beer carbonates naturally.

Can you explain this a little further... I'm curious as to exactly what you're doing.

Sure, sorry that was meant to say spund*. It is basically caping the tail end of fermentation only a couple points off from FG so that the pure Co2 from fermentation carbonates the beer naturally. I ferment, carbonate and serve all from the same corny keg. This has sped up my time frame, less cleaning and sanitizing and zero transfer of fermenting or finished beer. It never sees oxygen after fermentation. It's basically what others might do with a Unitank system except I have not found a reason to worry about the beer sitting on the yeast for the beers I brew and timeframe I drink them. Haven't had any off flavors or autolysis even after a couple months in the keg. To do this, an adjustable pressure relief valve is a good idea and the floating dip tube system makes it so you are pulling from the top and not the bottom of the keg. I don't yield a full keg of beer going this route since I can only put in 4.5-4.75 gals to ferment but I'm good with that. You could look up spunding if it interests you to try. You can ferment in a regular fermenter then transfer to keg for the spund. It's pretty cool to have carbonated beer after fermentation and just get it cold from there.

Got it...thanks. The floating dip tube is an absolute must in your process then!! Thanks again for 'splainin it!!

I am loving this RoboBrew setup. It was single digit temps outside yesterday and I was perfectly comfortable out in the garage knocking out two smaller batches. I think today I will look under the hood of it and check on wiring, the control board, switches...etc and maybe even run a hot water PBW cleaning through it.