Robobrew.
January 12, 2017
My first foray back into brewing was using my brand new Robobrew. I brewed a very simple recipe (MO, Crystal, Munich with SG and Riwaka with US05 fermenting). Was hoping for an OG 1.044 and got 1.043. The system is simple to use. It feels a bit flimsy (I actually got this one cheaper due to dents caused during shipping) but is half the price of the Grainfather. It doesn’t have a pump or a counter flow chiller like the GF. It got up to strike temp within 35 mins and a nice rolling boil was got in a similar time period. I did a no sparge brew, (basically using the system like a BIAB). I was happy with the efficiency. I’m sure you would get more with a sparge but I wanted to see how quickly I could do this brew, and sparging added too much time. I commenced the brew at 0900hrs and was all packed away and cleaned by 1300hrs. I was pretty happy with this.
Despite the system being a bit cheap feeling, it did the job I wanted it to. Really well in fact. The main areas I’ve heard people complain about is the way you had to lift the malt pipe up and place a square contraption under it to drain the grains. They no longer use this and have a simple turning system (similar to the Braumeister I think?) which I found very easy to use with just me lifting it. They also have measurements on the side now (they initially didn’t) which is fantastic. As for how well it will last; time will tell.
Beer of the week; Hallertau Statesman.