Brewzilla thread to share knowledge, experiences and good practice

[Stonedhouse]

So after the first brew using a half sized volume (13L) version of Hughes Christmas Ale, I've just completed the second yesterday, a Proper Job clone scaled up to 30L in the Robobrew from 25L using Brewfather.

Observations: well it was full to brim during the mash obvs, only just managed to get all the grain bill of 6.3kg MO in and the boil volume was right on the 30L mark on the Robobrew. No boilovers though...... thankfully. Used the hop spider this time instead of a bag and it worked fine and wasn't a PITA to clean afterwards.

Post boil volume was 25L, supposed to be 27L as calculated by Brewfather, with an OG of 1.062 instead of the calculated 1.057. Sample tasted very hoppy as expected from the Hop bill of 173g which is much the largest I’ve ever done.

Bubbling away nicely in the FV less than 12 hours later.

Now for a Chocolate Orange Stout I think

That's a big brew I've come close to a boil over in my Robobrew with lesser qtys !

I've been meaning to do a Proper Job brew for a while and have found a couple on-line recipes, I also have a work link to the actual brewery and was going to try and tap up their Brewer for some detail, well if you don't ask you don't get

 

[Falco]

That's a big brew I've come close to a boil over in my Robobrew with lesser qtys !

It was touch and go but went well in the end, although probably won’t do that volume again too often. Only did it cos PJ is a favourite of mine.

I’d be interested in the recipe from your source if you manage to get a copy

 

[Falco]

25 is what brewfather predicted for me when I changed my settings to 30l pre boil but bear in mind that when liquid is hot it expands and contracts when cooled.All in all its a result and I'm culturing up PJ yeast for a brew shortly.

Dunno Gerry, perhaps it was me not driving Brewfather properly, just used the scale brew function and it came out with 30 litres

 

[Gerryjo]

That's a big brew I've come close to a boil over in my Robobrew with lesser qtys !

I've been meaning to do a Proper Job brew for a while and have found a couple on-line recipes, I also have a work link to the actual brewery and was going to try and tap up their Brewer for some detail, well if you don't ask you don't get

Here's a link to one I've put together from a few I found on YouTube so I can't take credit and you can culture up the yeast from their bottles or use Notty.
Proper Job

 

[UKSkydiver]

I used the BrewZilla (35l) for the first time yesterday. I went with the manual approach so I could get used to my new toy and start to have a play with the features. To be fair, it's so easy, I didn't even read the manual, which may well turn out to be my downfall. Herewith is my 'first BZ day' write up and associated thoughts.

Some observations.
- Recipe called for about 3kg grain and 18.5 litres strike water. No sparge, For an 11 litre batch.

- Overall. A super easy brew day compared to my usual BIAB / Buffalo / SS pot method. Just things like setting the temp and fire and forget makes the day a joy. Its great not to need to constantly measure temps with thermometer and adjust the power. Looking forward to setting strike water to come on early in the morning.

- Telescopic Malt Pipe. I had read something about a micro pipework for the Grainfather. As far as I can tell they're not needed for the BZ. I pushed the telescopic pipe fully down but it was too low, so I had to pull it back up again about 8cm to account for my grist. Probably worth pushing down after dough in than the other way around.

- Temperature. I had expected the temperature to be a bit off as per the Kegland explanation. I pulled some of the recirculated wort through the tap and measured the temp. Controller was set at 66c and the temp out of the tap was 64c

- Recirculation Pump. I had the pump on throughout the mash. The tap was open maybe just under half way. This seemed to be a really good flow rate; it didn't pull too much from the bottom and overflow at the top and it didn't pull so little as to dry the grain bed out. The wort really cleared well by using the recirc pump through the grain bed.

- Malt / mash screens. I know there have been questions from other brewers on this. I used all the screens provided. No issues with stuck mash (at least, I assume that if I had had a stuck mash the recirculation wouldn't have worked as well as it did)

- Wort Transfer. I pumped all the wort out including any break material. All of this went into the fermenter. Not sure whether I should let it settle slightly and pull it off from the tap which is a tad higher. I guess it will all settle out in the FV anyway and I may end up with more packaging loss than I normally would.

- Boil Off. Got to a nice rolling boil in good time. Not sure about the boil off values. I've ended up with 12.5 litres of 1070 wort instead of 11 litres of 1080 wort. I've done some calcs and it looks like had I have boiled off to 11 litres I would have ended up with 1080 wort, so the BH efficiency is correct, just the boil off needs to be adjusted slightly. What are everyone elses boil off rates?

Concerns / learning points for consideration:

- The malt pipe wire supports - to sit the malt pipe on. Not entirely sure how to remove this for cleaning. I ended up hosing it down with heated water containing some cleaning solution whilst I was cleaning out the BZ, pump and recirc arm.

- Recirc arm gets hot - avoid touching it with your arm, shoulder, hand etc.

- Neoprene jacket is quite tight and is a bit fiddly to fasten behind the recirc pipe.

- Avoid accidentally knocking the sparge arm. You only have to think about looking at it and it will pop out.

- Unit itself is compact, although it seems there are lots of items to clean. I rinsed them off and chucked them in the dishwasher.

- I broke one of the knobs for the lid. It was spinning around so I tightened it with my fingers (no tools) and <click> the brass thread came out of the knob.

- The lid clips are really annoying. I know they're for when you use the distilling attachment. Does anyone have a good method to keep them static to stop them rattling about?

- Anyone know what the split rings are for on the cam locks? I've taken them off to reduce the chance of being snagged and to stop them making a noise.

Cheers

 

[chillipickle]

I done my first bew with the brewzilla, even though i have had it for a month.

I copied a recipe from gash(home brew network) west coast ipa, it went very smooth for a first brew, i ended up 1 point down on sg so happy about that.

5.9kg grain bill, 20ltr strike, 15 sparge.Ended up with bang on the predicted 23ltrs.SG of 1056.

Had the same as you with the recirc arm and whirlpool arm, you only have to touch it for the arms to open up.I will get large crocadile clip to help keep them closed for the next brew.

All in all very happy with the brewzilla, got 23 ltrs in the snub nose fermenter, sitting at 10 psi in less than 24hrs.Already smelling good, fingers crossed.

I used bottled tesco water, have salifert test kits on the way so can hopefully start treating water correctly.

cheers.

 

[Hudson1984]

Hi all, annoyingly I've misplaced the silicone tube that comes with the BZ - anyone recommend the correct size for replacement?

additionally, the red cap has fallen off the pump button, be keen to replace that too. But see they're out of stock with @AngelHomebrew.

 

[RGeats]

Hi all, annoyingly I've misplaced the silicone tube that comes with the BZ - anyone recommend the correct size for replacement?

additionally, the red cap has fallen off the pump button, be keen to replace that too. But see they're out of stock with @AngelHomebrew.

Not sure about the silicone tube size, I'm sure someone else will.

My red button on one of the elements fell off, was easy enough to pop it back on, is yours broken?

 

[Hudson1984]

happily I found the tube, but not the botton cover - I'm sure it would pop back on.....if I could find it. Sadly I think I must of knocked it off when I unpacked and the box is now at the dump AHB do a new button for a fiver but none in stock.. oh well

 

[BrannBrew]

I made some notes during my first ever Brewzilla brew day at the weekend and thought I might share them here in case anyone was interested.

The method below worked well for me using around 5kg grain making a 23 litre batch with a 60 minute boil. I may be brave enough to split the water amounts differently next time to give less mash and more sparge water, and become more in line with the recommended mash water to grist ratios.

1. Fill the Brewzilla to the brim with mains hot water from the combi boiler. This gives 35l of water at about 55 degrees
2. Add all calculated water additions for brew except for lactic acid. Turn on the pump and stir to dissolve and blend everything in
3. Draw off 10 litres into a Tea Urn. This will be my treated Sparge Water. The remaining 25 litres is my treated Mash Water.
4. Add calculated amount of Lactic acid to the Mash water in the Brewzilla and heat to mash temperature.
5. Add the malt pipe and grist and mash in.
6. Whilst this is mashing, heat the sparge water to 75 degrees
7. Mash out and sparge with enough water to make up to 28 litres (I used almost the whole 10 litres)
8. Bring to Boil and boil for 60 minutes with hop additions along the way.
9. Insert chiller and add half protofloc tablet with 10 minutes to go.
10. Chill.
11. Transfer to FV using the pump

This gave me exactly 23 litres wort in the FV

Out of everything Ive read or watched on the brewzilla or brewzilla variants, your post was one of the most helpful.
I had a little less pre boil (26l) but the amount lost was equivalent to yours.
I lost 3 litres Boil off and probably 3 in trub and because I stopped transfer when flow stopped.
I use a coil and did a 30 second whirlpool stir and I say it worked to hold things back.

 

[Gerryjo]

Hi all, annoyingly I've misplaced the silicone tube that comes with the BZ - anyone recommend the correct size for replacement?

additionally, the red cap has fallen off the pump button, be keen to replace that too. But see they're out of stock with @AngelHomebrew.

Just in case you may need it again its 12.5 ID and recommend 18.5 OD.

 

[UKSkydiver]

Second time out with the Brezwilla today.

I think the mash consistency was a bit thick.

I do half batches of about 11 litres. This latest one called for 16.5 litres of strike water for a 3.4kg grain bill for a 1070 OG.

The deadspace under the false bottom is ~7 litres. So effectively I've 'lost' nearly half the amounf of fluid to deadspace.

Am I right to assume that as a result, it will be difficult to get a reasonable mash consistency for a high gravity, half batch?

Cheers

 

[Falco]

Second time out with the Brezwilla today.

I think the mash consistency was a bit thick.

I’ve done three brews now with it and found that the mash consistency was fine. Largest maltbill was 6.3kg in 25.5 litres of liquor. I use Brewfather and set the default equipment profile to Brewzilla and the calculated volumes of water seem to work.

 

[chillipickle]

I have 7 brews under my belt with the brewzilla now, for 5.9kg or 6.2kg grain bills i have been using 20 and 21 ltrs of strike water and sparging with 15/14 ltrs.

This gives me 30 ltrs pre boil and 23ltrs into the fv, brewfarther is pretty spot on.Although i have been using some one elses recipes up until now.

 

[Gerryjo]

Second time out with the Brezwilla today.

I think the mash consistency was a bit thick.

I do half batches of about 11 litres. This latest one called for 16.5 litres of strike water for a 3.4kg grain bill for a 1070 OG.

The deadspace under the false bottom is ~7 litres. So effectively I've 'lost' nearly half the amounf of fluid to deadspace.

Am I right to assume that as a result, it will be difficult to get a reasonable mash consistency for a high gravity, half batch?

Cheers

Second time out with the Brezwilla today.

I think the mash consistency was a bit thick.

I do half batches of about 11 litres. This latest one called for 16.5 litres of strike water for a 3.4kg grain bill for a 1070 OG.

The deadspace under the false bottom is ~7 litres. So effectively I've 'lost' nearly half the amounf of fluid to deadspace.

Am I right to assume that as a result, it will be difficult to get a reasonable mash consistency for a high gravity, half batch?

Cheers

With a half batch just do and infusion mash using all the water and constantly sparging and there should not be an issue allowing for your grain to water and dead space loss combined.

 

[UKSkydiver]

I think the important bit is that I'm doing half sized batches of about 11 litre, thus the deadspace takes up a larger percentage of the mash than if it were a full 23 litre brew.

This is my theory anyway, I'm looking for confirmation and whether I should avoid 'big' and half batch brews.

Cheers

(That said, my first one was an 8.1% half batch, so who knows)

 

[RGeats]

Second time out with the Brezwilla today.

I think the mash consistency was a bit thick.

I do half batches of about 11 litres. This latest one called for 16.5 litres of strike water for a 3.4kg grain bill for a 1070 OG.

The deadspace under the false bottom is ~7 litres. So effectively I've 'lost' nearly half the amounf of fluid to deadspace.

Am I right to assume that as a result, it will be difficult to get a reasonable mash consistency for a high gravity, half batch?

Cheers

Can you just use more water and boil for longer? Depends if you are time limited or not I suppose.

 

[RGeats]

Or use more grain and go no sparge?

Grain is cheap, hops are expensive.

 

[UKSkydiver]

Now that i have a couple of kegs and my brews seem to be consistent, I'm looking to work out what max batches I can get without a sparge.

Does anyone know off the top of their head rough numbers for the max. full volume, no sparge batch would be in BZ for a ~5% brew?

I've just punced a few rough numbers in Brewfather and this is what I get:

4.7kg grain
26.6 total mash water
29.89 total mash volume
Gives a 19 litre batch

Sound about right?
Cheers

 

[foxy]

Now that i have a couple of kegs and my brews seem to be consistent, I'm looking to work out what max batches I can get without a sparge.

Does anyone know off the top of their head rough numbers for the max. full volume, no sparge batch would be in BZ for a ~5% brew?

I've just punced a few rough numbers in Brewfather and this is what I get:

4.7kg grain
26.6 total mash water
29.89 total mash volume
Gives a 19 litre batch

Sound about right?
Cheers

About right if you can squeeze as much out of the grain bed as possible, I usually do 31 litres of water and allow 4-5 litres los to trub.