BREWZILLA GEN 4 35L MY FIRST EXPERIENCES
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- Опубліковано 28 лип 2024
- BREWZILLA GEN 4 35L MY FIRST EXPERIENCES
In this video I cover my experiences with the new Gen 4 Brewzilla 35.
This covers 2 brews, one kettle sour and one fermentation within the Brewzilla 35.
Channel links:-
groups/Brewbeer
www.teespring.com/stores/davi...
Introduction music:- Drink Beer (Till The Day That I Die) by Dazie Mae
Channel links:-
groups/Brewbeer
www.teespring.com/stores/davi...
Introduction music:- Drink Beer (Till The Day That I Die) by Dazie Mae
Channel links:-
groups/Brewbeer
www.teespring.com/stores/davi...
Introduction music:- Drink Beer (Till The Day That I Die) by Dazie Mae - Навчання та стиль
Great information David thank you. I'm now super excited as I have one on pre-order and it'll be my first all grain brewing system, cant wait.
Cheers, great to hear 🍻🍻🍻
Awesome video that gives so much more information in its short run time than others out there that take much much longer.
Cheers Alan. Yes, I cannot stand videos that stall for time and really give you little, so I do not make them! 😎
Got one of these on pre-order, really looking forward to using it!
They sure are very impressive for the money 🍻🍻🍻
Lovely to see, nice first experience with the Brewzilla.
However I believe I will hold on to my home made China Bucket with BIAB system for yet a wild.
Thanks for your time an effort 👍
Cheers Allan. Its a lot for the money when the time is right.
Great job on this one David. I'm brewing on the anvil 10.5. Once it dies, I may go to this unit. Take care.
Cheers Curt, 🍻🍻🍻
My unit arrived yesterday, amazing piece of kit! One small niggle though, there's no on/off switch! The reason I always power down is to prevent accidentally energising the heating element when empty so a bit surprised there's no option to power the controller off without the need to remove the plug from the wall. I know Kegland have plans for the RAPT controller on these to act as a kind of hub for other Bluetooth devices so I can see an argument for the controller to always be powered even when not brewing but in that case I would expect a way to put the controller into standby mode to reduce the risk of powering the heating element accidentally
I guess you could bridge in a switch easily enough. If you do make this mistake then it will take a long time to burn out these elements. Tests were made and you are looking at more than 24 hours.
Did yours leak.?, is the false bottom outrageous tight?
@@johndavis8859 haven't done a full brew yet but tested it with some water, no leaks for me. The bottom plate is tight but I wouldn't say outrageously so
Near bent mine in half trying to get it back out
The false bottom on mine is quite tight but no leaks. Did you figure out where the leak is from? Check the hosing first.
I use my own raspberry based controller with 2 temp probe on this (old vers.) device. It also has a web interface and auto beer type mash selection :)) I'm light years ahead :)) The point is all versions of this devices are good but new controllers always welcome :)
Yes, the controller and eco system behind GEN 4 is a huge upgrade from GEN 3 for sure. You will find that it will give your Raspberry pi a strong challenge too, with more to come yet.
Ironically I started on a robo, and now am on my 3rd setup using a HERMS coil (which is just the immersion chiller from the robo immersed in an HLT). If I ever need to downgrade for space reasons, this looks pretty good.
Cheers Bran 🍻🍻🍻
Mine is in the mail. Long time propane BIAB brewer. This should be fun
Great, you are only going to regret that you didnt transition before now!! 🍻🍻🍻
Hi David. I've just purchased a 35l BZ gen 4, but haven't used it yet. One thing that I both like and causes me concern is the very low amount of dead space. My old system had an excessively large deadspace (11l), which reduces the sparge and hence efficiency considerably. The gen 4's have extremely low dead space, which is great for sparging and not diluting enzyme concentration, but I am concerned about the kettle running dry easily while recirculating since there's only a couple of liters below the malt pipe. In your 65l gen 4 video for double batch size yop show recriculation and there seems to be easily 3l of wort atop the plate. anothe thing I'm wondering about is the long recirculation hose going down into the grain bed, which you see here and in other peoples videos this wound seem to me to cause the wort to enter the grain bed in the middle and hence not have the wort recriculating through the top half of the grain bed. what can you tell me about these two issues? cheers! 🍻
Hi Josh, all I can tell you is that ive used these a lot and these are non-issues. Ive not seen or heard of anyone having an issue related either.
Hey David, thanks for the video! I'm curious to hear more about how you used the brewzilla for fermentation. Did you boil, chill, and ferment in the same vessel? Any tips for transfers (pump vs ball valve)? Cheers!
Great to hear. Yes, the whole brew and ferment in the same vessel. No special treatment to add 🍻🍻🍻
Another enjoyable and informative video David. I'm considering purchasing one of these but I'm not sure of what mash efficiency I would get with a grain bill in the 4 to 5 kg range as it's far from the ideal 8kg in the video. Would you have any idea please?
Hi Steve, I suggest the profiles covered in this video:- ua-cam.com/video/hXkcbIfy624/v-deo.html
@@DavidHeathHomebrew Thanks very much David.
Cheers 🍻🍻🍻
I like to bypass false bottoms when pump whirlpooling to keep hops mixing around. Wonder if I can insert it sanitised after whirlpooling.
In all honesty you would be better off using it as intended. You cannot very effectively whirlpool with one pump, stirring quickly and using a drill will give your a better result..with the false bottom in place.
Have you tried closer to 10kg malt in the 35L? Does the effiency go way down? I'm brewing a batch a year with 10kg malt (nøgne ø's releases) so it would be purfect it this one could do that.
Not yet but frankly you should be doing a reiterated mash with a grain bill that large in a 35L brewing system. The 65L would be fine though.
David are you testing the 120V or 220V version in your series of Gen 4 videos? I'm located in Canada and both will be available. I may have missed it in your one of the videos.
Hi Jason, I am testing the 220-240v versions and have 230v available here in Norway. If you can the higher voltage is the way to go.
@@DavidHeathHomebrew Ok perfect thanks David. Yes the 120V became available for purchase only a couple of days ago. I will be holding off until the 220V comes my way. Thanks again for getting back to me...much appreciated!
Any time 🍻🍻🍻
Hi Devid,
The gen4 one has flat bottom, this mean whirlfloc are less effective because all of haze are alway transfer into fermenter. how you deal with this problem?
The GEN 4 bottom is concave, not flat. Also the pump design allows most of the trub to be left behind during punped transfer but you can remove this when cleaning via the bottom tap.
What mash efficiency did you achieve and on how much grain, ive just pre ordered one, thanks in advance 👍
Ive targeted 80% and ive hit it with two very different brews. Here is a video with the profiles for Brewfather but naturally they can be used with other software too:- ua-cam.com/video/hXkcbIfy624/v-deo.html
Thx david for info 👍
Cheers John
Another great video thanks David. On your reviews I bought this BZ4 35l but I'm having trouble with it during mashing. I'm using about 5kg of grain but it keeps clogging up and then the recirculation simply stops. Is it OK to keep stirring it or am I disturbing the grain bed? I've put the recirc pipe in the middle and round the edges, I've even used the grainfather S40 spray end but all are the same bock up and then send temp high. I'm wondering if I need to back the pump off a bit, any help would be amazing
Thank you.
It sounds like your grain crush is too fine. You need it to be more coarsly milled.There is no issue with stirring as you go, that will work well in fact, especially when there are issues.
Wow you replied thank you David!!
So disturbing the gain bed is fine then, should I back off the pump a bit or leave it on full thanks again wow, never thought you would have replied :)
Sure, I reply to all :)
The solution here is the have the grain milled less finely. If not then really you will have to stop the pump and introduce rice hulls. This will often solve it but it can introduce efficiency issues, so best to add in some extra stirring during the mash.
Thanks David I'm going to throttle the pump back a bit and see how it goes if it stops coming through ill stir it, I find it relaxing anyway so no probs there thanks again
Another problem I am having with the BZ35l is the grain is getting into the wort because the flimsy mash chute bottom is easily disturbed when sturing so I've fastened mine in
Just received my 65l last week and had my fitst disastrous brew yesterday. Some fine milled grain got stuck immediately… I finished it using the paddle. I think I milled too fine (1.3 mm). What would you recommend the next time? My mill has 1.45mm and 1.6mm… thanks!
Hi Oliver, the trouble is grain varies. It is not just the gap size but the drill speed too. Try increasing the gap and milling slower and you see an ideal crush. This video should help:- ua-cam.com/video/DpI4jh8Uj44/v-deo.html
@@DavidHeathHomebrew Hi David, thanks a lot! Very interesting. I did not think that speed matters. I milled very fast so this might be part of the problem. I will watch the video! Thanks!
It makes a very large difference in fact. I hope this helps 🍻🍻🍻
I noticed that you’re using a wooden mashing paddle. Is it the wooden paddle better than a stainless paddle in your opinion?
Yes, I used wood for the mash and stainless steel for the boil. This for me is personal preferenceand comes down to feel mostly.
Hey David I have another question for you. So I've brewed on my Gen 4 120V now just twice. Both times simple grain bills, half pound rice hulls to help out, pump ran at 100% and recirc valve open all the way. The mash recirc slowed down quite a bit but never got blocked fully. I just turned the pump on and off and stirred a few times to break things up. Seemed to have helped. My problem happened both times when it was time to transfer to my fermenter. Blocked completely, the recirc arm and the tap. First time I blew back through the tube (Probably shouldn't have done that). Second time I blew c02 back through the tube. Could my issue be from stirring the mash too many times causing the grains to make it's way through?. I stir at the beginning for 5 mins or so then 3-4 more times throughout. I can't see what else it could be. Any thoughts?
Hey Jason, My experience is just with the 220-240v model. It sounds like your grain crush could well be too fine. The rice hulls and stirring are positive. Though really there is not really any need with such brews to stir so much. I hope this helps 🍻🍻🍻
@@DavidHeathHomebrew thanks for the reply. Unfortunately my grain gets crushed at my local homebrew store. Maybe I'll have to get my own mill at some point. Curious what size gap do you use on your mill?
Hi Jason, gap size can certainly vary as does grain. I would talk with your homebrew store and explain the problem so they can adjust the crush for you.
How does this Brewzilla gen 4 compare to Grainfather G30 in terms of build quality?
I would say at least on par but in some areas better, for example the side recirculation pipe. The GF G30 is a very old system now and its tech is way behind though compared to BZ GEN 4.
@@DavidHeathHomebrew Thanks, David! I’ve subscribed your channel. Great reviews!
Cheers Lewis, lots of content going back for quite some years now!
Any idea what the minimum batch size is?
Sure. The minimum batch size is just 5L for both the 35 & 65L Gen 4 Brewzillas
Is it worth getting the 65L over this if I only brew 5 gallon batches? It looked like you got a nice rolling boil on this with the 2400w. Not sure if the extra wattage is worth $200
The 65L is much faster at heating than the 35L, so there is that. Only you can decide 🍻😎
@@DavidHeathHomebrew Hi David, if I understood correctly, with the 65L version you can now brew really small batches, so if your budget and space allow it, then we should definitely choose the bigger brother? :)
Exactly. Minimum batch size for the 35 & 65 is 5L. So really the 65 is where I think the smart money goes for more flexibility and a massive boost in heating speed.
@@DavidHeathHomebrew Yeah, my thoughts exactly. I have Gen3, 35L and even if I'm really satisfied, you can clearly see limitations with the design. I'm looking forward to Gen4 65L! :)
If you budget will go to it then I certainly suggest it.
Hi David!
In my area, the Grainfather G30 and Brewzilla 35 GEN4 cost the same. Tell me please, what should be the choice?
Thank you very much.
I would suggest the BZ. It is the latest system with all the new tech. The GF G30 has been out a long long time now and is really behind GFs newer G40 model.