BrewBru is my little project name for my home brewery. I only brew for myself and friends, but decided to give it a name to make it a little bit more professional - hence BrewBru!
Why BrewBru? In memory of my first (and most loved) dog. She was called Breckan, but we used to call her BruBru. So, BrewBru seemed to be a good fit.
I'm a 41 year old (still can't believe that!), married with a wife and son (17) - living in the Highlands of Scotland. I love beer. I think I may love brewing beer even more.
It appears to be a 2 keg cooler. The two loops are bridged by the center piece of tubing. If you take off that tube you should be able to cool 2 types at the same time. With it on, you getter a higher chilled throughput, due to the doubling of the length of coil hooked up. Cheers, and thanks for the vid.
Hi! Yes, usually - but this was a low ABV beer so I was mashing higher to promote more Alpha Amylase which should result in a more full bodied beer but without the corresponding alcohol content as it's more difficult for the yeast to convert.
Thanks Paul :) I still use my robobrew but always fancied doing it "like the pros", plus I managed to pick up the kit at a super price second hand, and finally allows me to brew twice as much in one go! Win win!
Hi, great video. it’s posible to remove the camlock fitting of the whirlpool arm or it’s welded? I have a quick disconnect setup in my grainfather and I want to change the camlock for a quick disconnect fitting. Thanks in advance.
Thanks buddy! Really terrible at getting content edited, loads of vids sitting on my phone. Trying to make more time for it. These comments help motivate me! Cheers :-)
Yes indeed....if you can get it off! :-) I tried and it was super glued on so decided it wasn't worth the effort - I'd rather be brewing/drinking beer instead!
Thanks Peter! Sorry for delayed reply, life kinda got in the way! Just got a new video up though on the Maxi cooler, check it out if you're bored stiff :-)
Great idea. I have used the whirlpool arm a couple of times and have been unimpressed so it has been sitting there for ages not used. I will definitely give this a go. Thanks
I don't think so, no - the key is the rigidity of the pipe which gives you control over the direction and thus creating the whirlpool effect. If you just plonked a hose in you'd have no control over the direction of the flow and chances are the hose would actually impede the whirlpool effect. For the sake of about £15 or £20 I don't think it's badly priced.
Great stuff I’m gonna try that too! Normally I use the pump to extract the wort as it’s easy and can do a lot of splashing to oxygenate. Gonna remove the chiller then whirlpool with the modified arm, open the tap and hopefully leave the trub behind.
I've never tried the pump to extract although I have read about others doing it. I like the tap as feel it's mounted at a nice height which means you can leave the trub behind.
It wasn't really a high grain bill (4kg), but I think with this beer I had a low strike volume. I experiment quite a bit with strike volumes, but latterly tend to use higher quantities - makes the mash in easier, less to sparge and I've also been getting better efficiencies.
Hi, just recently discovered your channel. Enjoying your content, you are a natural. 😄 I wondered if the fruit was noticeable in the beer, or did it just contribute to the overall flavour. Thanks...P.S. I also own a Brewzilla.....About two years now.....
Hey Peter, sorry for the delayed reply. I don't even have a good excuse, just life taking over! The fruit was barely noticeable, I think it just added a bit more depth to the beer - probably slightly more aroma than flavour if I remember correctly. Hope you are enjoying the Brewzilla, I love mine (as you can probably tell!) :)
Hi, thank you for an interesting video. I purchased my whirlpool arm just to whirlpool my hops. I only use my hop spider for my bittering hops. After that I just throw them in. I thought the arm did a reasonable job creating a cone of hops in the middle. I did think it would assist cooling but it was not a high consideration when I purchased it. Love your Vid's by the way. I have subscribed and look forward to more stuff to come. Thanks...
Thanks for the info Peter, interesting that you've had more success with creating a cone from the whirlpool arm. Did you still have the chiller in while whirlpooling or take it out first?
Hey Lewis, very sorry for the long delay in replying. How are you finding the Brewzilla? Successfully brewed some awesome beers yet? Almost a Wick accent, I'm from the other side of the county, more on the Thurso side than Wick. Do you know the area?
Not sure why they made the wort chiller like that. It barely touches the wort. I have some chips soaking in some whiskey right now and going to attempt to make a stout in a few days!🍻
Hey Rubio - sorry for the delay! I totally agree, I wish it had longer arms on it. I'd be tempted to extend them but I'm worried I'd end up breaking it :) How did the stout turn out?
@@brewbru It's all good man. I tried the stout last week and its kinda bitter. Not sure if it needs to age more or what. It's only my 2nd attempt making a stout
@@Rubio_Eric how old is it? I definitely find darker beers mature and improve over time. I’d give it 2-3 months and you’ll probably see a big difference 👍🏻
Thanks Jeff (and sorry for the LONG delay in replying!). I'm planning on brewing this one again soon as I enjoyed it so much. The problem is having so many different beers you enjoy - I can only drink so much! Good problem to have though :-)
Great video of the whole process with an all in one vessel. Really helped in deciding to go in this direction from a three tanks. Seen so many unboxing, comparison and other vids but just wanted to see one properly in action and love your other vids. Going to buy a Robobrew as a result of this one. Proper Job is one of all time favourites which I brew more often that others, but I also reduce the volume. St Austell brewery is only 25 miles down the the road from me so I’m well acquainted with their brews. If you can find it their HSD is really good too especially in winter.
Very interesting and great colour! I have a 1.075 stout fermenting atm, my first stout, anxious to taste it. Quick question, when racking to secondary that way aren’t you introducing oxygen in the beer and running a chance of oxydation?
Hey @dawaka, your stout sounds amazing - hope it tastes like that too 😉 Re oxidation, yes there is that risk but with that type of beer I don’t find it matters as much as something like an IPA. However, because I was going into a corny and it would then be purged with CO2 that will also reduce any risk of off flavours from the O2.
At 63 conversion occurs. When conversion occurs, secondary fermentation takes place, and the beer won't need to be primed with sugar or injected with CO2 to carbonate. Homebrew malt, depending on the malthouse producing the malt, is high modified, to over modified, malt, which is better for making whiskey with, than for making ale. Marris Otter is distillers malt, but one malthouse produces 10 percent protein Marris malt, and that's the malt to buy. The less protein, the more sugar. The malt is over modified, and for conversion to occur, an Alpha-Beta enzyme mixture has to be added to the mash. I'm not sure if you know what happens during conversion. Beta converts simple sugar, glucose, that Alpha releases from simple starch, into fermentable, complex sugars, maltose and maltotriose, the sugars that produce ale and lager. Glucose is responsible for primary fermentation, and ABV. To know when malt is better for making whiskey with, or more suitable for producing ale and lager, a malt spec sheet comes with every bag of malt. Its been used in brewing for at least 150 years for determining the quality of malt before the malt is purchased. Listed on a malt spec sheet are malt modification, and protein content, along with a few other chemical acronyms and numbers that tell a brewer all about the malt. A malt spec sheet is unheard of in homebrewing. Due to the malt being high modified, and the brewing method, single temperature infusion, which is used in grain distillation because chemically, and enzymatically, the method cannot produce ale, Orkney Dark Island Clone is distillers beer, or American, homebrew style, moonshiners beer. To produce pseudo, ale and lager, the step mash method is used with brewers grade, under modified, low protein, malt. Weyermann and Gladfield produce under modified, malt. Also, when you made the beer, you managed to throw the richest starch in malt, called amylopectin, into the compost heap. Amylopectin contains the ingredients that provides body and mouthfeel in beer. So much for efficiency.
@@Gimpy1987VFR It's an elderflower beer and it's really tasty. Makes you think of summer any time you drink it. I think I might have a video from when I brewed this last year, but if not I'll make one this time and upload it when it's ready :)
@@brewbru Have you tried elderflower mead it’s really good and quite to make. Also if you have sloes up your way sloe mead is a fantastic mead for the winter, the dryness of the sloes are tempered by the sweetness of the honey.
To see the effect scientifically check inlet water temperature and outlet from chiller, then start the whirlpool, check outcome water temp. from chiller. if it raised, so, whirlpool is working. otherwise, its waste of money.
As per Mason’s comment. Also no need to run during boil as the boil itself will do most of the work. But yes definitely during mash - that’s when I find it most beneficial. Get that flow rate right though so it’s not going down the overflow.
@@brewbru It's useful to run it for a minute during the boil. It'll cook any bugs that might be in the pump lines with boiling liquid that weren't killed off with mash temps. If you recirculate to whirlpool with contaminated pump lines, you'll contaminate the cooling wort. If you cook the pump lines during the boil by pumping some boiling wort through for a minute, it'll be semi-sanitary and clean for your whirlpooling.
