[Homebrew Shop] HomeBrewWest

[auralabuse]

What's the heat up times with the bulldog brewer like? 2.5kw seems kinda under powered. I used my old peco boiler for a brew last weekend and the time it took to get from mash to boil made me loose the will to live a bit.

I got from room temp to mash temp after about 25 mins?, I might be wrong but it wasn't far from that

[Rathbaner]

I'm really happy with the Brewmaster. It's a tidy little piece of kit. It'd be handy id it held another 5 or 10 litres but it's easy to get around that. Heating water on 2.5kw is a snap. You're only heating water to mash temp and you're only heating about 20l so the 2.5Kw is plenty, especially if like me you stick 10l in the peco while you're getting yourself sorted out. And I haven't fitted any lagging jacket yet.
But the mash is where it comes into its own. The recirculation pump takes wort from the bottom, over the heat source, and pumps it in at the top.  I have found it holds the temp to within a degree between top and bottom.  You can step up 2 or 3 degrees in a few minutes, if you're into that sort of thing.
Today, as I was trying to chill after the boil using the chiller that came with the brewmaster, I wondered if the recirculation pump might help to chill things quicker. At about 65 degrees I started the pump. I wedged the outflow behind an arm of the wort chiller coil. As the outflow was pointing at the wall of the brewmaster, it started a gentle whirlpool! I can't say for definite that the trub was in a pile around the centre, as I say it's a narrow deep vessel, but I had no trouble draining the wort to the fermenter, whereas last time the bazooka got bunged up and I had to scrape it with the paddle to get the last out. So I'll be doing that in future. And it seemed to me that the temperature drop accelerated too. I guess the pump helped to dump heat and helped flow the wort across the chiller equalizing the temp across the liquid more quickly. Unfortunately I didn't time any of this but it seemed quicker.
I did my first hop stand last week @ 78C for 20 mins. I'm still figuring it out really. It encourages you to try things on the fly - not what you're supposed to do I guess but it's very enjoyable to use. In all my brew day is shorter maybe by a couple of hours.

[HomeBrewWest]

Deposit for the V2, Euro 100 guarantees you will get one in case they run out.

Then pay the balance of €349.95 whenever you like:

http://www.homebrewwest.ie/the-bulldog-brewer-all-in-one-grain-brewing-system-v2-prebook-for-early-october-delivery-deposit-6552-p.asp

[cruiscinlan]

On the specialty grains when will you be getting them in again ie the crystal malts etc.?  Most are OOS on your site and have been for a while.

[HomeBrewWest]

Early October I'd say . . . depends on shipping company.

[HomeBrewWest]

Bulldog Brewer V2 New Features

We got to be the first to share this info. Read all about it here first (worldwide). Beat that Lois Lane! There are essentially 2 major improvements:
- 5 litre graduations marked on the inside of the boiler so you can easily see how much is in there, and
- adjustable top plate, called a sparge plate although it should also be there during mashing since it spreads the recirculating wort over the malt bed.
So V2 one will be easier to use, and have better efficiency.

For V1 owners, we have promised to ship sparge plates free if you paid 400 or over, otherwise they are about Euro 20; these ones will hang a couple of inches below the top of the malt pipe and are already on order . . . one for every V1 unit we sold. V1 owners can also use a wooden or steel spoon to calibrate 5 litre increments, so you will get pretty close to the V2 for somewhat less bucks.

If you go for the Euro 100 V2 deposit, we'll keep one for you until the end of the year or whenever you can afford to pay the balance.

Images to follow if I can ever figure out how to upload them!

[TonyC]

How do we buy the new sparge plate for 20 euro if you have the V1

[HomeBrewWest]

The new Bulldog Brewer sparge plate to upgrade V1 to V2 is on the website:
http://www.homebrewwest.ie/the-bulldog-brewer-all-in-one-grain-brewing-system-top-plate-6539-p.asp
Its out of stock, but 30 are on order: one for every V1 Bulldog Brewer we sold.

If you paid 400 or over for your V1, we will give it to for free. Otherwise you can buy it at the link above for Euro19.95, maybe less depending on what we wind up paying for them (but definitely not more).

We ordered them weeks ago; we hope to have them by year end. I'll post here as soon as they arrive.

[cruiscinlan]

Do you sell parts for the bulldog malt mill? My cogs are fairly mashed at this point, so would need two new cogs as well as c-clips in case I break them taking them off.

[Leann ull]

You can't get parts for any grain mill from anybody unless its the really high end products like crankensteins or those from monster hardware, how did you manage that as those things are well built?, put up a pic. 

[cruiscinlan]

You can't get parts for any grain mill from anybody unless its the really high end products like crankensteins or those from monster hardware, how did you manage that as those things are well built?, put up a pic.

I wouldve thought they'd be available as you're wholesalers of these.

The cogs are plastic so it's inevitable I suppose that they'll go at some point. As well as that having taken the cover off they appear to be off-set, which has exacerbated the wear.  I can't upload photos on mobile so will do it later.

[HomeBrewWest]

Suppliers don't stock spare cogs, because they should last a lifetime of normal use. I will ask them though.

We've run several tons of grain through a Bulldog mill in the shop without issues. We've sold well over 100 of them without any problems through normal use. A quick google search can't find any issues with them in the UK either, where I believe over 1000 have been sold.

Post up some pics so we can take a look. Also, PM me your order number and I'll check the batch that yours was in. If you don't have it, just PM the email address you used and I'll see if I can find the order.

[cruiscinlan]

Here's pics of the cogs, there's a fair bit of wear and also they're not mating correctly, they seem to be off-set.

[Will_D]

FFS!

Thats a malt mill with plastic gears that are not aligned? 

No wonder they are "mashed"

My Meccano set would be more reliable!

[Leann ull]

Do you use a drill to grind?