The Bulldog Brewer

[Fal]

There is one with a commentary here: https://youtu.be/Is-SbTrroDc

[banjobrew]

I can't find any other videos of it in action. It sounds like I may be better waiting for a v3.

[Motorbikeman]

How fast does that stainless wort chiller work?     

Copper not be better?

[SkiBeagle]

I ran an initial test on 20L water (IIRC) with the supplied IC. Cooling water temp was around 16ºC flowing around 8L/min. You probably could pitch an ale at 11 mins (23º) if you have a fridge to cool further after pitching. So fine for ales, not so hot for lagers. Copper has much better conductivity, but some don't like copper on the cold side. Acidic wort will clean it shiny - so the oxide is going into the beer. Stainless is way less conductive but is inert as far as wort is concerned.
Mins: Temp
1: 80
2: 68
3: 59
4: 49
5: 42
6: 36
7: 33
8: 29
9: 26
10: 25
11: 23
15: 20

[Fal]

Since I was so vocal about the lack of pics etc available I felt I should share some of my V2 that arrived yesterday. I haven't brewed with it yet but I went through SkiBeagles post about cleaning it (see below).

The most striking thing when it arrived is how small and neat it is. Not in a bad way, but compared to a keg boiler and cooler box as a mash tun it's tiny. You can see it compared to my kettle, pots etc it's really neat. The missus was impressed, especially with the lack of steam. I haven't gone to full boil yet, but there was no condensation at all.



I had no rust spots or pump troubles as were reported with some v1's. The only issue I had was when I turned off the pump, closed the tap, with the pipe still in the lid, the hot liquid poured back down over my hand. One to watch out for.

I'll try it tonight for a brew and see how I get on. This part confused me a bit.


There was no mention of it in the instructions, I assume it's a stopper for the hole in the lid??

Very pleased with this system. Simple to use.
It does need a good cleaning before use, as there will be manufacturing oils/grease in places.
I removed the malt pipe, removed the gigantic circlip that holds the malt pipe in the elevated position. There's a lot of grease/gunk in the groove that holds the circlip. Also, the groove in the lid is another place that holds gunk. I replaced the malt pipe, filled the pot with water up to the groove, and set it heating to 60C. Tossed in a dishwater tablet (non-perfumed kind - Lidl have them) and switched on the pump for an hour. The enzymes in the tab really get at any grease. Then I moved the pump outlet to the sink and pumped out the soapy water completely. Next, a few flushes with fresh water to get rid of any soap residue.
Finally, as CH says, I applied some neat Starsan with a sponge to all the surfaces, pipe, pot and all. Wear gloves doing this or you will lose skin. Leave to air dry for 30 minutes while the acid does its magic. Comes up clean as a whistle, no rust or stains, and sparkly ready for use. I've added a short hose on the inside under the lid to prevent the splashing down into the mash. This drops the pumped output below the wort level, to minimise aeration of the wort.
Haven't done a brew with it yet - just getting to know it and how best to use it. I expect it will be cranked up in earnest in the next day or two. Thanks to Brian for a great product at a great price.

[darren996]

Nice setup, if I hadn't built my own I would definitely buy one of these, still might.Does the V2 have an overflow pipe in the malt basket like the grainfather?

Best of luck with your first brew

[krockett]

Am just setting mine up now. Fal - are you keeping your old kit?

Am debating whether to keeping my old Peco boiler or pass it on.

[Fal]

I haven't seen the grainfather so I can't really compare but I don't see a overflow pipe. The malt pipe is lower than the lid and there are two holes where the handle for the malt pipe goes. Maybe they could work similarly. I'll get a photo of the inside later.

I'll probably sell on my old kit later. My main reason for getting the bulldog was we've just had our first a few months ago and while I've had no major problems keeping up brewing, the stoping and starting of dealing with the baby make it less enjoyable. So I thought the automation of this would make it less hands on if I have to walk away for any reason.

[Motorbikeman]

I have a deposit on one .    Have to save my pennies now.   

A fantastic brewer in our club has a Grainfather.  I might ask him  for a side by side brewday when I get the Bulldog.  I suspect the Grainfather is a bit more refined ..   But I am interested on  what the efficiency, ease of use and clean up  are like on  both machine. 

Thanks for those pics..  It looks like I wont need to wait for good weather to brew anymore.   Keggles are great,  buts its an outside affair. 

[auralabuse]

I did one brew on the version one so far. I'm not a prolific brewer by any means, 3 kids, a full time job and a savage study schedule puts paid to any beer like ideas at the moment. For me the cleanup after was the real clincher. No mash tun to empty and clean out. I basically got rid of the grain , hops from the hop spider (group buy) got the garden hose to it and a sponge and about 5 mins later it was clean. The malt pipe is a sinch to clean also. Only concern is the pump. I ran it clear with starsan but without being able to take it apart and scrub I fear it could harbour some nasties.

[Fal]

Finished my first brew today, I usually mash on a sat night and boil on a Sunday morning. I hit my target mash numbers bang on but was under on my target OG going into the fermenter. I think that's more down to my beersmith profile for mashing/sparging. I struggle a bit with them anyways.

I'm not going to go through the recipe or brew session. Just give some photos for those interested in one.




I'm not sure if I had too much liquid coming out of the pump, but this is the new sparge plate in action.

The next morning the temp was 30degrees and took almost 45 mins to get to boiling. But the thermostat and timer are great when it did start boiling.


The hop spider fits in perfectly too. The best bit for me was the cooling, I did a hop stand but it chilled pretty quickly to 18 degrees and by the time it was chilled I had everything else cleaned except the main boiler which as said before really easy.

11:30 stop boil, turn on chiller
11:36 80 degrees, stop chilling set hop stand and element to 700w
11:59 hop stand over
12:01 65 degrees
12:04 54 degrees
12:12 malt pipe removed 32 degrees
12:17 25 degrees
12:20 22 degrees
12:26 18 degrees

One failing was I couldn't find the button to stop the wife from asking are you finished yet over and over again in the last 15 minutes. That must be a grainfather feature

[darren996]

Do you need the hop spider and the malt pipe in for the boil?  I would have thought you would remove the malt pipe.

Great pics.

[Leann ull]

Do you not put a centre peg in the middle of that plate there when mashing to allow all the wort to flow through the plate and across the grain and not down the overflow? Or only down the overflow when it gets to a higher level?

[krockett]

I did a brew with this today also. It took an hour and twenty minutes for me to hit mash temp of 68 degrees at 2500w from mains temp. I need to get onto HBW to work out what happens if I have a faulty one and this happens next brew also.

One of the other posters was saying that you lose a liter at 700 watt boil, but I ended up losing 4 or 5 liters.

My efficiency was really bad also - I reckon about 60%. Think this was because I didn't put in enough water in the mash (used 15 liters for 4.8 KGs of grain). This is the only factor I can think of that might have caused this.Normal ratios don't apply because you lose water with the malt pipe etc.

The cooling was the best bit for me. The Chiller is miles better than the last one I had. The thermometer in it was off though - said I had 23 degrees and in reality it was close to 30. Realised after I had pitched the yeast.

All in all it does it main job well, understand it'll take some getting used to but I'm a little concerned about the quality. I understood heating to mash temp was only supposed to take 20 mins and my brew day was close to old mash tun and boiler duration because of the delay. My missus was fit to kill me by the end also.

[Leann ull]

I know HSA for homebrewers is a myth but I'd be happier having a piece of silicone letting the returning wort let down gently onto that tray a bit like the grainfather.