First brewday on the SVBS today. Went really well, but also some areas for improvement. Generally, brewing on it was a complete joy.
This thing does a great whirlpool, collecting all the crap in the middle. I'm still figuring that out, but I think the key is: start the chilling, divert the pump flow to the whirlpool for a few minutes, turn off the pump and let it settle.
This machine is built like a tank and worked great the whole way. The ONE issue I had is that you cannot toss the hops into the boil. They WILL clog the trub filter on the bottom of the thing, leaving a bunch of wort that doesn't get out of the tank (in theory, all of the wort should get out of the bottom drain. It's not really a big deal - hop spiders, hop bags are pretty common.
My efficiency SUCKED. 55%. Not sure what to attribute this to. I hope to brew a lot with this thing and figure it out.
Cleanup is something I was hoping to ease. With this machine, I'm using a wee battery-operated wetvac (DeWalt) to suck out all the trub/hop matter. Then it's a matter of PBW and the hose sprayer. Never tilted it, worked great.
The grain basket and trub filter are very easy to clean if you spray them with a hose. For basement brewers, I think you really at least a utility sink and a sprayer of some sort.
This thing does a great whirlpool, collecting all the crap in the middle. I'm still figuring that out, but I think the key is: start the chilling, divert the pump flow to the whirlpool for a few minutes, turn off the pump and let it settle.
This machine is built like a tank and worked great the whole way. The ONE issue I had is that you cannot toss the hops into the boil. They WILL clog the trub filter on the bottom of the thing, leaving a bunch of wort that doesn't get out of the tank (in theory, all of the wort should get out of the bottom drain. It's not really a big deal - hop spiders, hop bags are pretty common.
My efficiency SUCKED. 55%. Not sure what to attribute this to. I hope to brew a lot with this thing and figure it out.
Cleanup is something I was hoping to ease. With this machine, I'm using a wee battery-operated wetvac (DeWalt) to suck out all the trub/hop matter. Then it's a matter of PBW and the hose sprayer. Never tilted it, worked great.
The grain basket and trub filter are very easy to clean if you spray them with a hose. For basement brewers, I think you really at least a utility sink and a sprayer of some sort.