I started my all grain brewing with a three vessel system but turned to the RoboBrew when I decided that I wanted something smaller and simpler in the hopes that I’d brew more often and more variety. Here’s five reasons I used to justify the downsize from three vessels to a single brewing vessel.

 1. Preparation

If you don’t have the benefit of your own dedicated brewing space, then brewday with a 3V setup starts with a lot of organisation to get everything into place and ready to go before you can even start brewing. For me this always added an hour or two to the brew — I’d generally get started the day before so it was ready to go first thing the morning of my brew.

With the RoboBrew, it’s as simple as putting it into place, filling with water and switching on.

2. Brewday stress

With three vessels my brewdays were all about playing catch-up. Those hours waiting between steps were generally spent getting ready for the next step. I didn’t have much automation of my 3V brewery so everything was manual and my brewdays were a lot of running around, and juggling a lot of different thoughts. I’m an active person, but it was mentally and physically exhausting.

The RoboBrew leaves you with just one thing to think about. The time between steps can actually be used productively for other endeavours (like blogging). I check in periodically but by and large leave it to do its thing until my timer tells me it’s time for the next step.

3. Cleaning

Cleaning my 3V system involved cleaning not just the equipment but the surrounds. I never managed to brew without springing a leak somewhere, spilling sticky wort that would later need hosing down.

Cleaning the RoboBrew can be as simple as filling the vessel with your preferred cleaning solution — PBW is my pick — and leaving it to soak until it’s sparkling again. I’m stingy with my PBW so rarely do I fill it beyond about 25%, and simply scrub the sides with a PBW soaked rag. There’s no great system to disassemble, no pumps to run to recirculate cleaning solution throughout the system and a whole lot less water used.

And if those three reasons weren’t enough, here’s two more.

(“Five reasons” just didn’t have the same ring to it that three does in this context…)

Cost

Maintaining a single piece of equipment makes things cost effective. My 3V setup was pieced together with Gumtree and eBay acquisitions (translation: junk) and yet still added up to a pretty penny when factoring in some of the costly components required to assemble a dedicated hot liquor tun, mash tun and brew kettle.

I was able to sell this cobbled-together system and cover the cost of the RoboBrew.

Portability

Maybe it’s just me, but I love the fact that I can take the RoboBrew over to a mate’s place for an afternoon of brewing and drinking. It has even come with me on holidays before for a communal brew.