All Grain (Cooler) Swapping to Electric BIAB

[Ushman92]

Hello,

I currently have a cooler setup/propane for my all grain brewing. I have been watching more and more brewers use one vessel BIAB electric brew systems such as GrainFather and RoboBrew.

Is there anything I should be aware about that could negatively affect my beer/brewing when making the swap? From all my research (other than expense) it is an all out upgrade. (Cleaning/brew time/multi-temp mashing/built in pump/controller/brew indoors/easier storage). I have read that BIAB can lessen the brew-house efficiency but I imagine with buying an electric system such as a RoboBrew that it would actually increase it.

Has anyone had any horror stories/problems/or things I should consider when making the switch? Im considering the RoboBrew because its only $500. From all my research I cant seem to justify to spend the $800 (deal from NortherBrewer) for the grain father as it seems very similar.

[jwalton270]

I use a RoboBrew and really like it a lot. I also brew at a buddies place with Propane. That said... Rice Hulls. I actually am buying a mash-tun and will use the RoboBrew just for the boil. There is not enough room to build a very big beer in the RoboBrew grain basket. Your boil off will be much less as well. I am usually around .25 gallons per hour. You will definitely want to do a test water boil off. RoboBrew does have a big brother that looks interesting if you have 240VAC available. It is the RoboBrew Brewzilla. More Beer has it for $700. Anyways thats my two cents.

[PeeBee]

I'm surprised no-one has said it, but: A Grainfather and a Robobrew aren't strictly speaking BIAB systems. If you twist what you know about different brewing systems you'd see these one pot solutions are "RIMS" systems. But you can think of them as "BIAB" with a rigid basket-like "bag" rather than a floppy material "bag" (with a useful pump to recirculate the wort and keep things "uniform").

They are pretty straight-forward to operate, and horror stories are usually of the operators' making, not the systems'.

Most importantly ( ) you can use them with Beersmith, though it can (sometimes) take a little bit of imagination setting things up (GF has its own recipe builder, but it is not as good as Beersmith!). Don't use the "BIAB" option in Beersmith unless you know exactly what you are doing it for. My next brew will use the "BIAB" setting (for a GF setup) but I'm playing with it to explore the potential of no-sparge mashing (as if these systems don't already speed up the brewing process!).