Digiboil

[Smash]

Has anyone had any experience with the Digiboil from KegLand? Seems like it would make a good BIAB kettle like the Crown Urns. Good price too 

https://www.kegland.com.au/35l-digiboil-digital-turbo-boiler-2400watt.html

[Worthog]

Not enough capacity for a 23L yield.

Cheers

[The Captain!!]

I was looking at that too with regards to 35l instead of the 40l which is a crown. Its a PITA at times to do bigger brews, but id still go with the 40l capacity.

[RDT2]

1 hour ago, The Captain!! said:

I was looking at that too with regards to 35l instead of the 40l which is a crown. Its a PITA at times to do bigger brews, but id still go with the 40l capacity.

I agree go for at least 40 litres you won’t regret it I nearly had a boil over on Friday trying to do too many things at once I was making a 23 litre batch it just makes it easier and gives you margin for error. If I had a 35 litre I would of had a big mess. 

[Hoppy81]

I bought one a few months back for my sparge water, great bit of gear.

If it's too small for a 23l brew maybe try the 65l instead 
https://www.kegland.com.au/65l-digiboil-digital-turbo-boiler-3500watt.html

Edited June 17, 2019 by Hoppy81

[porschemad911]

4 hours ago, Worthog said:

Not enough capacity for a 23L yield.

Cheers

Yes, but since when was a 23l yield mandatory? Purely an arbitrary number. Looks like a good bit of kit at a good price to me. 

Cheers, 

John 

[RDT2]

9 hours ago, Smash said:

Has anyone had any experience with the Digiboil from KegLand? Seems like it would make a good BIAB kettle like the Crown Urns. Good price too 

https://www.kegland.com.au/35l-digiboil-digital-turbo-boiler-2400watt.html

How big big were you intending your batches to be?

[Otto Von Blotto]

Yeah, it'd suit keg sized batches well if you're kegging. Bottling can be any size really. 

I don't make 23 litre batches anymore unless something goes a bit awry on brew day. It's too big for a keg and the 2-3 litre surplus isn't worth keeping without a bottling setup. 21 or 25 litres for me. 

[Worthog]

8 hours ago, porschemad911 said:

Yes, but since when was a 23l yield mandatory? Purely an arbitrary number. Looks like a good bit of kit at a good price to me. 

Cheers, 

John 

I just prefer volume output for my work input.

Cheers

Edited June 17, 2019 by Worthog

[Hairy]

It is plenty big enough for a 23 litre batch. You just need to be innovative with your sparge and you can have 28 litres pre boil.

It isn’t big enough to 23 litres with no sparge though.

[Worthog]

1 hour ago, Hairy said:

It is plenty big enough for a 23 litre batch. You just need to be innovative with your sparge and you can have 28 litres pre boil.

It isn’t big enough to 23 litres with no sparge though.

I mash my 38L pot to the brim with 4.5kg grain. After mash out I sparge the bag with 3L. That just gets me yield of 23L of wort leaving some break in the cube. Final ABV bottled approx 4.3%

I would prefer a 40L Crown Urn and no sparge.

Cheers

Edited June 17, 2019 by Worthog

[Otto Von Blotto]

1 hour ago, Worthog said:

I just prefer volume output for my work input.

Cheers

Me too, that's why I don't brew small batch AG. Not enough wort for the amount of time and effort involved for me. But each to their own.

I understand it from a variety of styles viewpoint but if you're like me and don't regularly drink 30 million different styles then it's a moot point. 

[Hairy]

7 minutes ago, Worthog said:

I mash my 38L pot to the brim with 4.5kg grain. After mash out I sparge the bag with 3L. That just gets me yield of 23L of wort leaving some break in the cube. Final ABV bottled approx 4.3%

I would prefer a 40L Crown Urn and no sparge.

Cheers

I use a Grainfather which is 30 litres and make 23 litre batches. It helps that you can sit the basket on top to sparge.

I will mash 5kg of grain in 17-18 litres of water and the rest of the water is from the sparge (approx. 16 litres)

[porschemad911]

10 hours ago, Worthog said:

I just prefer volume output for my work input.

Cheers

You're limited to about 20l max with no sparge from my calcs. That's not much less than 23l if you want no-sparge and as Hairy said you can sparge to get extra pre-boil volume.

I'd be tempted to use a big esky mash tun for no-sparge mashing and the Digiboil for my HLT / kettle.

Cheers, 

John 

[Evan71]

So, For those that are using a 35L Digiboil, what software are you using for your calcs? I'm aiming for 20-21L batch (max). It looks like I can probably squeeze it in their with no sparge? Thoughts? Cheers

[raymosaurus]

Hi legends. Here's a review of sorts.

I just bought a 35L DigiBoil and had a brew day with it yesterday and doing one now. Previously I was using two 40L Crown urns. I BIAB.

I'm impressed. It has met and exceeded my expectations. Build quality is very good. Stainless is thick and sturdy, finish is great. And all for just $149.

I absolutely *love* having the two elements, 1900w and 500w. The second last time I used one of my Crowns, I was trying a step mash and started at about 60c. When I pulled the bag out after an hour and reaching 67-69c, the bottom of the bag was burnt, and I had to dump the batch fearing plasticisers in the wort. I know there are false bottoms and other ways to avoid this, but at 500w I reckon the DigiBoil can't burn the bag in the first place.

The two switches for the elements and one for power are very well designed and top quality.

I bought the neoprene jacket for it, which is a step up from my yoga mat strapped to my Crown's.

The LED display is large and bright, however the clear window around it blocks the top lines of the LED digits at typical viewing height, ie 71 degrees appears as 11 degrees. Slightly annoying but I can live with it. In my case it's on a low table about 60cm high.

The interface is bare bones, just temp + - and long pressing + switches between celsius and fahrenheit. There is no timer or delay start like the BrewZilla, however the unit remembers the temp setting after power off (!). Like the Crown, you can still set an electric timer so your mash water is up to temp before you're out of bed.

Just before mash in, with the elements off for some time, the temp was reading about three degrees under what my old trusty thermometer said, and yes I stirred the water. Later into the mash the temps seemed to correspond pretty closely.

They say it's a unit with ultra low watt density. The concealed element did build up scale around where the 1900w element is, but it came off very quickly after briefly soaking in PBW and hitting is with a soft brush.

1900w element makes a good rolling boil. With both elements the boil seemed a bit excessive. They've chosen a good combination there. It never came close to a boil over, despite mash in being just 20mm from the brim.

As for the shape, they really are quite a bit taller than the 40L Crown, and at 35L, they're very narrow. Would prefer it to be a bit wider, but it's a minor criticism.

Losing 5 litres capacity really made me hesitate, that is before one of my Crown's elements burned out last week. I liked the idea of either bottling the excess few litres, or putting them in my 4L insulated growler. On the other hand those extra litres were sometimes a pain as I hate bottling and sometimes my growler still had beer in it.

Now I think 35L is fine, and if you really want a bigger batch, you can always add more water at boil or fermentation time, at the expense of a few points of efficiency ofcourse.

Yesterday I ended up with a little over 21L, starting with 29L, and 5.25kg grain bill. Was 20mm from the brim. Whirlpool, no filter, left the hot break. I don't stuff around with sparge, but I suspend the bag with a ratcheting pulley, let it drain for a while then squeeze it good and proper. I only lost 2.2L after grain out.

Talking litres, the indented volume markings on the inside back of the unit are great. Another very useful feature it has that the Crown doesn't.

Hope somebody finds this useful. Ask me anything. All up I think it's a great unit for BIAB and I'm enjoying the brew specific features I was missing until now.

[Worthog]

The unit has some nice features, and it's  difficult to buy even a 40 odd litre boil pot for the price.

I brew to fill an 18L keg plus 3 bottles, plus yeast harvest. Bottling 3 bottles is no hard work issue and they build up for travelling and other emergency drinking episodes/requirements, like when your son is broke.

Anyway, my 40L stamped (38L to brim) boiler does my 23L only 2 ways; sparge a few litres at mash out, or mash a couple hundred extra grams of grain and add a few litres of water into fermementer.

The toys and tricks on the 35L Digiboil are not enough to sway me from my gas boiler, and maybe ultimately a Crown Urn, if Santa is listening. 

Cheers

[Otto Von Blotto]

I wouldn't think it really matters what the wattage of the element is, if it touches the bag long enough it's gonna burn. I use a false bottom in my urn, works well. 

[Breaktrainjack]

On 6/18/2019 at 7:53 AM, Otto Von Blotto said:

Me too, that's why I don't brew small batch AG. Not enough wort for the amount of time and effort involved for me. But each to their own.

I understand it from a variety of styles viewpoint but if you're like me and don't regularly drink 30 million different styles then it's a moot point. 

That made me laugh  

[ozdevil]

On 6/17/2019 at 6:09 PM, Worthog said:

Not enough capacity for a 23L yield.

Cheers

your kidding yeah

its a 35 litre  capacity  and will easily do 23litres 

i have the 35litre brewzilla which is basicly a digiboil but inbuilt pump and recirc arm 

and easily get  23 litre  batches out of it..

if you cant get 23litre  biab out of a digiboil  you might be wanting to look at ya method

[raymosaurus]

8 minutes ago, ozdevil said:

its a 35 litre  capacity  and will easily do 23litres 

i have the 35litre brewzilla which is basicly a digiboil but inbuilt pump and recirc arm 

and easily get  23 litre  batches out of it..

Do you sparge?

[ozdevil]

39 minutes ago, raymosaurus said:

Do you sparge?

i do sparge but i think you still could do a 23 litre  in the digiboil

[Tricky Micky]

Reading through this thread and looking at the various options for BIAB I'm really keen to have a crack.  The 35L Digiboil sounds too good to be true. If I was tossing up between the Crown urn or the digiboil or even something that's not mentioned here what would be the best bet my astute and learned brewers?

[ozdevil]

15 minutes ago, Mickep said:

Reading through this thread and looking at the various options for BIAB I'm really keen to have a crack.  The 35L Digiboil sounds too good to be true. If I was tossing up between the Crown urn or the digiboil or even something that's not mentioned here what would be the best bet my astute and learned brewers?

basicly @Mickep   35l digiboil  is very similar to the 35 litre Brewzilla which for $400  will get your right into full All grain brewing and will have the bells and whistles for extra 95 you can get  a kit with everything that gets you started see contents below for that bundle.

  the digiboil   is well a great start to get into all grain  in BIAB   you can adjust the temp you want up or down  to your specific mash the only thing is its not programable as the brewzilla 35l
great entry point and  if you want to advance up to the 35l  in future you will have a great hlt for your sparge water 

The brewzilla 35l  can still be used as BIAB but also will have false bottom as well as a mash tun and comes with a wort chiller and recirc pump

 

The Beginners Bundle includes:

1 x Brewzilla35L-Gen3.1.1-EXTENDED 3 YEAR WARRANTY
1 x 35L BrewZilla NeoPrene Jacket
1 x Amazing Hop Spider
1 x 60cm Spoon
1 x 100mL Cylinder
1 x Hydrometer
1 x 100mL Iodine Mash Checker Solution
1 x Pair of Heavy Duty Cleaning Gloves
1 x StellarClean Powerful Brewery Wash
1 x StellarSan Sanitiser solution
1 x EthylKill Sanitiser Spray



                                                                                                                                                                               

The only reason i dont have a digiboil is  the fact i also have a 65l brewzilla  so depending what size batch i am doing either 35l brewzilla or 65l becomes my hlt for sparging as well it acts as cleaning water when i am ready to clean up after brewday..


Kegland are reasonably priced and a great way to start..

Just to throw the Spanner in the works and you may look at Keg King products

you could get this bundle  at keg king  the guten 40 l for $575  which is similar to the brewzilla
 

Guten 40L Micro Brewery

Hop Spider

Immersion Chiller

76cm Stainless Steel Mash Paddle

Refractometer

Brewing gloves

40L Whirlpool Arm

Stainless Steel Standing False Bottom
2 Roller Grain Mill

or you get for a $149 boiler from Keg king
which comes with

2300 Watt 35L Boiler

25W Pump

2M Silicone Tubing

3 Butterfly Hose Clamps

10 Hop Pouches

1 Large Grain Bag (Brew in a Bag)

2 Hose Barbs 13mm


There is plenty of Alternitive ways or you can simply get a crown urn

i would be looking at long term use 

Both guten and brewzilla's are similar in functionability the both make beer,  but most importantly both
can be used just as boilers for BIAB as well  but are also ready to go as all in one systems  
which can make it easier to get it passed by your partner   if you have one..


even though i have the brewzillas but that guten 40l at $575 is a pretty good deal  as just for the guten you are looking at $474 alone

 

 

Edited June 28, 2021 by ozdevil

[Tricky Micky]

10 minutes ago, ozdevil said:

basicly @Mickep   35l digiboil  is very similar to the 35 litre Brewzilla which for $400  will get your right into full All grain brewing and will have the bells and whistles for extra 95 you can get  a kit with everything that gets you started see contents below for that bundle.

  the digiboil   is well a great start to get into all grain  in BIAB   you can adjust the temp you want up or down  to your specific mash the only thing is its not programable as the brewzilla 35l
great entry point and  if you want to advance up to the 35l  in future you will have a great hlt for your sparge water 

The brewzilla 35l  can still be used as BIAB but also will have false bottom as well as a mash tun and comes with a wort chiller and recirc pump

The only reason i dont have a digiboil is  the fact i also have a 65l brewzilla  so depending what size batch i am doing either 35l brewzilla or 65l becomes my hlt for sparging as well it acts as cleaning water when i am ready to clean up after brewday..

Thanks so much for the info Oz, much appreciated.

I'm more than happy to start with baby steps on this possibly starting with BIAB first - and as you've said the 35L digiboil would not be a waste of money if I want to advance to the 35L Brewzilla once I've got the hang of things. I notice the 40L Crown Urn sells for around $360.00 too. So the Brewzilla at around $400.00 or $490.00 with all the bells and whistles seems like a fantastic buy to be honest.