My beer tastes run towards the lighter, lower-alcohol side, but I sure do like a nice and robust beer in that stretch between Thanksgiving and New Year’s. I just finished the keg of Stygimoloch Bock, and this year’s Christmas Warmer went on tap in its place.
The goal for this batch was to have something with a bit of character and a bit of kick. I wanted a rich malt character, alongside a bit of spice. I looked through Gordon Strong’s Modern Homebrew Recipes, and found “Christmas Beer” as an inspiration. The malt proportions in my version are pretty similar to Strong’s recipe, but I did a ton of swapping for brand and even malt type. Golden Promise got replaced by Vienna, and Belgian Aromatic got swapped out for Honey Malt, among other things. The original recipe is far more English in character, including the hops and yeast, and I did away with that entirely! Instead of English ale yeast, I brought in Hornindal kveik. My logic was that its orange/citrus qualities would fill that space of orange zest in Strong’s recipe. Plus, I had the kveik on-hand, and thought it would be a fun variation.
Because this was a pretty experimental batch, and because I didn’t want ridiculous amounts of a spiced beer, I knocked the recipe back to 2.5 gallons. This gave me a chance to do a test-run for a small batch on my Foundry system. I quite like the result, but am glad that I don’t have endless quantities of it. Even a good spiced ale is best as a treat in moderation!
Christmas Warmer 2020
3.5 lb. Vienna malt (Weyermann)
1 lb. Munich II malt (Weyermann)
1 lb. honey malt (Gambrinus)
0.5 lb. Caramunich I malt (Weyermann)
0.5 lb. caramel 40° malt (Briess)
0.5 lb. flaked barley
2 oz. chocolate malt (Briess)
1 lb. honey, 1 minute boil
1 oz. robust molasses (Grandma’s Brand)
1 oz. Cascade whole hops (5.5% alpha), 30 minute boil
1 tsp. Fermax yeast nutrient, 10 minute boil
1 Whirlfloc tablet, 5 minute boil
Steeping spices (steeped for 10 minutes after boil)
Claremont water, with Campden tablet to remove chloramines.
Procedure
I mashed in (using my Anvil Foundry) with 4.5 gallons of water at 160°, adding 2.5 mL of 88% lactic acid to adjust pH. I let this settle down to 154°, mashing for 50 minutes with recirculation. I then raised the mash to 168° over 10 minutes, let it rest for 10 minutes, removed the grains, and brought the runnings to a boil.
The mash yielded 4 gallons of wort at 1.041, for 62% mash efficiency. This was a bit below where I wanted to be, so I added 0.5 lb. of extra light DME, to raise the gravity.
I boiled for 60 minutes, adding the hops and other ingredients per the schedule.
After the boil but before chilling the wort, I steeped the spices in a bag for 10 minutes.
I cooled down to ~80°, transferred to the fermenter, and let it run at ambient. Because it was later in fall when I brewed this, ambient was around 70° or so for the start.
Starting gravity was 1.061. I brewed the beer on 20 October 2020.
I kegged the beer on 6 November 2020, and force carbonated.
Final gravity was 1.017, which works out to 5.8% abv. I’ve noticed that this kveik strain seems to underattenuate, measuring 61% to 71% in the batches I’ve done.
Tasting
Appearance
Deep amber beer with some haze; pours with a persistent beige head.
Aroma
Candied ginger, general spice, with a touch of citrus peel. Slight malty/biscuity character, and a slight tartness. There is a hint of cinnamon/spice as the beer warms up.
Flavor
Medium-low bitterness, and a light tartness (from the kveik?). There is a subtle spice character, with a bit of cinnamon and molasses that become more prominent as the beer warms.
Mouthfeel
Medium body, moderate carbonation. The finish is off-dry and fairly smooth.
Would I brew this again?
This is a pretty good beer, but still needs a little work. For my personal conception of a “holiday beer,” I’d like a bit more base malt character. For a rebrew, I might use all Munich I as the base, and also add some dark crystal malt (maybe crystal 80 or crystal 120?). The beer could also use a little more sweetness–perhaps from lactose or crystal malt–to round out the profile. The level of bitterness is about perfect. Finally, I might change the yeast to an English ale yeast rather than kveik. In sum, this is a perfectly drinkable experiment, and will be worth a future revision.
Classic American IPA time, again! The recipe is a modest modification of my Wildfire IPA from a few months back. The malts are fairly different (crystal 40 and biscuit, instead of crystal 30), and I used light Munich instead of dark Munich malt. The hopping schedule is also adjusted, to use the clean bitterness of Magnum and all of the flavor/aroma happening in the whirlpool and dry hop. So, I suppose it’s not really a complete rebrew, but a new recipe strongly inspired by the past recipe.
The name references the C-C dry hopping, with Cascade and Chinook whole cones right in the keg. And that, in turn, is a (bad) pun on “See See Rider,” a song that originated over 100 years ago and is known to many of us because of Elvis Presley.
See See IPA
12 lb. 2-row brewer’s malt (Great Western)
1 lb. Munich light malt (Chateau)
0.5 lb. crystal 40 malt (Great Western)
0.25 lb. biscuit malt (Dingemans)
1.4 oz. Magnum hop pellets (13.2% alpha), 45 minute boil
1 tsp. Fermax, 10 minute boil
1 Whirlfloc tablet, 5 minute boil
1 oz. Cascade whole hops (5.5% alpha), 15 minute whirlpool
0.5 oz. Chinook whole hops (13.1% alpha), 15 minute whirlpool
0.4 oz. Centennial hop pellets (9.3% alpha), 15 minute whirlpool
1 pkg. American West Coast Ale yeast (Lallemand BRY-97)
1.5 oz. Chinook whole hops (13.1% alpha), dry hop in keg
1 oz. Cascade whole hops (5.5% alpha), dry hop in keg
Target Parameters
1.057 s.g., 1.011 f.g., 6.1% abv, 7 SRM, 67 IBU
Infusion mash, 150°, full volume; 60 minute boil
Claremont water, with Campden tablet to remove chloramines.
Procedure
I heated 7.5 gallons of mash water to 157°, and added the grains to hit a target mash temperature of 150° for 60 minutes. I added 10 mL of 88% lactic acid to adjust pH.
After a 60 minute mash with recirculation, I ramped the temperature up to 168° over 10 minutes, and held it there for 10 minutes more. Next, I removed the grains and started heating to the boil.
I had approximately 6.5 gallons of runnings with a gravity of 1.050, for 64% mash efficiency.
I boiled for 60 minutes, adding hops and finings per the recipe.
After 60 minutes, I added the whirlpool hops and recirculated for 15 minutes, before continuing to chill.
I transferred the wort to the fermenter, and let it chill down to 68° in the fermentation chamber, before pitching the yeast.
I brewed this beer on 14 November 2020. Starting gravity was 1.055.
I kegged the beer on 1 December 2020, adding whole dry hops directly to the keg. I have the hop screen adapter for my Clear Beer Draft System, and thought I’d give it a try.
Final gravity was 1.012, for 5.7% abv. This batch came pretty close to hitting targets!
Tasting
Appearance
Deep gold and fairly clear, with just a smidge of haze at the time of this writing. It has cleared up surprisingly wel! The beer pours with a persistent but modest off-white head.
Aroma
There are definitely Chinook hops in this! Hop aroma is at the forefront, with a heavy spicy, herbal, and slightly dank character. I don’t pick up much for citrus notes, although I could be convinced there is grapefruit as part of it. There is a hint of caramel malt character, but that’s very much in the background. No yeast character is evident.
Flavor
Flavor is dominated by the hops, with the herbal and dank character mentioned above. Bitterness is moderately high, but not over the top; it’s about perfect for my tastes! The malt character is nicely supportive, and I like the malty, bready character alongside the trace of caramel. As with aroma, the yeast stays in the background, where it belongs!
Mouthfeel
Medium body, with a finish that is only slightly on the dry side. Carbonation is also on the moderate side, as is appropriate for the style.
Would I brew this again?
This general recipe is a great base for a classic northwestern IPA that highlights “old school” American hops. It’s pretty similar to its Wildfire IPA predecessor, and I think this overall recipe is likely to stay in my semi-regular rotation. Although it’s a bit out of vogue these days, the 2-row plus Munich base malt combo really hits the spot for me, and I think the crystal malt adds important character. My main complaint on this batch is that the Chinook hops are just a touch heavy. Their flavor plays well with everything else, but I prefer the more citrusy varieties like Cascade in my American IPAs.
I like session beers! I like stouts! Let’s do another one!
This recipe is a minor modification of a previous session stout. The main malt change was to swap in Vienna malt for Maris Otter, and use full-octane chocolate (350 SRM) versus the pale chocolate (225 SRM) that I used last time. Because this isn’t really a hop-centered beer, I switched the hops over to just a small charge of Magnum at the beginning of the boil. I also decided to swap flaked oats for flaked barley, because why not?
Session Stout 2020
6.25 lb. Vienna malt (Weyermann)
1 lb. flaked oats (Quaker Old Fashioned Oats)
0.75 lb. roasted barley (Briess)
0.5 lb. chocolate malt (Briess)
0.25 lb. black malt – 2-row (Briess)
0.125 lb. rice hulls
0.60 oz. Magnum hop pellets (13.2% alpha), 60 minute boil
1 Whirlfloc tablet, 5 minute boil
1 pkg. Safale American ale yeast (US-05)
Target Parameters
1.041 s.g, 1.011 f.g., 3.9% abv, 31 IBU, 35 SRM
Infusion mash, 156°, no sparge
Claremont tap water, with Campden tablet to remove chloramine
Procedure
I mashed in with 7.25 gallons of water at 161°, to hit a mash temperature of 156°. I started recirculating after 10 minutes, for a total of 60 minutes in the mash. I neglected to do a mash-out–oops!
After draining the grain basket, I had 6.5 gallons of runnings with a gravity of 1.033, for 67% mash efficiency. For this batch, I’m still trying to dial in my efficiencies on the Anvil, so I was a touch on the lower side of what I intended.
I brought the kettle to a boil, adding hops and finings per the recipe. After 60 minutes, I turned off the heat and chilled the wort, before transferring it to the fermenter.
Starting gravity was 1.038, a little lower than targeted (1.041). Oh well! I brewed this beer on 7 November 2020, and fermented at around 66°.
I kegged the beer on 22 November 2020, hitting 1.017 final gravity. This equates to only 2.8% abv! As is usual these days, I used keg conditioning to carbonate this batch. It took 2.7 ounces of corn sugar in 1 cup of water. After 2 weeks, I topped up the CO2 level with force carbonation.
Tasting
Appearance
Pours with a beautiful and highly persistent deep tan head; the beer itself is clear and deep brown, almost black.
Aroma
Coffee aroma with a touch of chocolate; no hops to speak of; very clean character overall.
Flavor
Coffee and roast malt notes predominate; not much for “maltiness” otherwise. Moderate, very clean bitterness.
Mouthfeel
Very light bodied, pretty dry on the finish with a lingering but not unpleasant bitterness. Moderate level of carbonation.
Would I brew this again?
Absolutely! For what it is–a dry, relatively light session beer–it’s pretty darned satisfying. The background malt body is a little light, but that’s OK. I expected a little more sweetness given the higher finishing gravity. Not sure what’s up with that.
Since last update, I’ve been doing a ton of brewing–nearly a batch every week! Perhaps the most satisfying thing, though, was reorganizing my brewing space. It had been close to a year since the last major cleaning and reorganization, and it sorely needed some attention. I tossed out trash, reorganized my malts, put some brewing salts into jars, and so on. Organization is only temporary, of course, but it’s a nice kind of temporary.
Stygimoloch Bock
Beer Batch Updates
My Christmas Warmer has been conditioning for about a month now, and with another week or two should be ready to drink.
I kegged the session stout on 22 November, and started the carbonation with corn sugar. It finished up carbonation from the CO2 tank, and is now on tap.
The rebrew of Tremonia Lager just got kegged tonight. It’s happily lagering at 33° now, and will go on tap after the Pfriem Pils clone. So, it should get a good stretch of time to condition out!
On 21 November, I brewed a clone of Avery Brewing’s Maharaja IPA (“Mahajanga IPA”). This was my first super high gravity batch on the Foundry, and I definitely missed my numbers by a bit. I aimed for 1.088, and hit 1.077–after adding a pound of DME. This works out to about 59% mash efficiency. With the experience, though, I have a better idea of the efficiencies I can expect to achieve on the system, so future high gravity recipes will hopefully be more predictable. I’ll be kegging it in the next few days, with some dry hops.
On 5 December, I brewed “Aspiration Ale,” a clone of the 90 Shilling Ale from Odell Brewing. I had been wanting a red ale of sorts, and this take will definitely be in that realm. It smelled amazing on the mash–I hope this bodes well for the final product! Incidentally, this is also the first brew on the Anvil Foundry where I felt like I had a good handle on the whole process from start to finish. Practice makes perfect! I hit 68% mash efficiency, right where I want to be for a no-sparge brew.
What’s On Tap?
Stygimoloch Bock is drinking super nicely right now. It’s such an amazing fall/winter beer, and I’m pretty happy with the latest iteration of the recipe. I have a feeling that this keg won’t last very long.
“See See IPA” just went on tap (an homage to the song “See See Rider”, and a bad pun on the two “C” hops–Chinook and Cascade–that I used in the dry hop phase). It’s a modified rebrew of the Wildfire IPA I did earlier this year, mostly just adjusting the hops varieties. The beer started fairly hazy, but dropped reasonably clear after a few days. The flavor is pretty great, too. It’s a classic “Old School” West Coast IPA. For this batch, the dry hops are floating loose in the keg, and I threw a hop screen on the intake tube for my ClearBeer draft setup.
My session stout went on tap today, and is really, really nice. It’s beautifully clear, has robust malt character, and goes down pretty easy. It’s exactly what I want in a winter-season session beer, and the batch clocks in just shy of 3% abv by my calculations!
What’s Coming Up?
This coming weekend, I’m doing a half-batch (~3 gallons) of a Houblon Chouffe clone. It is another high gravity recipe, but learning from my past experience I feel like I’ve got a better shot of hitting my targets on this version! The beer is a Belgian IPA, which is a fairly new style and one I don’t think I’ve ever done before. I have fond memories of drinking it on tap at a local Belgian beer taphouse (in the Before Times), so want to give a try for my own version.
I have a fair bit of beer on-hand, and don’t really need to brew more. But, I need the relaxation that a Saturday morning brew provides. I think I’ll probably be doing some half-size batches, which scratch the itch and give me an opportunity to experiment a bit with reduced risk.
Other Notes
I’ve cycled through base malts fairly quickly as of late, and had to restock from my local homebrew shop. They’ve been carrying some of the Viking malts lately, and I got a 2-row pale malt as well as a pilsner malt, just to try something different. I also snagged a sack of Crisp’s Maris Otter malt, so put in some English-style batches in the next few months.
After considering a multitude of factors, I recently decided to check out an electric brewing system. I wanted the ability to more easily do step mashes, as well as the ability to recirculate my mash for better clarity. Finally, I was ready to be done with propane refills (especially during the days of coronavirus, with the possibility of variable supplies and variable masking behavior out “in the wild”).
Following a week or two of research, I settled on the Anvil Foundry 10.5 gallon brewing system. First, the cost (<$500 for the version with pump) seemed fairly reasonable, and the reviews for quality and reliability were solid. The heating element was particularly well rated, and had high marks for excellent heating plus minimal risk of scorching. The ability to switch between 120 and 240 voltage was also a plus in the long-term. Even though I’m limited to 120 for the time being, I like the idea of having the option open. The final selling point for me was that the controls are supposed to be dead-simple and all on-board the unit, rather than hiding behind a Bluetooth-connected Android app. I want a system that will still work after I upgrade my phone, or when my wifi is down, or if the unit’s software is “helpfully” updated.
Luckily, I managed to buy direct from Anvil on a 10% discount sale, and they had free shipping! It took about two weeks for the setup to arrive, and I eagerly unboxed it as soon as it hit my doorstep.
In terms of options, I got the recirculation pump kit, along with the small-batch adapter. I normally work with 5 gallon batches, and don’t see that changing in the future, but I do occasionally want to brew 2.5 or 3 gallon batches. The steel insert to adapt for small batches is supposed to improve efficiency in that case, by preventing recirculated mash runnings from just flowing over the top of the grain bed, rather than through it.
Hands-On Review
At this writing, I’ve brewed seven batches with the system. This includes 5 gallon batches of a German pils, American IPA, Dortmunder Export, Scottish export ale, and stout, as well as a 3 gallon batch each of a moderate-strength winter ale and an imperial IPA. This review will be based on that experience, with the caveat that I’m still learning the system.
Unboxing
That’s one big box.
This system is a snap to unbox and set up. The packaging was super sturdy, but also easy to open up. I didn’t do it all in one sitting, but I would estimate it took about an hour to pull out all of the pieces, do the minor bits of assembly, and clean the equipment prior to brewing. I filled up the rig with PBW and ran a test of the pump, followed by a quick rinse with hot water. The goal was to clean off any manufacturing oil, and have it all ready for brew day.
Foundry in Action
For my first brew on the Foundry, I went with a German pils using a step mash. I figured this would help me to explore some of the features of the system, while also producing a tasty beer!
This recipe required around 7 gallons of water. My usual procedure is to use hot tap water, to save on time and energy. Starting at around 115°, it took about 30 minutes to reach my strike temperature of 146° and a mash temperature of 142°. After a 60 minute mash at this temperature, I then raised the mash to a temperature of 158°, which took around 20 minutes. I started off with 75% power, but realized I should just up it to 100% to move things along more quickly. I then notched in back to 75% when the temperature was achieved. Finally, it took about seven minutes at 100% power to get up to the mash-out temperature of 168°. This is in the ballpark of roughly a minute per degree of temperature increase that I’ve seen cited elsewhere.
Recirculation was pretty easy and intuitive. The pump worked well, and I didn’t have any clogging issues. The one minor change I made is that I decided not to use the perforated metal disk that’s supposed to cascade the returning mash runnings across the top of the mash. That just seems like a recipe for hot-side aeration. Now, I’m not a low-oxygen zealot, but I do try to minimize splashing. 45 to 60 minutes of continual splashing is a risk I didn’t want to take. So, I ran a length of tubing from the return pipe directly onto the top of the mash. I had minor concerns about channeling, but I figured that the slow rate of return on the liquid minimized that risk. For my latest batch, I added a nylon t-junction to spit the wort out in two different directions (see picture towards the end of this post). I’m going to keep playing with this aspect of the system, because I do think the factory standard metal plate is a bit overly complicated. I suspect that as long as you’re not shooting a jet of runnings straight into the grain bed, you’re probably going to avoid channeling.
After removing the mashed grains, it took 50 minutes to bring the kettle to a boil at 100 percent power. I noted that it was boiling before the panel actually showed 212 degrees. As I read up on this online, it seems to be a known “quirk” of the Foundry that the thermometer is calibrated well for mash temperatures, but not at the limits of boiling. This isn’t a huge issue in my book, but good to know.
I recirculated during chilling, both to speed up the process as well as to sanitize the pump for transfer to the fermenter. As before, I used a silicone hose to return the wort below the surface of the liquid, preventing aeration. As many have done before me, I am going to replace the hoses on the chiller–they’re a bit flimsy, and don’t do well if they get too hot.
Transfer to the fermenter is a cinch using the pump. One thing I learned is to plan to throw out the first cup or two of wort, because it often will have a ton of trub. After that, it ran pretty clear.
Cleaning isn’t too bad, and I have honed my process after a few batches. First, I have to get rid of the dregs of the wort–unfortunately, this most easily involves picking up the unit and tipping it into the sink. Thankfully it’s not too heavy. I do a quick rinse next, and then fill up the kettle with PBW and hot water. I put in all of the equipment bits I want to clean, including the grain basket, and then recirculate with the pump. I pump the solution out, spray things down with hot water and pump that out too, and the repeat the hot water rinse. Done and done on the cleaning!
The “Like List”
The controls are dead-simple, and pretty intuitive. After the first batch, I had all of that under control!
This unit seems solidly built, but it’s not overly bulky. When empty, it’s pretty easy to move around.
The pump kit makes transfer and recirculation a snap. I really, really, really, advise getting the mash recirculation kit with pump, or else rig up your own equivalent.
Along the same lines, the pump itself is simple to disassemble and clean.
This unit is pretty easy to clean, especially if you have a stock of PBW. If you do a lot of brewing, I highly recommend getting a 5 gallon bucket of the stuff!
It’s really nice to be able to do step mashes with little extra effort.
As I get into the rhythm of a single kettle brewing system, I’m really enjoying the simplicity. There’s still stuff to do, of course, but it has been nice to pare back things like the mash tun, propane burner, etc.
I used the delay timer to heat up the water for my most recent batch, and quite like it.
The “Caution List”
The gasket on the lid comes off super easy, and is a big pain to get into place. Because I’m not distilling with this unit, I have just left the gasket off.
It’s easy to tiptoe to the edge of danger if the hardware on the out port isn’t fully tightened (or is overtightened). The various nuts and gaskets should be checked carefully before every brew session.
The temperature readout is not terribly accurate when you’re out of mash temperature range (as noted above). Also, when you’re not recirculating, the temperature reading may not match well what is going on in the rest of the mash.
Don’t press down on the grain basket (e.g., to squeeze the grains) when you have it resting on the kettle insert. The insert will come loose pretty easily under excess pressure, so if you need to squeeze you should just put the grain basket into a separate container. After the main drain is done, I put it in one of my old brew kettles for the final drain (and squeeze if necessary).
The default hoses on the chiller are fairly cheap vinyl, and will warp really easily if you’re not careful around the hot kettle. I’m swapping mine out, because I already had to cut and reattach the factory standard ones when they got a little too close to the kettle during a small batch brew.
I wish the switch on the pump was just a little farther from the motor itself. From a safety standpoint, the switch is prone to sitting on the floor, and thus sitting in any spilled liquids.
5 gallon batches of high gravity beer are not a great match for this system, unless you use extract, reiterated mashes, or some other process. That said, this is a non-issue for me, because A) I rarely brew beers over 1.065 starting gravity; and B) when I do, it’s typically in 2 or 3 gallon batch sizes.
Andy’s Anvil Hacks, Tips, and Tricks
My bagged hop technique
How to handle hops? I’ve tried a few methods already, and settled on using a big bag setting in the kettle (see photo). I drape it over the side, and it is easy enough to open up and toss more hops in without handling boiling liquids. Loose pellet hops work okay if you have a relatively small rate of hopping, but I won’t even try it with whole cones. They’re just too likely to clog the outlet and/or pump. Individual bagged hop doses thrown into the kettle work okay also, but you absolutely have to remove them before chilling / hop whirlpooling with pump / transfer to fermenter, because once again they tend to clog up the out port. I decided against a hop spider, because mine isn’t quite tall enough to work well with most batches, and because it would be a pain to deal with when putting the chiller into the relatively narrow kettle.
This “hack” isn’t mine by any means, but I do recommend using a good fine-mesh brew bag inside the malt pipe during the mash. It makes clean-up of the pipe soooo much easier, and the bag itself is a snap to clean, too. This also means you can crush finer, and get correspondingly better efficiencies. Binder clips will effectively hold it in place against the brew pot.
To save heating time, I use hot water out of the tap, rather than heating from ground temperature. Your mileage may vary, depending on the quality of water out of your heater, but it can shave off a fair bit of time.
GFCI, GFCI, GFCI! Because we’re talking about lots of liquids moving around near power cords, with various points of leakage and failure, it’s critical to have your electrical safety in hand. If you don’t have a GFCI outlet (quite possible in some older garages and homes), either get one wired in by a competent electrician or else get one of the in-line GFCI cords.
I am getting one of those stainless steel food service trays to hold the pump when it’s in use during brew day. There tends to be a bit of leakage of wort when disconnecting the hoses (up to a cup or so, if I’m not careful), which makes a mess on the floor.
I’m going to put some clear silicone sealant around the edges of the control panel, as recommended by multiple people to prevent accidental moisture incursion. I waited for a few batches (just in case there was any immediate reason that I needed to send back the unit, before I go adding caulk).
The small batch adapter probably isn’t necessary for high gravity beers, where the grain still fills to a point well above the perforations on the grain basket. On my next high gravity small batch, I’m going to try without and see how things go, although I’m still going to use it on lower gravity small batches.
As mentioned above and shown in the photo below, I’ve modified the recirculation return system to reduce splashing.
If you are on Facebook, the Anvil Foundry All-Grain Group is pretty fantastic! I highly recommend joining if you are on that social media platform. Their Unofficial Anvil Foundry Bible is essential reading, and provides a ton of helpful tips, work-arounds, and mods.
My modified recirculation return, in place of the metal plate. A hose attaches to the steel return arm, and a t-junction sends the liquid in two different directions. When the kettle lid is in place, the t-junction is just below the top of the mash, removing the problem of excessive splashing.
Anvil Foundry versus my “Standard” System
Up to this point, my primary brewing setup used a 10 gallon cooler mash tun and batch sparging with a 10 gallon brew kettle on a propane burner. I feel like I can do fairly similar things on them, although the process is pretty different.
Somewhat surprisingly, the total brew time (from filling the kettle with water to finishing clean-up) is about the same for my two methods. The mash process feels a bit quicker and easier on the Foundry, because I don’t mess around with sparge water (although some people do, for the extra mash efficiency points). The Foundry might take a bit of extra time to heat to a boil, but I can also save some time on heating by filling the kettle the night before and having it at strike temperature when I wake up in the morning of brew day.
Because of the pump and stuff, as well as the depth of the Foundry kettle and the various nooks and crannies of the grain basket, cleaning is maybe a touch more work with this system versus my old one. I’ve got a rhythm down finally, and much of the extra time is just letting the cleaners do their thing. That said, spent grain cleanup is easier for me with the Foundry versus my mash tun cooler.
The biggest adjustment point for me has been mash efficiency. I pretty consistently hit 75% measured mash efficiency (as calculated in BeerSmith) on my old setup, and am now at around 68% mash efficiency on the Anvil. I’m okay with this (especially because I’m not sparging), although it took some iterations with grain crush and such to get here. My only real annoyance is that I’ll have to adjust all of my old recipes accordingly! But, that’s not the end of the world. I feel like I’m going to be able to more consistently hit efficiency expectations, too, because there are fewer steps in my new process.
A major point in favor of the Foundry is its simplicity. My “traditional” setup requires a propane burner, propane tank, mash tun, hot water pot, and boiling kettle, along with the other bits and pieces. The Foundry is just more compact! The entire process takes place in the main kettle, pump, and grain basket, more or less. As mentioned above, it’s nice to not have to worry about propane refills from both a cost and convenience standpoint.
Overall, I’m not going to ditch my old system, but the Foundry is going to be my primary brewing rig from this point on.
Overall Assessment
The Anvil Foundry 10.5 is a really nice piece of equipment. It’s well-built, the controls are intuitive, and the unit has a great price point. As with any specialized brew hardwear, there are a few minor quirks, but they truly are pretty minor and easily worked around. The compact nature of the system is nice, and has simplified my brew day. So far, I have no regrets for this purchase! If you’re looking to go electric, definitely check out the Foundry.
Andy's Brewing Blog 