Manuals, videos and answers.

5G: a normal 120V outlet (1,650 W element), or 240V if you ordered the 5,500 W element.

10G and 20G: 240V on a 30A circuit with a NEMA L6-30R twist-lock receptacle for the 5,500 W element. A GFCI breaker is strongly recommended.

1 BBL: 240V single-phase on a 30A circuit for the same 5,500 W (5.5 kW) element. Have your electrician confirm the circuit, and ask us for the spec sheet first.

Brew pump: the BR-32 runs on 120V and plugs into the pump outlet on the BräuPro controller, which is 120V. That lets you switch the pump from the controller.

Have a qualified electrician install any new 240V circuit.

Put it beside the fermenter on a table or stand. The bottom of the mash tun should be higher than the highest liquid level in the fermenter, so wort drains back by gravity. A table 20–30" (50–75 cm) high works for most setups.

If you can't get that height, you can use a second pump for the drain.

The element is in the fermenter. During the mash the pump pulls wort out of the fermenter, so if you pump faster than the grain bed drains back, the level can drop below the element. An element that runs uncovered burns out, and that isn't covered by warranty.

• Throttle the flow with the ball valve on the pump outlet. Never restrict the inlet side.
• Watch the fermenter level for the first few minutes of recirculation, and whenever you change the flow.
• Drop element output to 20–30% during the mash. That holds temperature without much risk.
• On small batches, keep boil volume at least 10–20% above the level where the element is just covered (about 20% of the fermenter volume).
• Only plug or unplug the element with the controller off.

That's usually cavitation: the pump can't draw liquid in as fast as it's pushing it out. Turn it off right away. Check that there's liquid in the fermenter, the inlet hose isn't kinked or closed, and the pump sits below the fermenter so it primes by gravity. Then restart slowly and throttle on the outlet side.

A roller gap of 0.040–0.048" (1.0–1.2 mm). If the crush is too fine, the grain bed packs down, flow slows, and fines can end up in the pump or on the element. If you're using a lot of oats, rye or wheat, add about 5% rice hulls by weight.

Turning the setpoint up a couple of degrees won't do it, because the grain bed soaks up the heat. Instead:

1. Turn the pump off.
2. Set the fermenter to 90–95°C (194–203°F) and let it heat.
3. Turn the pump back on and recirculate that hot wort through the grain bed until the mash reaches the next step.
4. Set the controller back to the step temperature.

Don't go above 95°C (203°F). It foams and can disturb the grain bed.

Yes, but only with a pressure regulator. The jacket is rated to 5 psi, and household water is often over 60 psi. Put the regulator on the inlet side, with its arrow pointing toward the fermenter. Never put a valve or anything restrictive on the jacket outlet, and use an outlet hose at least as large as the inlet hose.

Drain the jacket before the boil. A full jacket pulls heat away from the element.

Clean as soon as the brew day ends, before anything dries on. The boil sanitizes the fermenter, so a normal clean after each brew is warm water, a soft cloth, and taking the valves apart to rinse them.

For a deep clean (and before your first brew, to remove factory oils): circulate PBW at 65°C (150°F) through the CIP port for 30–60 minutes, rinse, then do the same with an acid cleaner such as 10% citric acid, and rinse again. Flush the jacket too. Dissolve PBW completely before you turn the pump on.

Never use steel wool, abrasive pads or bleach on stainless steel.

The pump pulls wort from the bottom of the mash tun, runs it through the stainless coil inside the hot liquor tank, and returns it to the top of the grain bed. The HLT water temperature sets the mash temperature. For a step mash you raise the HLT, and the wort never touches the element, so it can't scorch.

240V from a 4-prong dryer-style outlet (NEMA 14-30, 30A). The EZboil controller runs elements up to 6,000 W. Have a qualified electrician install the circuit and use GFCI protection.

• Plug the controller into a 4-prong dryer outlet (NEMA 14-30).
• Put the probe tip in the thermowell and snug the thumbscrew. Just enough to hold it; don't overtighten. A little thermal paste speeds up the readings.
• With the Element switch off, plug the element into the L6-30R twist-lock socket.
• Plug the pump into the AUX outlet. Nothing over 5 amps, and never an element. The BR-32 pump draws only 0.125 A.

Turn the built-in timer off and time your mash and boil on your phone. That leaves just two modes to think about.

To turn the timer off: hold the knob for 5 seconds until you see GOTO, turn to Syst and press, turn to tF and press, set it to OFF and press. Keep pressing the knob to exit.

• Mash mode: press the knob, turn to ModE Mash, press. The top line is the current temperature; turn the knob to set your mash temperature.
• Boil mode: press the knob, turn to ModE Boil, press. The controller runs full power until it nears boiling, then drops to the output shown in green. Start at 50% and adjust for your volume.

Hold the knob for 5 seconds until the display shows Goto Mash, then press once to step through the settings:

• t: mash time (1:00 = one hour).
• tSP: the temperature that starts the timer. Set it to your strike temperature.
• Eo: power when the mash ends. Set it to ON.
• oScr: overshoot correction. If it runs 4° past target, set it to 4.
• AttE: stability, from −2 to +2. Raise it if the temperature swings more than a degree; lower it if it's slow to recover.

The timer has to be switched on (tF in the Syst menu) for this to work. For a step mash, reset the timer and tSP for each step.

• bASt (factory 200°F): the temperature where it drops from full power to your boil output, to head off a boil-over.
• bout (factory 100%): power used until bASt is reached.
• bt and btSP: boil time, and the temperature that starts the boil timer (factory 208°F).
• bALH (factory 200°F): beeps when you're getting close to a boil.

Get to know your system before changing bASt. For deeper settings, see Auber's full DSPR manual.

Hold the knob for 5 seconds until you see GOTO, turn to Syst and press, then step through to C-F. Choose C or F, press, and keep pressing to exit.

Check it in ice water: fill a glass with crushed ice, top it up with water, stir, and put the probe in for a minute. It should read 0°C / 32°F. If it reads 2° high, go to Syst → Pb and set it to −2. If it reads low, set a positive number.

The controller can't see the probe, and it won't heat until it can. Check that the probe plug is pushed fully home and the cable isn't damaged. If the probe is fine, check Syst → Sn is still on Pt, the factory setting.

It's a coil-in-coil counterflow chiller: hot wort runs one way through the inner tube while cold water runs the other way around it. Ours has no copper. The wort only touches stainless, which stands up to caustic and acid cleaners, doesn't leach metal into your beer, and holds up for years.

It comes with a quick-disconnect tubing kit: silicone wort hoses and water hoses with QD fittings, so you can connect the chiller to the pump and kettle in seconds and take it apart just as fast for cleaning.

• Wort in: from the pump outlet (or kettle valve) to the chiller's hot wort inlet.
• Wort out: from the chiller's wort outlet to your fermenter.
• Water in: cold water into the chiller at the wort outlet end, so the two flow in opposite directions.
• Water out: from the other end to a drain, or into a bucket to reuse for cleaning.

The quick-disconnect tubing makes each connection a snap-on. Secure the drain hose so it can't whip around when you open the tap.

• About 5 minutes before the end of the boil, pump boiling wort through the chiller and back into the kettle. That sanitizes it.
• At knockout, turn on the cold water and send the chiller outlet to your fermenter. Wort and water flow in opposite directions.
• Throttle the wort flow to control the outlet temperature: slower flow gives colder wort.
• Keep an eye on the outlet temperature and adjust as you go. It changes as the kettle and water warm up.

If your tap water is warmer than pitching temperature, chill as far as it will go, then finish with pre-chilled water or glycol.

At best, a few degrees above your cooling water temperature. Cold winter tap water gets you to ale pitching temperature easily. In summer, or for lagers, you may need to pre-chill the water: pump ice water from a cooler through the water side, or chill most of the way with tap water, then finish in the fermenter with glycol.

Yes. Sending chilled wort back into the kettle, ideally through the whirlpool port on DrainPro kettles, chills the whole batch at once and whirlpools at the same time. Once the kettle is at pitching temperature, let it settle and transfer. It's slower than a single pass straight to the fermenter, but it gives you a cleaner trub cone.

• Straight after knockout, flush the wort side with hot water until it runs clear.
• Recirculate hot PBW through it for 15–20 minutes, then rinse with clean water. Running the flow in the opposite direction now and then pushes out anything that's lodged.
• Drain both sides completely and let it dry before storing. Water left inside grows mould.
• Every few brews, run an acid rinse through the wort side.

It clamps onto the tri-clamp port on the kettle lid. Steam from the boil rises into the condenser, where a fine spray of cold water hits it. The steam turns back into water, and the spray water and condensed steam run down and out the drain hose together.

One condenser fits all three systems: the Unibräu, the BräuPro and the HERMS / DrainPro kettles. On DrainPro kettles it goes on the 1.5" tri-clamp port in the lid. It only adds about 6" (15 cm) above the lid, so it fits under most shelves and cabinets.

The condenser comes with a small submersible pump, so you don't need a tap or water pressure. You'll need two 5-gallon (20 L) pails:

• Supply pail: fill it with cold water and drop the pump in. The pump feeds the spray.
• Drain pail: the drain hose runs downhill into it, so it has to sit lower than the kettle. This catches the spray water and the condensed steam.

Ice or very cold water in the supply pail makes it work better. You can also run the drain to a floor drain or sink instead of a second pail.

About 5 gallons (20 L) per brew, one supply pail, if you turn the boil power down once the condenser is on. A gentle rolling boil makes much less steam than a hard boil, so the condenser needs less water to catch it, and it boils off less too.

On the EZboil, lower the boil output (the green percentage in Boil mode) after the hot break, then set it to the lowest level that still gives a steady roll.

The condenser itself doesn't. It just catches the steam instead of letting it into the room. But the lower boil power you'll likely run with it on means less boil-off, so measure your boil-off once with your new settings and update your recipe software.

DMS (the "cooked corn" flavour) leaves the wort with the steam. The condenser catches that steam and sends it down the drain, so it doesn't fall back into the kettle. Keep a steady rolling boil, even at lower power, and make sure the drain runs freely.

Harder to watch the foam with the lid on, so:

• Bring the wort up to a boil and get through the hot break before you put the lid and condenser on.
• Turn element power down once it's boiling. A steady roll is enough.
• A drop or two of food-grade anti-foam (such as Fermcap or Patco 376) keeps foam down.

No, and it must never be. The condenser keeps the kettle open to the air. Don't cap or clamp anything that would close off the vent path while the element is on, and don't block or kink the drain hose.

Much less. The condenser takes care of the steam, which is the main problem indoors. Some humidity and brewing smells still get out when you open the lid for hop additions, so a window or fan helps. Electric brewing makes no combustion gases, so there's no carbon monoxide to vent.

After brewing, pump clean water through it, then rinse it with hot water, or PBW if there's residue. Let it and the pump dry fully before storing. Check the spray nozzle now and then; hard water can leave scale that clogs it. A soak in citric acid clears that. Empty and rinse both pails.

It holds the fermenter at a set pressure and vents anything above it. Put it on near the end of fermentation, and the CO₂ the yeast is still making stays in the beer. That carbonates it naturally, with no force-carbing, and leaves the tank pressurized for a closed transfer.

Ours is adjustable up to 2 bar (about 30 psi), with a gauge so you can see where you are.

1. Fit it to a lid port once fermentation is about two-thirds done (a few gravity points above final). Add it too early and the yeast gets stressed; too late and there's not enough CO₂ left to carbonate.
2. Screw the adjuster in until the gauge settles at your target. About 8–14 psi at fermentation temperature suits most beers.
3. Leave it until fermentation finishes. Check the gauge daily and adjust.

Always keep the setting below your relief valve. The Unitank ships with a 15 psi PRV. On the Unibräu All-In and the DrainPro Fermenter, stay at or under 15 psi.

The sintered stainless stone mounts on a 6" tri-clamp spool at the bottom of the cone, attached to the butterfly valve. CO₂ pushed through it comes out as tiny bubbles that dissolve quickly.

1. Chill the beer cold. Cold beer absorbs CO₂ much faster.
2. Snap your CO₂ line onto the stone's ball lock fitting, using the same gas disconnect you use on a corny keg, and set your regulator to the pressure for your target carbonation (about 8–11 psi at 2°C / 36°F for most styles).
3. For the first minute, crack a lid valve so the headspace fills with CO₂, then close it.
4. Leave it on gas for 24–48 hours, then taste.

Stay under your PRV rating. The same stone also oxygenates wort before pitching.

Right after use, soak it in hot PBW, then push CO₂ or clean water back through it to clear the pores. Rinse and let it dry. Before using it again, sanitize it, or boil it for a few minutes. Don't touch the stone with bare fingers (skin oil clogs the pores), and never scrub it. Store it dry in a clean bag.

It lets you dry hop without opening the fermenter and letting oxygen in. It's a sealed chamber with a butterfly valve at the bottom and a ball lock gas post on top, and it clamps onto a lid port.

1. With the valve closed, sanitize the HopDrop and load your hops.
2. Clamp it on. Snap your CO₂ line (ball lock gas disconnect) onto the HopDrop's gas post, and purge the oxygen out of the chamber. Pulling the post's poppet or cracking the lid vents it.
3. Bring the chamber up to the same pressure as the tank.
4. Open the valve. The hops drop straight into the beer.

Pellet hops drop easily. Tap the chamber if some stick. Close the valve afterwards; you can leave it on for a second addition.

The racking arm goes through the lower side port on the cone. Its 90° elbow can be turned to pull beer from above the yeast and trub.

• Point the arm straight up to start. That's the cleanest beer.
• Open the valve slowly and pour a sample into a glass. Run it until it's clear.
• As the level drops, rotate the arm down a little at a time to collect more, stopping when it starts pulling cloudy beer.

The double-gasket design lets it turn while sealed. If it's stiff, loosen the clamp slightly, but only with no pressure in the tank.

It lets you push beer from the fermenter into a corny keg with CO₂, with no oxygen and no siphon. It includes a CO₂ gas post for the fermenter lid and a transfer line that runs from the racking arm valve to a ball lock liquid disconnect, which snaps onto a standard corny keg.

1. Clean, sanitize and purge the keg with CO₂.
2. Snap the ball lock liquid disconnect onto the keg's liquid ("out") post.
3. Put 2–5 psi of CO₂ on the fermenter through the lid gas post.
4. Open the racking arm valve, then vent the keg's gas side slowly so the beer flows gently.
5. Close the valves when the keg is full. Weighing the keg is the easy way to tell.

If the beer is already carbonated, keep the keg's pressure only slightly below the fermenter's so it doesn't foam.

Yes. Every accessory is standard 1.5" tri-clamp (the carbonation stone mounts on a 6" spool at the bottom of the cone), and the gas connections are ball lock, the same as your kegs. They fit any of our fermenters and most other tri-clamp fermenters. The spunding valve, carbonation stone and HopDrop are all in the BräuPro Complete System Kit and the Unitank Conditioning Kit, or you can buy them one at a time. Not sure about fit? Ask us.

For a recirculating system (all of ours), aim for a roller gap of about 0.040–0.048" (1.0–1.2 mm). Crush too fine and the grain bed packs down, flow slows, and flour ends up in the pump and on the element. Too coarse and you lose efficiency.

Good crush: husks mostly whole, kernels cracked into a few pieces, not much flour. Start in the middle of the range and adjust by your efficiency. With lots of wheat, oats or rye, add about 5% rice hulls.

Whole dried corn is much harder than malt and can damage a malt mill. It also needs cooking before the mash can convert it. The easy route is flaked corn, rice or oats: they're already cooked, so add them straight to the mash without milling. If you want to use whole corn or grits, mill it in a mill built for it and do a cereal mash first.

Most mill rollers are plain steel and will rust if they get damp. Brush the rust off with a stiff brass or nylon brush, then run a pound or two of cheap grain through the mill and throw it away. Keep the mill somewhere dry, and never wash the rollers with water; brush them clean instead.

Usually 5–8°C (10–15°F) above your mash target, because the grain cools it down when you add it. For a 65°C (149°F) mash, heat to about 73°C (163°F). Brewing software will calculate it exactly for your grain weight and water volume.

If it tastes good to drink, it'll usually make good beer. If your city uses chloramine, treat it with half a Campden tablet per 20 gal (75 L). Don't use water from a softener; it's high in sodium. If you use RO or distilled water, add brewing salts (calcium chloride, gypsum and so on). They matter for flavour and mash pH, and they help protect the stainless. Aim for a mash pH of about 5.2–5.4.

Rinsing the grain with hot water after the mash to wash out the sugar left behind. Use water around 75°C (167°F) and keep about an inch of liquid over the grain while it drains. Drain slowly; rushing it leaves sugar behind. On our systems a sparge is optional and adds a little efficiency.

After the boil you spin the wort. The spinning pulls hop bits and hot break (coagulated protein) into a cone in the middle of the kettle, and you draw clean wort off the side. Less trub in the fermenter means clearer beer, cleaner flavour, and less loss.

Many brewers also add hops during the whirlpool (a hop stand). At about 75–80°C (170–175°F), hops give lots of aroma without much bitterness. Steep them for 20–45 minutes, then chill.

How to do it on our kettles: see DrainPro kettles.

Fast chilling locks in hop aroma, drops out cold break for clearer beer, and gets yeast in sooner. From fastest to slowest:

• Counterflow chiller: wort flows straight from the kettle to the fermenter at pitching temperature. Throttle the flow to hit your target.
• Fermenter jacket (BräuPro and Unitank): run cold water through the jacket, through a pressure regulator.
• Two stages: if your tap water runs warm in summer, use it to get down to about 30°C (86°F), then switch to water pre-chilled in a tank or with glycol.

Keep everything that touches cooled wort sanitized; below about 60°C (140°F) the wort is no longer protecting itself.

• Sanitize the fermenter, hoses and fittings. On the BräuPro, the boil did this for you.
• Chill to pitching temperature on the way in (counterflow) or in the fermenter (jacket).
• Leave at least 20–25% headspace for krausen.
• Let it settle, then dump the trub from the bottom valve.
• Oxygenate, then pitch the yeast.

Splashing on the way in adds some oxygen, which is good at this stage. Once it's fermenting, avoid oxygen completely.

Common fixes: add Whirlfloc or Irish moss in the last 5–10 minutes of the boil, whirlpool and let it settle before knockout, dump trub before pitching, use a yeast that settles well, and cold crash for a few days. A fining agent such as Biofine at the start of the crash speeds it up.

Clean in place: cleaning a vessel without taking it apart. A pump sends hot cleaner from the bottom drain up to a spray ball on the lid, which sprays every inside surface, and the cleaner drains back to the pump.

1. Rinse out loose trub and grain with water.
2. Fill with enough water to keep the pump primed, add PBW (dissolve it fully first), and heat to about 65°C (150°F).
3. Circulate through the spray ball for 30–60 minutes.
4. Rinse. Every so often, repeat with an acid cleaner, then rinse again.

Take valves and fittings apart and soak them separately. CIP won't reach inside a closed valve.

• Cleaner (PBW or another alkaline cleaner): removes grime, protein and hop residue. Use it every time.
• Acid (citric, phosphoric, or an acid cleaner): removes mineral scale and beerstone and helps stainless protect itself. Use it every few brews.
• Sanitizer (Star San or similar): kills microbes on a surface that's already clean. Use it right before anything touches cold wort or beer.

Sanitizer on a dirty surface doesn't work; clean first.

No. Chlorine attacks stainless steel's protective layer and causes pitting and pinholes, especially around welds, gaskets and the waterline. Use PBW for cleaning and a brewing sanitizer for sanitizing.

Stainless protects itself with a thin, invisible oxide layer. Scratches, steel wool, bleach or sitting wet can break it, and a rust spot or rainbow tint appears. To fix it:

• Scrub the spot with Bar Keepers Friend (oxalic acid) and a soft pad, then rinse well.
• For big areas or insides you can't reach, circulate 10% citric acid at 65°C (150°F) for 30–60 minutes, drain, and let it air dry for at least 12 hours. That rebuilds the protective layer (called passivation).

Prevent it: no steel wool or abrasive pads, no bleach, dry everything after cleaning.

Soak the element in hot PBW; most residue lifts off without scrubbing. For stubborn spots, use a 100% copper scrubber or soft nylon pad. Never steel wool. Clean it right after brewing, before the residue dries. A clean element heats better, scorches less and lasts longer.

Take it off the fermenter. Hand-wash it in warm water with a little mild dish soap, rinse, and hang it to air dry out of direct sun. Don't put it in a dryer or near heat. Make sure the fermenter underneath is dry before you put the jacket back on, so moisture doesn't sit against the stainless.

Flush them with hot PBW after brewing, rinse, and hang them so they drain and dry. Replace a hose if it's cracked, cloudy inside, or smells after cleaning. Keep a spare, because they're cheap.

Clean and completely dry, with valves open or off and clamps loose, so nothing stays damp. Cover the vessels to keep dust out. Sanitize again right before your next brew.